The interview which appears below, was originally published on Puthiya Thalaimurai in April 2009. ©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.
For the past eighteen years, music director A.R. Rahman has captivated people’s hearts with his music. When he won the Oscar, he made every Tamil proud. The Padma Bhushan award recently conferred upon him and the international Grammy award join this list of honors.
Starting from life’s foundation and accumulating achievements one after another without fanfare – what is the secret of A.R. Rahman’s success? Is it hard work? Imagination? Technical knowledge? It’s his mind, say those who know him. If we could capture that mind and share it with you?
I had sent Rahman an email saying, “I have now joined Puthiya Thalaimurai magazine as Assistant Editor. We need a direct special interview for the magazine.” Within a few days, he suddenly replied one day.
“Is 5 PM today okay?” he asked in that email. I immediately said okay. In the next few minutes, his personal assistant Mr. Muhammad Faiz called me on my cell phone and confirmed, “Sir has asked you to come to his house at 5 PM.” That pleasant evening, the sweet meeting with Rahman took place. I introduced my fellow assistant editors from Puthiya Thalaimurai – Yuvakrishna, Kavinmalar, Athisha, and photographer Arivazhagan to him. He shook hands with a smile and asked them to be seated. After exchanging pleasantries, the interview began. The answers came flowing smoothly to our questions, without any confusion or hesitation, accompanied by smiles.
Here begins his exclusive interview.
Q: On the Oscar stage, you said you chose love over hate among the two paths. Those words seemed filled with pain. What was the fundamental reason for that?
Rahman: Everyone gets opportunities in life to choose between two paths. We can go this way or that way. Nothing comes easily. We have to overcome many controversies to progress. This is a world full of competition. We’ll have to answer media questions. Because many people try to irritate us. One way is to respond harshly to them. Another way is to respond calmly and patiently. I chose this other way. This applies to everything.
Q: Your Oscar speech showed maturity beyond your years. How did you gain this maturity?
Rahman: This maturity probably came from the losses I experienced at a young age. I went to work in the studio when I was just a young boy. I learned about life there. Even thinking about death gives you maturity. Yesterday I watched a documentary about Saint Teresa who lived in the 16th century. That film says life is equivalent to spending one night in a cheap hotel. Life is that temporary. Maybe because I realized this at a young age, I might appear mature.
Q: You’ve come from very low to reach great heights. According to you, what’s the formula for reaching these heights?
Rahman: If you take my formula, my entire life changed after I converted to Sufism. I was attracted to its philosophies. After that, I must mention my family. My mother, sisters, wife, children – everyone has played a role in my progress. Only if your family is peaceful can you work peacefully. They encourage me. When I go to work, they support me. I would say my family is the most important reason for where I am today. If they had given me trouble, I wouldn’t have been able to do any work.
Q: You said Sufism had a great impact on your life. You entered the music field at a young age. You converted after that. What was the reason?
Rahman: As scholars and thinkers say, there’s always a search for truth in the human mind. Wherever we lean down, we keep searching, thinking there’s some truth there. It’s like a magnet. Spirituality has that attractive quality. The path may vary. It could be Buddhism, Hinduism, Sufism. Even atheism. But humans must go some way. For me and my family, we were blessed with Sufism. That’s the reason.
Q: Did spirituality help your success?
Rahman: Mainly, all the foolish decisions we make come from insecurity. Even yesterday I got an SMS: ‘You’re ready to go to office. At that time, your daughter spills coffee on you. What’s spilled is spilled. You can’t make it not happen. At that moment, you can control your anger and say, “Be careful next time. Make sure you don’t spill” or you can angrily slap once and create a scene, get worked up about being late, and waste time and energy on something insignificant. What would you do in such situations? We have two choices. One is the opportunity to forgive. Two is to create problems. There are multiple choices for every situation like this.
In different situations, you have a chance to think patiently and decide. If a death occurs, opportunities arise to make the death count even bigger, like making the problem bigger. We need to think about which opportunity to use. Whether to move on positively leaving what happened behind or make it more negative – we have to decide. Spirituality helps me think calmly and decide in such situations. It helps with music too.
Q: Taking your non-film albums like ‘Vande Mataram’, ‘Pray for Me Brother’ – they convey specific messages. They are based on nationalism, peace, etc. Were these feelings always there in you or did you choose these themes only as album themes after entering the music field?
Rahman: The interest was there from before. All artists have such desires. But it needs to be done right. A good team needs to come together. Time is needed. Accordingly, God should make us successful. Many have tried. Some attempts haven’t even come out. Some attempts have come out slowly after many years. It may take even longer. You have to wait. But you need faith. If you struggle now, next year might be better than this year. If you struggle next year, the year after might be better – you need to think like that. But we take an idea now and expect results tomorrow itself. We need to wait patiently.
Q: Your music doesn’t seem to have Tamil native qualities? It seems your music can be fitted to films in any language?
Rahman: I can only do according to how films are made with Tamil native qualities. I did films like ‘Karuthamma’, ‘Kizhakku Cheemayile’ with Tamil nativity. I tried to do something new in that too. When doing ‘Lagaan’, I did it with Gujarati nativity. Moreover, films by Mani Ratnam, Shankar, etc. were films for all of India. Also when producers appointed me as music director, they thought they could market the same music in Telugu, Hindi. So I had that compulsion and pressure to incorporate that. It happened only in some films. That’s why I started doing independent albums to get out of that. I got the freedom to choose my own voices when doing albums.
Q: Many singers you introduced murdered Tamil pronunciation. There’s an accusation that such songs came a lot only after you. What do you say?
Rahman: It was like that in the beginning, true. But such voices were not just my choice. I would suggest a singer to Shankar. He would say “No, need a new voice.” Udit Narayan first sang in ‘Kadhalan’. That was Shankar’s suggestion. He asked “There’s someone who sings for Aamir Khan, shall we use him?” I also agreed saying “Okay!” We both share that sin.
But there’s one thing in this. It’s not new for people from other languages to sing in Tamil. Tamil is not T.M.S.’s mother tongue. But he has contributed so much to Tamil songs. SPB, Jesudas, P. Susheela, Janaki, Chitra – Tamil is not the mother tongue for any of them. But none of them killed Tamil. They learned Tamil with respect and check if they are singing correctly each time before singing. But when getting an opportunity to sing in a language, that singer has the responsibility to learn that language’s pronunciation and sing. I learned Urdu for two years before singing in Urdu.
Q: Your music has contributed beyond cinema. Do you see music as an art form or as a medium to convey messages?
Rahman: As much as possible, if there’s an opportunity we can give messages. But we shouldn’t spoil a good art form by deliberately trying to give messages. People shouldn’t get bored. People who come to watch a film come to spend time enjoyably. Sometimes if we give too many messages, the film becomes boring. That’s how people’s mindset is. Even in Slumdog Millionaire there will be a message that ‘truth wins’. Like it’s said in the Quran, ‘God will never give you suffering that you cannot bear’ – that’s the truth. However many troubles come, you have to bear them all and emerge. If someone suffers a lot, it means they have a good future ahead. That faith should be there.
Q: When receiving the honorary fellowship at London Trinity College you said “I who never went to college am happy to receive a degree along with these college students today.” Do you have regret about not going to college?
Rahman: I had a lot of regret. But at this point in life’s circle, we ourselves are running a college now. Learning in school is one thing, learning in real life is another thing. School should be a place that prepares you for real life learning. Many people would want to go to a different field. But parents will ask them to study. But in my case, the opposite happened. I thought of going to a different field. Mother’s wish was that I should step into music. Mother’s guidance helped me.
Q: You’ve been running non-stop in life from age 23 for 18 years. Apart from college life, have you felt you lost anything else?
Rahman: Can’t say lost. Never felt that way. Being in the music field itself is a pleasure. When we do an art form that everyone likes, that itself is a blessing. Instead of complaining about that, I prefer to thank God.
Q: Your friends, leisure time?
Rahman: Unfortunately, I don’t have any close friends anymore. There’s no time to take a day off and go out with friends. Mainly, those who work with me are my friends. When I go abroad, my agents become my friends. I do go for meals with them. But they also talk only business. So I prefer being with family more. Now that I’m in the Oscar committee, I watch lots of Oscar films. I get to watch them for free before people come to theaters. I have 30 films to watch. So there’s no time set aside for leisure.
Q: When you won the Oscar, you said in Tamil “All glory to God.” Did you say that because it’s your usual saying or did you deliberately want to speak in Tamil?
Rahman: I felt like saying it there too, so I said it. Even my sister Rehana said “I was waiting to see if you would speak in Tamil. Thank goodness you did. My faith wasn’t disappointed.”
Q: Tell us about your father?
Rahman: Father is a great inspiration for me and my family. I met him very little in childhood. He worked in seven-eight places simultaneously. That’s how his health deteriorated. After he passed away, when I went to studios to play keyboard, I only heard good things about father. Like they say in MGR films, those who worked with him would praise him. “Our family is good because of him”, “He helped educate our children”, “He got us jobs” – everyone would say such things. It’s a big thing to be born to such a good father. He has set a benchmark for me to do better than him. I really like his music. I keep listening to it. He was the first one to buy a synthesizer in India in ’74. Since he was the first person from India to buy it, that company gave him a free flight ticket to Japan. Now synthesizer has occupied the music world.
Q: Your fans’ only complaint is that you don’t do Tamil films anymore. Is it because you’re busy with Hollywood?
Rahman: Expectations are very high in Tamil. If the film doesn’t match that, it flops. Instead of films, we can do albums. What happens with films is, after giving good songs and creating expectations, people come to theaters and leave cursing. “Why did this person agree to do music for this film, if we come to watch the film trusting him, what is this?” they ask. Without that, if I get a film that meets these expectations, I will definitely do Tamil films. I’m not talking about budget. I’m talking about ideas. No need to make films only in hundred crores. Could be one crore. Could be ten lakhs. But viewers need something new. There are huge expectations for ‘Vinnaithaandi Varuvaaya’. But that’s a measured theme. I think it will come out well.
Q: You work nights when doing films. How did you work for plays like ‘Bombay Dreams’? You have to work with everyone during rehearsals. What difference do you feel between composing for plays and films?
Rahman: Plays have more value than cinema in foreign countries. Big Hollywood actors all come and act for free. Getting such an opportunity was a big thing for me. I’ve composed for two plays. Learned a lot from that. That experience helps me now. Coming to cinema after working in plays increases skill. I have a desire to get involved in such attempts in India too. I think there will be opportunities in future. When students come out of our music school, there will be opportunities for that.
Q: Tell us about your music school?
Rahman: There’s no school like that in India. There are some. But results aren’t good. Many of my friends like Seeni, Selvakumar encouraged me. We don’t even have an orchestra in our country. People from my father’s time are still playing. If the next generation should learn music, it’s necessary to encourage them. In foreign countries, governments run such colleges. In our country, government has colleges for Carnatic music. But not for Western music, Hindustani music. So we thought why not we start. 200 students are studying. Two-year diploma courses are running. Through this there’s opportunity for many young musicians to emerge.
Q: What’s the difference between Rahman the keyboard artist and Rahman the Oscar-winning music composer?
Rahman: I don’t see any such difference. An inherent self will reflect in music. This applies to all arts. All our good and bad will reflect in art. Whatever goes in is what will reflect. That’s how it happens for me too.
Q: What do you want to tell the new generation entering music field?
Rahman: No one is naive like before. They know everything newly introduced through internet. They are smart. India is the country with most youth. This is good. Future will be good. Like Kaviko said, every seed knows what plant it will become. Like that we should first find out who we are. A rose plant cannot bloom jasmine flowers. Like that we should find out early who we are and what we have inside us. We should develop that talent. Instead of following someone else’s style, we should search for our own unique style. This applies to musicians and singers too.
Thanks: Puthiya Thalaimurai Weekly Magazine
