The article which appears below, was originally published on Sify.com in February 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.
Did you know that Slumdog Millionaire – the film that bagged eight Oscars this year – had no takers when it was released? And that Rahman feels more passionate about his songs in the Aamir Khan-starrer Lagaan than about Jai Ho?
“I had only five per cent expectation about the Oscar for Slumdog Millionaire. In fact, I was more bothered about my live performance and that was extraordinary and its impact was much more,” confessed a jet-lagged Rahman at the first press meet after his Oscar award on Thursday, February 26, in Chennai.
“Originally, they wanted me to do a live performance of the Hindi remix song, Aaj Ki Raat. But I wanted to present my own composition before the world audience and hence I changed it to Jai Ho,” said the Mozart of Madras, who made up for the two-hour delay in the press meet by patiently obliging the battery of press photographers and television crew with exclusive shots with both Oscars in hand.
“Music has no language and it is this aspect that the film has brought out,” said Rahman who humbly dedicated his double Oscars to all his countrymen.
Confessing that Slumdog Millionaire was definitely not his masterpiece, Rahman said Jai Ho was more about “a burst of joy and signified the release of external energy.” He attributed the awards to Gulzar’s skills of making the songs “phonetically catchy” which clicked with the Western audience.
“Though the Americans are clueless about the meaning of the song, words like Jai Ho, O Saya, Ringa, ringa seem to have caught their fancy and am happy that they are now listening to Indian music,” said the Oscar winner, who already has a couple of Hollywood offers at hand.
When pointed out that the film had bagged the Oscars only under a British tag, Rahman replied, “Hollywood is the world’s stage and films are pieces of art and they are valued for their worth. Only India had not got there till now but this was India’s time. Danny Boyle’s film was a beautiful one and my music was just an ornament that added to the beauty. This award would popularise Indian music in the world scenario. A lot of collaboration is possible now.”
Admitting that he felt more joyous and comfortable with devotional songs than beat songs, Rahman felt that the Oscars had doubled his responsibility and that now “his priority was doing good films, be it in Tamil, Hindi, Telugu or English.”
“My dream is to connect people with music and probably this incident has unified all of us. I think this is a starting point of extraordinary things,” he proclaimed.
When queried about the partying and gifts that followed the Oscars, Rahman admitted that he had to leave all the champagne bottles back in the US owing to Customs trouble and brought back only the 2 Oscar statuettes “which carried a cash award of $500 each.”
“After all that news, it was my kids who were more relieved to see me back. They bunked school that day and kept on e-mailing me – Daddy, get back to us,” said the responsible father.
