A.R. RAHMAN STORY PICKS
By Rahmaniac.com
May 07, 2023
The ad film industry is a heady world- it definitely was in the India of the 1980s and continues to be now. You see a lot of fast-talking, attractive young men and women-so well dressed and confident that they could pass for models-hobnobbing with some of the biggest names in the worlds of business and entertainment both. The creative heads of some ad agencies are celebrities in their own rights, and TV commercial shoots are often elaborate affairs that take place in exotic locations with big-time actors and big budgets. And there is a lot of money to be made by everyone involved. This was more or less the case thirty years ago as well. Chennai in particular had, to use the words of Trilok Nair, a 'rocking ad scene. A lot of young people were coming up in this environment of opportunity and exposure, starting their own agencies or working for the more established ones.
They were all English-speaking folks who grew up watching movies that were winning Oscars and listening to the albums that were winning Grammys. They wore jeans and T-shirts and sneakers and drank and smoked and dated and partied. Western culture wasn't as woven into the fabric of India as it is now, but people in the advertising industry were more aware of it, and, more significantly, the eagerness to integrate it with Indian life had set in. Among the rising hotshot advertising professionals of Chennai were Trilok Nair and Sharada Krishnamoorthy. Originally, Sharada and Trilok both worked at a Chenna-based ad agency called R.K. Swamy. They met there, started dating and eventually decided to quit the place and start their own agency called Trish. Trilok was the director and Sharada the producer.
One of the first ads that Trish was hired to do was an anti-drug commercial, a 'say-no-to-drugs' video for World Drug Day (formally known as International Day against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking). It was commissioned by Roundtable 42 of Chennai. 'They gave us whatever little money that was there for it, says Trilok. 'We made it for no money, literally.' The model used for the commercial was a struggling and then unknown actor called Kennedy John Victor. Today, he goes by the name of Vikram and is one of biggest stars in South India (one of his more recent successful films being I, made by Shankar and which AR was music director on). He charges in the millions now, but at the time he worked for free.'It was a work of passion,' recalls Trilok. The cameraman worked for free. The editor worked for free. Everyone worked for free. The cast were all our friends and we shot in the house of our friend Bharat Raman, who is now one of the biggest lawyers in the country.
And then, after everything was done, we were wondering who was going to do the music for it.' Trilok and Sharada were friends of Vijay Modi and, in passing, asked him if he knew anyone who could 'give them music for an ad film they were doing for no money.'Modi suggested we give this boy he knew a try; remembers Trilok. "So that's what we did.' The video itself was shot in a day. It was a disturbing tale of a regular teen who descends into addiction. The film starts with a group of teenagers having a party in a house. One of the boys rolls a joint and gives it to Vikram, who refuses at first, but is then coerced into taking a drag. As the video progresses, Vikram becomes more and more dependent on drugs and finally ends up becoming a heroin addict. His appearance changes from a healthy, attractive young man to a sunken-eyed, unkempt and perpetually wasted junkie.
The entire video is intercut with an amplifier in which the volume metre is constantly rising, as the young man becomes more and more addicted. Finally, the amp blows up when he starts injecting himself. After the film itself was shot and cut, it was time to record the jingle. Trilok and Sharada went to Vijay Modi's Audiovision and waited for the boy Vijay had recommended to them, and who had agreed to do the music for the ad, to arrive. We waited . . . And we waited . . . And we waited,' laughs Trilok. It is a well-known fact that Rahman isn't quite the shining example of punctuality. It is something everyone has come to accept as a quirk of his. Singers, musicians, directors, everybody waits for AR. They always have. It is probably a habit that was formed in him, very early on, when he was so pressed for time, shuttling between all of his work commitments.
'Even while playing at the recording sessions of composers,' remembers S.P. Balasubrahmanyam. 'He would be working late into the night, on jingles, so he would come in for a 7 a.m. recording only at 8 a.m. But the composers would appreciate that he was working and allow it.' It wasn't just the composers. A lot of people forgave forgive-AR his inability to stick to time. The simple truth of the matter is that, however long you've been waiting, however tired or annoyed you may be by the lateness, when Rahman finally bounces in and you interact with him, you'll feel nothing but good. Plus you're only too likely to get some great work out of him in the end. So it went with Trilok and Sharada on the day they first met Rahman. When he finally arrived to compose for the film, his entrance was a spectacle by itself, Trilok says.
First his equipment came in. These huge boxes came in with his keyboards and all of that. That kind of thing was really rare back then. I'd never seen such advanced equipment. Then his assistant, Samidurai-who still works for him comes in carrying a basket with his lunchbox. He brought his own food from home, usually. And then, finally, this little fellow walks in and smiles and says hi.' Sharada and Trilok were annoyed by AR's lateness, and the fact that he seemed to feel no need in the slightest to apologize for it. And things were not improved by the sort of time it took Samidurai to set everything up. 'All of his equipment and whatnot,' as Trilok puts it. You couldn't see him behind all those keyboards when he sat down.' Then they got to work. Trilok told AR what the ad was about, the concept and what he wanted for it in terms of music. AR listened quietly and then just said, 'Okay. Come back in an hour.'
'I was a little taken aback there,' Trilok says, remembering the moment. 'I was under the impression we would be working on the music together. I thought the director always sat with the composer. Clearly, he did things differently. And that hasn't changed. Even today, when he is actually in the act of creating a new piece of music, he isolates himself and nobody can disturb him at that time.' Sharada and Trilok did not argue and left AR alone. Then, after an hour, they came back into the recording studio. 'I was speechless,' Trilok says. I was blown away. I couldn't believe what I was hearing. Oof! It was mind-blowing stuff. It was way beyond anything I'd heard. It was a recording, not a jingle. He got it bang on. We didn't have to change a damn thing later, really.' Trilok Nair just turned and stared at Rahman. And AR just said, Is it all right? It's just the basic tune. We'll work on it a little more ...'
The 'drug ad', as it came to be called, won multiple awards-including best advert for public service-when it aired and gained a marvellous amount of traction. One has to remember that this was almost a different era altogether. There was no social media and fewer TV channels. Word of a good video or ad, of any work at all, spread slowly. And if word spread far enough, it meant it really was good. Roundtable 42, which had ordered the ad, screened it in a theatre called Mena. AR was called to the event and given an award at the presentation ceremony. Trilok and Sharada's association with Rahman, at its peak, would see the composer working with the two ad professionals on four or five jingles a month and would ultimately lead to his meeting director Mani Ratnam and composing for Roja.
Of course, the drug ad was not the first jingle AR created and by no means was it a breakthrough work for him. He was already pretty big in the world of advertising by this time. Bharat Bala was frequently working with him by now. In the 1980s, Bala was one of the biggest ad film-makers in the country, amassing a huge clientele in Delhi and Hero Honda (Hero MotoCorp now). Mumbai- including harncosychows. Indian motorbike manufacturer i harat Bala had been AR's senior at school (in PSBB) and she two had been childhood friends. The older man knew, of course, that AR was into music; he'd even heard some of his creations with hit bands. After AR got into jingles, the two men went on to become frequent collaborators on Bala's industrial films, documentaries and adverts.
Additionally, Bharat Bala was national. Working with him helped AR's work get on to a national platform and out of Chennai. It would be a while yet before he became the national icon he would one day become, but the process was begun back in the 1980s, during those jingle days. And it was a process that would both continue and evolve into the late 1990s, when Bharat Bala would also help Rahman go international. Bharat Bala was instrumental in AR's growth and worked with him on not just ads and documentaries, but also on many of the composer's non-film projects- including Vande Mataram in 1997, the video for AR's 2007 Pray for Me Brother' as well as the video for the official anthem of the 2010 Commonwealth Games, 'Jiyo Utho Bado Jeeto'.
Many of the advertising agencies in Mumbai and Delhi were apprehensive about using AR for jingles initially. They preferred to go with the established names such as Louis Banks. In Chennai, however, things were different, before long, many of the agencies had recognized AR's talents and teamed up with him directly. Several ad film-makers approached by agencies such as Ogilvy and Mather and J. Walter Thompson were told even before the commercial was created that the jingle was already ready. They would have got it from AR straight. He was literally an in-house composer, though he would move away from that work style later in order to work with the film-makers directly.
The article is extracted from the authorized biography "Notes of a Dream" written by Krishna Tilok. ©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.