The interview which appears below, was originally published on Filmi Khabar in January 2008. ©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.
A. R. Rahman, walks into the business centre of a suburban five-star hotel looking deadbeat. On a whirlwind trip to Mumbai to promote the new version of Jana Gana Mana produced by his friends Bharatbala and Kanika Myers and released by Times Music, the maestro has spent the entire day giving sound bytes. The last thing that he wants to do as he wraps up the day is give another interview. He looks almost apologetic: “I am naked now, I’ve said everything that there was to say.”
And yet, when he gets down to talking the reticent music director, once as well-known for his monosyllables as his music, can be surprisingly expressive. The art of the interview is these days requisite for super-stardom. From repackaging patriotism, to his vision of jannat, to his inability to say ‘no’ (the interview is an example), Rahman holds forth…
Ma Tujhe Salaam, Jana Gana Mana… you’ve been at the forefront of repackaging pop patriotism.
Well, I’ve teamed up with Bharatbala and he is the engine…
But you are the face, the star that drives the engine.
Yes, I understand that but he being the son of a freedom fighter…(tapers off). My first film (Roja) had loads of patriotism, I think that kind of gave the impression…People said, ‘Let’s go to this guy, he’ll give good patriotic songs…But personally too I do like doing these things. I don’t like in-your-face patriotic songs that harp on (clichés like) You’ve to be true to your country, do this for your nation, or bring about this or that… that’s too boring and nobody would listen to it. Even in Rang De Basanti (RDB), we tried a new approach.
Talking of RDB, how would you approach a project like that?
It was a totally different effort. The script was four years old, in the meanwhile four films on Bhagat Singh had already been made, in one of which I had given the music. I just didn’t want to do the same kind of thing again so when we started brainstorming it was decided that we should go against (emphasising) the film. Where there is sadness there should be happy songs, where there is aggression there should be dance.
Whose idea was it to do that?
Partly mine (laughs, slightly embarrassed). I didn’t want to get the people (the audience) in a low mood.
So Ru-ba-ru…
Yeah, absolutely. The whole thing is about redemption…It’s like singing in paradise. Even the look of it—he’s dead but he’s in paradise so it’s the other extreme way of looking at life…Also, we decided that every single song in the album had to be a hit.
But isn’t that your approach to every song, that it should be a hit?
No it’s not. It’s just that this film was very tough. It could so easily have gone wrong. Had anyone got carried away people would have been very uneasy. So whether it was the casting, editing, story, music, everything had to be just right.
Are you getting more and more involved in other aspects of filmmaking?
In a way yes, because finally you’re blamed for it. People say this doesn’t work, his song didn’t work, that a piece is not shot well. You don’t need all this at this stage. I know there are people waiting (for my music) and there is such expectation and responsibility.
Do you feel burdened by that?
Earlier I never used to say anything about the filmmaking process because I used to think that’s not my duty, I believed that’s the director’s call, but I realise it’s important to say (your piece) because you’re watching so many DVDs and that there could be other ways of doing things. So I may say why don’t you picturise a song like that or do something like this. It’s not that they necessarily accept it, but they may take the vision or the energy of that suggestion. They can take it in a competitive spirit…like if Rahman is suggesting this, let me do it even better… So it’s interesting that you can create competition.
Do you see yourself getting more and more involved in filmmaking?
No…there is so much energy required and effort to execute what I do, that I am fine as I am.
A lot of your songs these days get cut out of the film… maybe there’ll be just a strain or two. Does that bother you?
It does bother (pause). But you do it in the interest of the film, for the success of the film.
But you know that people may go to see a film because it has your music.
Yes, there is a big responsibility and if you lose people’s trust… If they get disappointed twice they wouldn’t care the third time.
One of the downsides of being successful is that you get afraid of failure. Do you find that happening to you sometimes?
Failure or success, you leave it to God.
Does it affect your music in any way?
No, if I am constantly insecure, it’ll affect my work. It’ll become commercial, non-arty, and not passionate… That’s what happens to most people. If you do something well once, you want to keep doing the same thing again and again. For instance, there may be someone who wore a particular pair of slippers in a film and it worked and he may say let me wear the same slippers again and again in all my films…it’s lucky for me, (but) we can’t approach art like that.
What would you say have been the turning points in your career?
I think every three years there’s a turning point in my career because I get bored after that. So you take Roja in ’92, Rangeela in ’95, Vande Matram after three years, and then in 2001 Bombay Dreams, then Lagaan and then Rang De Basanti. I guess some turning point is due now…
When you started scoring for Hindi films, did you prepare differently?
My conscious effort was to learn Hindi a bit and to get friendly with the Hindi audience, musically.
How did you do it?
I did it through instruments. There is an in-built friendliness in dholaks and duffs. Now I use them in my Tamil music too. That was a conscious change after I worked with Subhash Ghai in Taal. I kept hammering into my head, ‘Learn Hindi, learn Hindi’.
So are you now comfortable with the language?
I can understand it if you abuse me (laughs). I also learnt Urdu for a couple of years.
Yeah, in Dil Se… for instance, in the song ‘Ae ajnabi’, you’ve broken up the words ‘tukdo mein’. The way Udit Narayan sings it, tuk-do mein. That can only come with an understanding of the language.
(Interested) Oh okay, I didn’t notice that the word was broken up…I must credit that to Gulzar saab. The word was placed intelligently.
One of the things that stands out about your music is the number of instruments that you tend to use.
Well, if you’re doing orchestral music then there can be 160 instruments, there is a song in Bose, ‘Jage Hai’ that has a refrain ‘Jai Hind, Jai Hind’ that had 140 people and a full orchestra, but then ‘Ru-ba-ru’ had just three instruments…
You have a great knack for picking random voices, people who are not necessarily great singers, for instance Shweta Shetty, and getting them to deliver.
I had heard her voice in a commercial and when Rangeela’s ‘Mangta hai kya’ came up, I remembered that voice and got her to sing.
On an everyday basis, do you hear something that most of us don’t?
(Smiles) I try to be a listener, I am open to hearing all kinds of music. I always test myself whether what I create is as exciting as the stuff I hear.
Nusrat Ali Khan was a big inspiration. What are your other musical inspirations?
Umm…after a point you don’t need any inspiration. You clean your mind like a blank paper and then whatever comes, just write it down.
You’re working a lot outside India. Can you talk a bit about that?
Their whole pattern of work is such that they do one thing at a time. When I tell them that I do a song today and something else tomorrow they’re taken aback and worried whether I am crazy (laughs). You need to set aside time to work on a project in the West. There if I say ‘no’ to something, they say ‘Ok, he’s busy let’s go to the next guy’. Here, nobody takes ‘no’ for an answer. It’s also a relationship thing. If a director I know is doing his next film and I am doing something else at the time, I won’t say ‘no’, instead I’ll say, ‘Ok, let’s see, we’ll find the time. I can never say ‘no’. Also, my mind doesn’t work like theirs (the westerners’), it is constantly wavering. It just takes around 10 to 15 minutes to make a song.
Do you hear a lot of music in your head even when you’re not working?
Often I get a tune in my dream and I just wake up, pick up my phone and record it.
As simple as that?
Just the tune? Yes. It happens like the big bang and most often things fall into place.
