The interview which appears below, was originally published on Times Now in March 2007. ©The rights to this material are reserved to the owner. If you have any concerns or comments, please send an email to info@rahmaniac.com.
When it comes to the best music category, there is practically no competition — A.R. Rahman and cult film Rang De Basanti, it is. This unassuming composer says awards are energizing. TIMES NOW’s Naomi Dutta caught up with the talented musician and got talking first about RDB!
Rahman: “I think it’s a very important film for all of us, not only for me, it’s changed the way India thinks, I think it’s a revolutionary film.”
Naomi: “And you said that when you worked with Rakeysh, you wanted to ensure that every number is a super hit, can you really ensure that as a composer?”
Rahman: “You can just try, but if you don’t have an intention you don’t even try, and for a film like RDB, we wanted that to happen because it’s not a straight commercial film, it could have gone wrong. So from my side and music and lyrics side, we wanted everything to go right, so each one was taking care of their departments in the right way!”
Naomi: “As a music composer what is your biggest fear — that there is a song in a film and people go out of the theatre for a loo break, has it ever happened? Does that thought scare you?”
Rahman: “No, if you concentrate and work together, you can avoid that. Like in RDB, I thought ‘Tu Bin Bataye…Would be that kind of a song, but we never got that reaction. They were sitting and watching the film that time, even though it came near the interval and it was a very slow song. So sometimes you can break all the formulas.”
Rahman followed up RDB with Mani Ratnam’s ‘Guru’ this year. A slow starter, this album though eventually became a top seller, one could argue that it is not Rahman & Ratnam’s best work!
Naomi: “It’s very important for you, especially in the Indian context that the song picturisation is right. In Guru, a lot of people appreciated the music, but a lot of people felt they broke the narrative, how do you react to that as a music composer?”
Rahman: “I think people have become too intelligent, so much so that everyone can make a film now. When Mani puts a song in, it’s with loads of things in his mind, so he obviously knows what he is doing. In fact, he told me that we have a song and if you remove the song, the film doesn’t work, because it’s a serious film and it needs that song.”
Naomi: “And you have that Bappi Lahari song — again people thought it was a force fit.”
Rahman: “Well, you can expect the unusual from Mani. There are two opinions about that — some of them really love it, when I was watching the film in New York, they said, “Oh! It’s the best song.” That’s good actually when people have different opinions about the same thing, completely opposite!”
Naomi: “Are you open to your songs being used as background scores, because in India that’s not totally appreciated, but that’s very important, now you that you have songless films and all of that. What do you make of that?”
Rahman: “Well, in a way music suffers if you put it as a background. Definitely, the full output of the song doesn’t come through, but sometimes it’s important to have that song behind. In ‘Guru’, especially, we did a song called ‘Shock Hei’, which was composed after I saw the film, it became a background score, and it was intentional.”
As you may have noticed, this musical genius would rather his music speak for him, but in recent times, what he has been vocal about is the music composer getting joint copyright over his compositions along with the music label. It is a call, which cost him Farah Khan’s ‘Om Shanti Om’, but Rahman says it is the way forward.
Rahman: “It’s fair to give a composer or a lyric writer whatever he or she deserves, and somebody has to voice it, so that’s the reason I voiced it.”
Naomi: “Has there been resistance?”
Rahman: “No, actually people are willing. Initially, they were like – ‘What is this?’, but once they get into it they realise how important it is. I see people who have done great songs suffering in poverty, suffering without money in the end. Here if this kind of thing works out, it’s almost like a pension for a composer or a writer, which I think they deserve.”
Naomi: “But is that something you want for all your projects, you have recently signed up with Subhash Ghai, has his label agreed to that?”
Rahman: “That’s news to me!”
Naomi: “You haven’t signed up with Subhash Ghai?”
Rahman: “He has not spoken to me yet.”
Naomi: “I got an SMS saying Subhash Ghai’s new film, music by AR Rahman.”
Rahman: “Okay, I will be meeting him next week, I will find that out. We had agreed to work on some project couple of years back, and then he got busy with his Whistling woods.”
So we don’t know if Rahman is working with Subhash Ghai, but he is definitely working for the United Nations. Rahman’s first song in English for a noble cause – ‘Pray for me, Brother’, is an anti-poverty song composed and sung by him for the UN. This song is also part of K music, Rahman’s label to promote different music, which is not necessarily commercial or composed by him. As we sign off, we asked him one last question.
Naomi: “At one point you said it took you some time before you could be unapologetic about presenting your kind of music, or Indian music to a western audience, but that’s changed now, how did that change?”
Rahman: “It’s got to do with loads of factors, first of all, when you are talking to a person and then listening to him or her, the way they talk convinces you whether they are speaking the truth. So, I think this has been a culture of songs and movies I am not afraid to show it to anyone, and from Hollywood point we just went, this is us, watch us!”
So be it then, let Rahman’s music take over!
