The interview which appears below was originally published in Nasreen Munni Kabir's book, A.R. Rahman: The Spirit of Music. ©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.
NMK: You have worked in London and Hollywood, and I believe it was Shekhar Kapur who introduced you to the West. How did you meet him?
ARR: Ram Gopal Varma introduced us. I didn’t know much about Shekhar. I knew he had directed a big film called Mr. India and I was blown away when I saw his Bandit Queen. I thought it was fantastic. He was probably the first person I ever asked: “I want to do your movie.” But I’m afraid whenever I’ve asked anyone for work, I have somehow jinxed it. Work has to just come to me.
After Mani Ratnam, it was Shekhar who opened my mind to new ideas. Mani Ratnam thinks laterally and it trained me to think like that. Shekhar’s way of thinking is wider and wilder. Not only in terms of films, but in terms of life too. He is constantly buzzing with ideas. He doesn’t only think in terms of India, but the whole world: “This can change the world, that can change the world.”
He showed me that anything was possible. It’s a good attitude. It helps to stop fearing the imagination. He was probably the first person in Indian cinema that I knew who had proven that he could make it in the West and be respected.
Those things were very inspiring for me. I remember the day that Shekhar introduced me to Andrew Lloyd Webber, the pride with which he said: “We have the greatest film industry in the world. We make more films than Hollywood!” [laughs]
We’re usually apologetic in the way we express things, but Shekhar speaks with such confidence and pride. That’s something I learned from him. Maybe it’s a lack of confidence, but somehow we feel that white people are superior—we have a kind of complex. He was the first Indian that I heard say: “We are there!” Which is great.
Shekhar’s dream child was Bombay Dreams; he put it all together and later Andrew took it over.
NMK: Did it surprise you when Andrew Lloyd Webber offered you the stage production of Bombay Dreams?
ARR: Western composers have written such wonderful music for the musical theatre, and for years, that I did wonder why Andrew was drawn to my music. But he was. Bombay Dreams was an important experience. It helped me understand how the West perceived my music and what qualities I had and didn’t have.
Andrew would hear a piece of music that I was playing to him and would say: “That’s interesting, that’s nice. I love the melody here, this harmonic change, the beat there.” He’d react to every bar with a running commentary. I discovered some of my work through his observations. I also worked closely with Chris Nightingale, the musical supervisor on Bombay Dreams.
We had a good rapport and found a way of working well together. The pre-production of Bombay Dreams started in London in 2001 and the show opened at the Apollo Theatre in Victoria on 19 June 2002. The lyric writer Don Black was also good to work with. He has worked for years in musical theatre and in Hollywood. He wrote the lyrics for James Bond’s theme in Thunderball [1965] and won an Oscar for the song Born Free.
NMK: Andrew Lloyd Webber has always praised your melodies. Could you tell me what’s a perfect melody?
ARR: Identifying a melody is really tough. But writing a melody is probably a composer’s most important talent. Everything else follows after that.
Melody has no formula. Melodies don’t always have instant appeal. You have melodies that grow on you and you can never forget them. They become part of your life. One of my favourite melodies is The Love Theme by Ennio Morricone from Cinema Paradiso.
Things move at a frantic pace in the world now. And melody in pure form is less common. People like short chants and short hooks within a big melody. The state of mind needed to compose a melody is difficult to achieve. You need to go into some other space to think about melody.
NMK: Was Bombay Dreams a brave decision for Andrew Lloyd Webber?
ARR: Yes. It was brave. He said: “Let’s do something from India.” Andrew was also very excited about the idea. It was a different kind of musical for him.
NMK: Was the working style very different?
ARR: Very different. Everything was planned far ahead. Meetings would happen at set times. It’s not like the way we sometimes work in India. There was a lot of precision and scheduling.
NMK: Was there a lot of reworking involved?
ARR: Yes. A lot. Every week, there would be changes. A song would be shortened or the mood would be altered. They would see how the audience was responding during previews and tweak the show accordingly. It was a great learning experience.
NMK: You once mentioned that it’s important to go out of your comfort zone. Was Bombay Dreams one such experience?
ARR: Absolutely. Bombay Dreams took me completely out of my comfort zone. It taught me many things about working in a different system, understanding a new audience, and collaborating in a new environment.
