In a quiet corner of Chennai, TIME Magazine’s Jyoti Thottam sits down with the double Oscar winner to explore his musical philosophy, spiritual journey, and what’s next for one of the world’s most innovative composers.
How do you think your career and your music will change now that you’ve won two very well-deserved Oscars?
I think in the West I’ve been getting a lot of offers from Hollywood, and collaborations are possible with pop artists and icons. At the same time, I want to continue doing films with some of my favorite directors here.
What can Hollywood learn from Bollywood?
First of all, I hate the word Bollywood because it doesn’t represent Indian films. Indian films are from Chennai – Tamil films, and Kerala – Malayalam films, and then Telugu, and then Kannada, and then Hindi. The word Bollywood means Hindi films or North Indian stuff.
Also, there’s so much culturally – philosophies, poetry, ragas, and so many different things. People have this undying excitement and energy. There’s so much to take from this part of the world.
Do you believe in a universal music, and is that what you were trying to achieve with this film?
I do believe in Universal Music because all of us are in a way getting multicultural in our ears. The bottom line is most of us love melodies, most of us love grooves, so there is a kind of universality. When you focus into it, you can find it.
Because the film’s theme is very universal – it’s about hope and optimism – I think it went well with supporting the ideology.
You recently had the remix of “Jai Ho” featuring The Pussycat Dolls. I was a bit surprised that you would have consented to have that done to what was such a beautiful song. What motivated it?
What motivated it was—it’s a film soundtrack. “Slumdog” is a film soundtrack. I didn’t want that to die as a film soundtrack. I wanted that to extend and go to the younger audience too. The Dolls, in my opinion, were one of those contenders.
Even though all of us had a little bit of apprehension, we made sure that we told them this is a song about destiny, it’s about love, and about victory. Don’t make it obscene; make it as lovable and respect that thing.
We were all very conscious of that. It took almost eight different tries to get it right. The first time it had lyrics like “sexy sexy” and all this stuff, and I didn’t like it. Then Ron took over and made sure that it was delivered right.
Where do you see yourself fitting in to the modern scheme of music?
What is modern is rediscovering yourself, rediscovering the way music is done. I do love to embrace new technology and new ideas. Especially in a film like “Slumdog” where Danny suggested MIA—it’s so modern, you know, interpretation of music and everything. It was like two cultures meeting.
Some people are very close-minded. They say, “Oh, what are they doing? This is just noise. Rap is noise, and heavy metal is noise.” When you go into that frame of just trying to like something for what it is not… you take a lens and disrupt it and try to analyze it.
With this philosophy, I’ve kept moving on for like 18 years, rediscovering myself.
As a convert to Islam, do you view your career in a spiritual light?
I personally feel that the whole journey which I’ve gone through with Sufism—I believe that when good vibes come from people, like prayers and love, it changes your destiny. That’s what I always felt about my life, that there was a lot of goodwill from a lot of people and prayers from family and Sufi peers that changed my destiny. It’s still changing my destiny.
Getting those two Oscars, I definitely feel that, and I have to thank all the people who had done so much of prayers for that.
Some Islamic fundamentalists forbid people to listen to music. What is your view on this?
There’s so much—it’s like a sea of ideas, Islam. I embrace this faith because of Sufism, and I personally discovered love and music which cleanses your mind and heals you. These are my explanations and reasons to follow music.
My whole scoring and my whole philosophy in music is different, and I derive inspiration from the Divine. I can’t answer the question whether it’s right or wrong, but I know that whatever I’m doing is being loved by people, and I do get my prayers answered.
