Over the years, Oscar-winning composer AR Rahman has given Indian cinema some of its most iconic songs and continues to do so. However, in a recent conversation with BBC Asian Network, Rahman revealed how a shift in power dynamics in the Hindi film industry affected the work coming his way.
AR Rahman on feeling like an outsider until Subhash Ghai’s Taal
Rahman revealed that, as a Tamil composer scoring music in Bollywood, he felt like an outsider until Subhash Ghai’s Taal. He said, “Actually, I was still an outsider with these three (Roja, Bombay, Dil Se..), but Taal became a household (album). It entered the kitchens of everybody, so to say. Even now, most North Indians still have it in their blood because it’s a little bit of Punjabi and a little bit of Hindi and a little bit of mountain music. It’s very difficult for a Tamil person to speak Hindi because we have such attachment.”
He recalled how Subhash Ghai asked him to learn Hindi, after which he decided to learn Urdu because it was the mother of Hindi film music in the 1960s and ’70s. The composer then went on to learn Arabic, as it is very similar to Urdu in terms of pronunciation, and later got into Punjabi because of Sukhwinder Singh’s influence.
When asked whether he felt prejudice within the Hindi film landscape in the 1990s and discrimination against the Tamil community in Bollywood, AR Rahman said, “Maybe I never got to know of this, maybe it was concealed by God, but I didn’t feel any of this. The past eight years, maybe, because a power shift has happened and people who are not creative have the power now. It might be a communal thing also… but it is not in my face. It comes to me as Chinese whispers that they booked you but the music company went ahead and hired their five composers. I say good, I have more time to chill with my family. I am not in search of work. I don’t want to go in search of work. I want work to come to me; my sincerity to earn work. Whatever I deserve, I get.”
AR Rahman’s upcoming music
The composer has scored the soundtrack for Vijay Sethupathi’s upcoming film Gandhi Talks. The silent drama, directed by Kishor Pandurang Belekar and produced by Zee Studios along with Kyoorius and Moviemill, also stars Arvind Swamy, Aditi Rao Hydari and Siddharth Jadhav in key roles. The film is scheduled to release in theatres on January 30.
Apart from this, AR Rahman also has Nitesh Tiwari’s Ramayana in the pipeline. For the film, he has collaborated with Grammy-winning composer Hans Zimmer. The film stars Ranbir Kapoor, Sai Pallavi, Sunny Deol and Yash in lead roles and is slated for a theatrical release on Diwali 2026.
