Building up a sound brand...

MUSICALLY YOURS A.R.Rahman at his press conference in New Delhi on Monday to unveil the signature tune for WorldSpace satellite radio. — Photo: S. Subramanium
NEW DELHI: Its all about music. Fighting for space in the realm of sound, WorldSpace radio has moved from pricing the satellite radio just right to now roping in one of the biggest names in Indian music to get people to tune in. Having signed up A. R. Rahman, the leaders in satellite-based digital radio services have got him to compose a signature tune that will be used in all its communication campaigns.
"It is our vision to offer Indians a truly global radio experience -- giving them the variety, quality and the ability to choose what they want to listen to. Rahman has come to personify quality music and we are honoured to partner with him on our aggressive communication campaign to build our brand in India,'' said Corporate Vice-President WorldSpace.
The catchy tune incorporates different elements. From the sounds of nature to the rhythms of everyday life, Rahman is supposed to have woven the lyrical sounds of the sea, birdcalls and fishermen apart from other "everywhere'' sounds.
And making an appearance in the city, Rahman said: "WorldSpace has created a unique platform that not only keeps alive various forms of music but also extends the reach of this music to virtually the entire country and even abroad. When creating the tune I wanted to bring alive the true sounds of India as a showcase of the depth of musical traditions available in the country.''
With it possible to get a WorldSpace radio receiver for less than Rs. 2,000, people can now hear 40 music channels. And having launched an aggressive campaign, WorldSpace radio has grown from 21,000 subscribers in March 2005 to more than 110,000 subscribers in 2006.

'Jodha Akbar's music will satisfy critics, music lovers: A R Rahman

Often considered as the 'Mozart of Asia,' musician A R Rahman has done everything from classical to reggae and now with Shekhar Kapoor 's 'Elizabeth: the Golden Age' awaiting release, where he pairs up with Hollywood actor Craig Armstrong, he is very excited."It has been really a wonderful experience working with Craig. We traveled a lot in places like Glasgow...Remotely working with the guys in London," says Rahman who was in New Delhi recently.
The singer-composer has his hands full with a lot of films, the latest being Ashutosh Gowarikar ‘s Jodha Akbar starring Hrithik Roshan and Aishwarya Rai Bachchan."Jodha Akbar is a romantic story about a king falling in love with a princess and I have tried to keep the music contemporary so that it satisfies both critics and the music lovers," he says."The music of the film is very much what is required for the film. We have celebration songs and quawallis," he adds. Rahman, who composed the music of Subhash Ghai 's Kisna is once again paring up with the director in his latest flick, Main Yuvraj ."Yuvraaj is a very challenging project. We had a hard time composing the first two songs but now as those have been cracked, we hope we will be able to wrap it up quickly," he says."We have a very unlikely combination in this film as we have Gulzar saab, Subhash Ghaiji and me in this venture," he adds. Rahman who was in the city to mark the one-year celebration of an FM channel, will be performing live in the capital in November for the first time."I was planning to perform in Delhi for the last 10 years and now I have got the chance to perform and I am very excited about it," he says.Rahman had composed the tracks of Sivaji , which struck gold at the box office in India and abroad and now since the film is being dubbed in Hindi, Rahman is a little apprehensive about it."After a long time, I have decided to dub my songs in Hindi. I had almost stopped dubbing in Hindi but this time I am convinced that it will do well. The music is ready and will be released soon," he says.While other music directors of tinsel town have already started cashing on their popularity by joining the small screen and also vying for the big screen, Rahman is unperturbed and says he is a musician and would love to remain so."I have enough musical commitments to fulfill and I love to be a musician and would love to continue the good work. And anyways, I am not well versed in acting so it doesn't matter to me," he says.

A R Rehman becomes ad model!

“Till 2001, I was not too keen on earning tons of money. Only after building my own studio did I get the desire to make money.”

A R Rehman who has been composing music for films and English stage plays is becoming a model, that too for a big company. There’s lot of money to be made from modeling for ads.
When director Shekar Kapoor introduced A R Rehman to Andrew Lloyd Weber, it brought about a turning point in Rehman’s career. He entered international circles after composing music for ‘Bombay Dreams’ and for a Chinese film.
Now music from his ‘Taal’ mixed with rap has come out as an album. His ‘thaiya thaiya’ from ‘Uyire’ even finds place in Spike Lee’s Hollywood film. Even as these milestones are happening, it was a matter of disappointment that his music for ‘Lord of the Rings’ did not go down favorably with the viewers. But this has in no way tarnished his reputation says a world famous company.
World Space Satellite Radio has signed on A R Rehman as their publicity model.
A R Rehman is to compose some special music for them. In connection with this, Shishir Lal of World Space Satellite Radio says, “Rehman’s music will help us reach music lovers across the globe.”
Sachin earns more money through his modeling assignments than through his game on the field. Now World Space Radio has opened the doors to riches and we heartily approve of Rehman agreeing to be their model.
This is a boon to music and heaven to music lovers!

Rahman released new patriotic album Jana Gana Mana

A decade after Rahman sang the ‘Vande Mataram’ in a tune reflective of the mood of a nation that was 50 years young, Allah Rakha Rahman aka A R Rahman Saturday released Jana Gana Mana, his musical score of India’s National Anthem, in Chennai.The album was released in Sathyam Cinemas as part of the celebration of the country’s 60th year of independence. It was also promoted at Music World, Spencers Plaza, Chennai.With some of the big names of Indian music industry, ranging from D K Pattammal to SP Balasubramanium and Balamuralikrishna to Lata Mangeshkar lending their voices, the album is a yet another venture from the Bharatbala-Rahman duo that came out with Vande Mataram in 1997.Rahman said it was of great value to score music for the national anthem.Responding to a query, he said he could not single out any particular singer as his favourite from a collection of 35 soundtracks. “Everybody is so impressive,” he said. The DVD has 25 film strips shot in different locations in India.The man, who is now tasting success at the international arena, has not given any solo number and declined to comment on why it was so.Bharatbala, the producer of Jana Gana Mana, appreciated Rahman for his support for the venture.

A.R.Rahman to perform for noble cause

Come December, AR Rahman will perform in Delhi for a live audience that is likely to include Kofi Annan and Bill Gates. The concert will be for the cause of fight against tuberculosis.
It is learnt that the Union Health Ministry has appointed Rahman as an ambassador in the battle against the disease.
Jointly organized by WHO and the Indian Health Ministry, the concert will be held at Indira Gandhi Stadium on December 3 this year. The event is a part of the inauguration of the 2nd Stop TB Partners Forum.
The list of invitees in the forum includes the likes of Former Russian President Mikhail Gorbachev, UN Secretary Kofi Annan, Microsoft head Bill Gates and Ministerial delegations from 22 major countries
As the ambassador for fight against TB, Rahman will be doing a number of such performances in the future.

Is Rahman the best composer we have?

A R Rahmans’s three songs, ‘Khalbali’ and ‘Lukha Chipi’ from ‘Rang De Basanti’ and ‘Chan Chan’ from ‘Water’ have been shortlisted amongst top 56 songs of Oscars this year. It’s a big honour for the man and the country. This reclusive genius who works at his own terms and conditions (he records at night and everyone complies) has been weaving musical gems for more than fifteen years now. It’s obvious to ask, if he is the best music composer we have…
Having started off with Mani Rathnam’s mellifluous ‘Roja’, Rahman set a new trend in terms of electronic sound and new age music arrangements. He has always laid a lot of importance on high class production values, choice of the most melodious singers (he has given break to many new voices) and has consistently raised his own bar. His prowess in South film industry is unparalleled. But his music score in Hindi films like ‘Bombay’, ‘Rangeela’, ‘Dil Se’, ‘Lagaan’, ‘Yuva’, Saathiya’ and ‘Rang De Basanti’ carries a timeless value. It can withstand the test of time. For each time you listen to a ‘Tu Hi Re’, ‘Chaiyaa Chaiyaa’, ‘Rangeela Re’, Mitwa’, ‘Humdum Suniyo Re’, ‘Khuda Hafiz’, ‘Paathshaala’ or ‘Rubaru’ you feel as if you’ve heard it for the first time. The freshness quotient in his music carries a tinge of mint.
His last release ‘Guru’ is a mixed bag. But even then, a few of the songs like ‘Tere Bin’, ‘Barso Re’ and ‘Jaage Hain’ are miles ahead of any of the other music compositions in the recent times. A fantastic singer (as is evident in his rendition of ‘Vande Mataram’) Rahman never went overboard in promoting himself as a singer the way a few upstart music composers have done in the recent past. Rahman’s live performances are always sold out and he is the highest paid star while performing abroad (matching the biggest superstars). The biggest compliment comes his way when any and every music composer in Bollywood tries to copy him (recent example being Anu Malik in his music arrangements of ‘Jaaneman’ soundtrack).
Finally, A Rahman is definitely the finest music composer in Bollywood at the moment. And here record sales are not the criterion for saying that. Even Altaf Raja can sell a crore copies of ‘Tum To There Pardesi’. The criterion is the union of commercial viability and unmistakable virtuosity as a genius. ‘Rang De Basanti’ is one of the recent examples from his repertoire where he blends brilliance of music with exceptional artistic sensibilities. ‘Rubaru’, ‘Khalbali’, ‘Lukha Chipi’, ‘Rang De Basanti’ and ‘Paathshaala’ entertain and ignite a passion-for-change at the same time.
Indiaglitz wishes A R Rahman all the best in his endeavour to bring more laurels to the country. Hope he brings an Oscar home…

Vijay sings for A R Rahman

Vijay has recorded a song for A R Rahman. The two have come together for Azhagiya Tamil Magan.
Though he has several numbers to his credit, it is the first time Vijay has recorded a song set to tunes by A R Rahman.
The movie featuring Vijay in dual roles is directed by Bharathan. Shriya is paired opposite him. Rahman has also lent his voice in the album.
Buzz is that Vijay has rendered a racy entertainer which is sure to rock the music-buffs.
Azhagiya Tamil Magan, a commercial entertainer, is fast shaping up for a release this Independence Day.
A major portion of the movie is already completed.

TELUGU

1) Puli

Cast - Pawan Kalyan
Director - S.J.Suryah
Producer - Singamala Ramesh Babu [Kanakaratna Movies]
Cinematograher - Ravi K. Chandran

- A.R.Rahman is reportedly being paid a whopping 2 crore for this film.

CURRENT STATUS - This film will go to floors after completion of Pawan Kalyan’s film in the direction of Trivikram.


2) Satyagrahi
http://www.satyagrahi.com/

Director - Pawan Kalyan
Producer - A.M.Ratnam [Sri Surya Movies]
Story - Patrick Biswas
Screenplay - Pawan Kalyan
Cinematography - P.C.Sriram

- Filming started on March 25, 2006

- Recent report say that Pawan's brother Megastar Chiranjeevi and Balakrishna (Balayya) will be donning roles in this film [PawanFans]

- This film seems stalled for the moment as Pawan has moved to Annavaram and Trivikram's directorial venture. More details awaited.

These days, India's top film composer AR Rahman is hardly ever at home.

1) Azhagiya Tamil Magan
http://www.atmthefilm.com http://www.azhagiyatamizhmagan.com

Cast - Vijay (double role), Shreya, Namitha, Shreeman, Santhanam
Director - Bharatan [Dharani's assistant, and scriptwriter of Ghilli]
Producer - Appachan [Swargachitra Films]
Story - S.K.Jeeva
Editor - Antony
Lyrics - Vaali

- "Madhurai Pakkam Pogadhadi...Mallippoo Thalai Saikkum.Thanjavur Pakkam Pogadhadi...Thalayattum Bommai Nikkum. Thoothukkudi Pakkam Pogaadhadi...Kappal Thari Thattum" - A foot tapping folk song picturised on Vijay & Shreya, and shot in Karaikudi. "Special mention must be made of the opening song, for which Rahman is said to be coming up with a peppy and exciting folk type song that is sure to be a big hit with the fans of Ilayathalapathy." [Vijaynet]
- "Valayapatti Thavile Thavile
Jugalbandhi Vaikkum Mavale Mavale
Jimikki Potta Mayile" - A peppy 'kuthu' number picturized on Vijay and Shreya, and shot in a magnificent set in Binny Mills.
- "Kettu Rasitha Paadal Ondrai
Meendum Indru Gnabagam Thoonda
Kelaamal Kaiyilae Vanthaaye Kaathale" - Song picturised on Vijay and Shreya, and shot in the exotic locales of Switzerland.
- "Marilyn Manroe Cloninga?
Jenifer Lopez Scanninga?
One Day Mattum Girl Frienda Varriya?" - This song featuring Vijay and Namitha was shot in the beautiful islands of Phuket, Thailand.
- "Ponmagal Vanthaal Porul Kodi Thanthal" - Retune of the 1971 hit song from Sivaji Ganesan starrer Sorgam. Director Bharathan shot this song at grand sets put up at Chennai's Film City. Some Russian beauties danced in this number along with Vijay and Shriya.
- Vijay is singing a song in the film, as per various media reports (not sure yet as to which one).
- Lyricist Vaali is said to be re-doing the song "Azhagiya Thamizh Magal Ival" from the old movie "Richshawkaaran" and will be writing the lyrics to a fresh tune composed by AR Rahman." [Vijaynet]

- The story of the film is said to revolve around extra sensory perception of the hero. Vijay dons double roles in this film - as Guru and Prasad.
- Pyramid Saimira Theatres Limited has purchased the world rights of the film from producer 'Swargachitra' Appachan for a whopping Rs.25 Crore, the highest ever for a Vijay film.
- Shreeman is all excited about his presence in Pokkiri and Azhagiya Thamizh Magan. "ATM (Azhagiya Thamizh Magan) has a powerful script which will be a feast to Vijay's fans and a script never tried before by him. Its great working with the Ilayathalapathy back to back and I am all geared up for its commencement." says excited Shreeman. [Vijaynet]

CURRENT STATUS - Movie release on 8th Nov 2007.


2) Sakkarakatti

Cast - Shanthnoo Bhagyaraj [Son of K.Bhagyaraj], Shibi, Ishita, Vedika
Director - Kala Prabu [Son of Kalaipuli S. Dhanu]
Producer - Kalaipuli S. Dhanu [V Creations]
Cinematographer - Andrew
Art Director - Jackson
Lyrics - Pa. Vijay, Na. Muthukumar
Action - 'Stunt' Shiva

- "Jhalak Jhalak Un Nenjil" - Song picturised on Shantanu and Ishita Sharma, in MGR Film City.
- Rahman has appreciated Kala Prabhu and said, ”He reminds him of director Shankar in his early days. The way in which the songs are canned by Kala Prabhu has surprised me. He has immense potential”. [IndiaGlitz]

- This is a love story with a campus backdrop. Songs are reportedly peppy youthful numbers.
- A rich girl falls in love with a boy belonging to middle class family. What happens after that - is the story of ‘Sakkarakatti.’
- Sidharth Iyer of ARRYG says that the film is inspired from John Travolta starrer Grease. LINK
- “My maiden venture Sakkarakatti is shaping up well. I am confident that it would take me close to the masses”. - Shantanu [IndiaGlitz]

CURRENT STATUS - Pooja held in AVM Studios on 30th April 2006. Shooting being finished currently. SS Music aired a Diwali special "Making of Sakkarakkati" program in Oct 2006. Movie release expected in the later half of 2007. Yet to have a formal annoucement regarding the audio/movie release dates.


3) Sultan - The Warrior
http://www.sultanthefilm.com

Director - Soundarya Rajinikanth
Producer - Adlabs, Soundarya Rajinikanth [Ocher Films]

- Animation film based on Superstar Rajinikanth.

- Adlabs, in association with Chennai-based Ocher Studios, is experimenting in its own way by trying to cash in on the hysteria surrounding the Tamil super-star Rajnikanth. “We’ve used the motion-capture technology to portray Rajnikanth’s persona in our forthcoming film Sultan the warrior,” says Sidhartha Jain, Head of Animation, Adlabs. The film will be directed by his daughter Soundarya and will release by early 2009. Industry sources say that the movie will have a budget of around Rs 40- 50 crore.

- Soundarya Rajinikanth talks about the film and music - "It is indeed a big film. It is the first in many ways. It’s the first time a live action actor is getting animated in a full length feature film. It’s the first animation feature for A R Rahman. We are targeting on reaching 90% realism with the 3D characters and the look and feel of the film. In terms of cost, I would say the budget of the film is close to that of a big budget live action flick. I will be using few star voices for the characters in the movie apart from my father who is lending his voice for his part. The film has four full length songs which will be choreographed by prominent choreographers, typical Indian style. We are having an English title track which will feature a main stream English music star. It is a mythological fictitious flick. It is not a story already told nor is it an excerpt from an epic. It’s my father’s story. We are planning 12-14 mainstream world languages, including English. It is an hour and 30 mins film, which I’m working very hard on completing on a record time of less than 2 years! Animation features take close to 4 -5 years production time for completion."

4) Marmayogi

Cast - Kamal Haasan
Director - Kamal Haasan
Producer - Adlabs, Kamal Haasan [Rajkamal Films]

- Kamal Hassan has started pre-production work on his new film Marmayogi, which he is directing and producing, on first copy basis for the corporate Reliance Adlabs. Kamal's Marmayogi, is said to be a historical adventure romantic film with an 'A' list of actors. He has already contacted Bollywood actress Kajol, to play the heroine in this film, which will have music by A.R.Rahman. The others including technicians are being worked out.

A R RAHMAN SAVOURS BRUMMIE CULTURE

A R Rahman, the biggest name in the Indian music industry visited Birmingham on Thursday 10 April to announce details of a collaboration with one of the city's world-famous arts companies on a joint programme of work leading up to Birmingham's planned reign as European Capital of Culture. This major East meets West collaboration will emphasise Birmingham's rich diversity which has helped make it favourite for the European cultural crown in 2008.






Rahman has achieved superstar status through his Bollywood music, and is reported to be the world's biggest selling living artist with more than 40 million albums of his own and many more tapes of film music sold. He is now building his fame across the globe and has just flown to Europe from a concert tour of India, USA and Canada.








His first major work outside India was for Andrew Lloyd-Weber, writing the score for the West End musical Bombay Dreams - which is now set to open on Broadway. Lloyd Webber said, "A R Rahman is nothing short of a melodic genius. It has been thrilling to watch London theatregoers embrace Bombay Dreams with such fervour. Bringing this talent and this musical to Broadway brings my own dreams for this project full-
circle."


After starting to learn the piano at the age of four, Allah Rakha Rahman started work as a keyboard player aged eleven. The Daily Mail described him as "the Asian Mozart from Madras". Following a teenage musical career, he earned a scholarship to Trinity College of Music in Oxford and a degree in Western classical music. He then started to make a name for himself in Indian by writing and producing advertising jingles. His career really took off after writing Bollywood film music like the hugely popular 'Chhaiyya Chaiyya' for the movie 'Dil Se', titletracks 'Rangeela' and 'Dil Se' and all the music for the internationally acclaimed blockbuster 'Lagaan'.


Following a previous visit to the Birmingham Film and Television Festival, A R Rahman was encouraged by the city's approach to multi-cultural arts and will now produce a major work to receive its world premiere at a famous city venue. He was in Birmingham on Thursday 10 April for a planning meeting. Picture here outside the Birmingham Symphony Hall, he will conduct the CBSO in the world premiere of 'Conference of the Birds' later this year.

A R Rahman, the musical genius!

Mani Ratnam’s ROJA was released on 15th August 1992. It was the first time that Mani was working without the renowned music composer Ilaiyaa Raja and the critics were skeptic about the 25-year debutant Music director. But ROJA’s music became a huge success and the young AR Rahman was a household name overnight. The music was lapped up by the young and old alike and Rahman became the most sought after music director in the South. The freshness in his music, modern sound and the electronic feel came in as a fresh breeze of air that was cool and soothing. Rahman bagged every existing award including the Rajat Kamal (National Award), first ever by a debutant. AR Rahman had arrived on the scene and with the tremendous potential he possessed it was crystal clear that he was here to stay. Among the young musicians Rahman is probably the most original and he combines melody and electronic sounds so amicably that he ends up giving his score a rich tonal texture and an astounding contemporariness. Rahman formulated a style and musical pattern that was followed by many, in the years to come. He redefined film music and changed the entire way of creating and presenting it that was unheard of, before his emergence.
AR Rahman was born as Dileep Kumar on 6th January 1966 in Chennai. He had a sorrowful childhood as his father KA Sekhar, who was a music arranger in Malayalam movies, passed away when Rahman was just 9. He took to Islam as he was deeply influenced by its teachings and was rechristened Allah Rakha Rahman. Rahman had started learning music from a young age and later on at 19 begun accompanying numerous musicians like Illaiyaraja, Zakir Hussain and many others. Rahman then switched on to the advertising industry composing jingles, his most famous being the ones for Allwyn watches and Leo Coffee. With ROJA he jumped into film music full time thereby revolutionizing the business for the better. His film albums have all been chart busters like HUM SE HAI MUQABLA (with dancing sensation Prabhu Deva), BOMBAY, HINDUSTANI, DUET, SAPNAY etc. In 1997, he came out with his maiden non-film music album VANDE MATARAM, commemorating 50 years of Indian Independence. The album was a super hit and was acknowledged far and wide. But it was DIL SE, Mani Ratnam’s first Hindi movie that hurled Rahman onto the international scene. DIL SE’s soundtrack became phenomenally popular worldwide that due to its courtesy it was the first Indian film to enter the UK Top Ten. The legendary musician Sir Andrew Lloyd Weber was more than impressed with Rahman’s musical endowments and wished to work with the young whiz kid and thus was born the illustrious musical play BOMBAY DREAMS, supported by the acclaimed director Shekhar Kapoor. Rahman has also composed music for a Chinese film titled Tian Di Xiong (Warrior Of Heaven And Earth), directed by He Peng.


Rahman never did Hindi films quite often but since Subhash Ghai's TAAL (for which he swept the Film Fare award again), he has concentrated on more and more Bollywood flicks. Off late he has been scoring music for a lot of historical endeavors that includes the Oscar nominated LAGAAN and last year's much hyped MANGAL PANDEY: THE RISING. But he has now diverted to other genres and his forthcoming RANG DE BASANTI's soundtrack is already
picking up.
RDB is a youthful movie starring Aamir Khan and the songs are designed to fit the mood of the film and after listening to them one must say that Rahman has done an absolutely terrific job. Rahman had earlier done the music for RANGEELA that also starred Aamir Khan and Urmila and was directed by Ram Gopal Varma. RANGEELA was a love story and was an urban film and needless to say both the movie and the music were amazingly successful. . One must confess that right now AR Rahman is at its best; remember SWADES? The soulful rendition of the title song still haunts us and instills that feeling of patriotism. The heartfelt 'Yeh Tara Woh Tara' fetched Udit Narayan a National Award for Best Playback SInger.
AR Rahman today stands tall and is undoubtedly a cut above the rest. The entertainment industry has got highest of regards for this musical prodigy who has single handedly changed the course of Indian film music. His music is listened throughout the length and breadth of this nation even though most of his work is in his native language Tamil. He has been conferred upon every conceivable award on the list including the coveted RD Burman Film Fare Award for musical excellence and also the Tamil Nadu State Award. Rahman is known to be a committed and a thoroughly hard working professional. He is man of few words who lets his work do all the talking. After all the enviable success to his credit he still remains an utterly modest and down-to-earth human being who is most of the time shy and reclusive. But that’s how it is; that’s the stuff legends are made of. With his birthday on the 5th, we wish this enigmatic musician a happy birth anniversary. Let his melodies continue to enthrall and entertain the audience for years and years to come and may his genius keep on shining in the endless galaxy of that wonderful gift called Music!

The Mozart of Madras: Composer A. R. Rahman

LONDON, England (CNN) -- The Screening Room went to the Theatre Royal in Drury Lane in the heart of London's West End, where a spectacular musical version of "The Lord of The Rings" is enjoying a successful run, to meet Indian composer A. R. Rahman, whose blend of Asian culture with rock and Western classical styles has revolutionized the Indian film industry. And now Rahman is about to make his mark in Hollywood.

Virtually unknown in Europe and the U.S., Rahman has sold 200 million albums worldwide -- more than the Beatles -- and is worshipped throughout much of Asia, where he's known as the Mozart of Madras.
Now he has added a Hollywood film score to his vast repertoire of movie music.
Rahman explained to CNN what he thinks makes great movie music. "A great soundtrack is like 'Laura"s theme', the 'Love Story' theme, 'Chariots of Fire' and all those sorts of things, where it stood by itself," he said. But recently, he's noticed a changing mood. "Now it is becoming too abstract and more ambient and more... I don't know, soundscape-ish, more than melody. People are afraid of melody: 'Oh, that melody is distracting my scene,' it is becoming like that."

And that brings fresh challenges for the makers of film music. "Now the challenges of the composer are much more," he told CNN. "One needs to know of recording, production, it is not enough to compose a great theme and [know] how it can intertwine with the movie. And with Indian film it is an even greater challenge, because we need to be like Michael Jackson, John Williams, Hans Zimmer and an Indian folk composer all put together. So they expect finesse and they expect versatility."
Rahman's compositions are versatile enough to be used by both Bollywood and Hollywood, a case in point being his music for the Hindi film "Dil Se," which was used almost a decade later by Spike Lee for "Inside Man."
But for Rahman, the process to create film music is being challenged by increasingly crammed movie schedules. "There used to be a time where the director and the composer would work together," he explained. "They would develop themes and the director would shoot a scene, but now the world's so fast that people are finishing the movie even before going to a composer."
As well as writing songs and scores, Rahman has featured in many Bollywood films singing the songs which are mimed by the acting superstars. He recently completed a sell-out tour of the U.S. performing highlights from his songbook to devoted fans.
He explained to CNN how playback singing is a normal part of Indian film music. "Well, until I worked in 'Bombay Dreams' six or seven years back, I never realized that it is not cool to have playback singing. Until then, it was the story of Indian films where somebody else lip synchs and somebody else sings." And Rahman has been converted to the Western model, where those singing on-screen usually provide the vocals themselves. "In my future projects I would rather have a star who sings," he said.
Director Shekhar Kapur recruited Rahman and fellow composer Craig Armstrong to provide the score for Cate Blanchett's sequel to "Elizabeth," "The Golden Age," which premieres at Toronto Film Festival in September this year.
Kapur described the thrill of working with two such different -- and complementary -- composers. He told CNN, "Here are two totally different cultures. Craig Armstrong is strings and heart, the skies, choir, angels and devils, and A. r. is modern, restless music."

"Just to get them together was very interesting for me. To sit there and see both of them jamming together, that was fascinating. They wouldn't talk, they would jam, and out of the jamming came the music. It was great."
Rahman is still getting used to his new-found status as darling of both East and West -- and it leads to a somewhat chaotic lifestyle, as he explained. "It is terrifying sometimes. I suddenly wake up in Scotland doing music for 'Golden Age,' and suddenly wake up doing an Indian superstar film, but I think after all these years I am probably getting a balance."

AR Rahman, on Sivaji and sisters

After recording one of the most important songs for Sivaji, the Rajnikanth-produced Tamil film, composer AR Rahman invited the director of the film Shankar to listen to it. Shankar, who has worked with Rahman on several films, could of course instantly recognise veteran singer SP Balasubrahmanyam (SPB) in the song Balleilakka.. "But who is the female singer?" he asked.

"He thought I was joking when I told him it is Rehana," says Rahman with a chuckle. Rahana is Rahman's older sister. "She has performed with me in my concerts," he adds."She has sung part of the song Chaiyya, Chaiiya in the concerts but this time she was singing for a film, and that too a very big film, and we all knew the song would be one of the biggest hits on the album. And yet I did not want to take anything for granted. I think I took upon myself a challenge and see if my sister could sing well for a big budget film."
"But it took me 17 years of my profession to give my own sister a break," he says, with a small sigh. "People don't understand how mysteriously things work out in the film indstury. Many young people who send me tapes with their voices are disappointed that they do not hear from me at all. It is not easy to convince me. I am most critical with my own voice. You know that Tera Bina song in Guru was not originally sung by me. It was only at the insistence of Mani sir (director Mani Ratnam) I recorded it in my own voice."
Even with Rehana he was not sure even as she was practicing the song that he should retain her voice. "After three horus of singing, suddenly her voice sounded very different and beautiful," he reveals. "Only then did I decide to retain her voice."
The Sivaji album has some of the finest singers, new and old. The list includes SPB, Hariharan, Udit Narayan, Madhushree -- and then there is Chinamyee whose song in the film Guru enhanced her popularity. Rahman himself sings one of the most singificant numbers in the film, Athiradee, nearly six mintues long.
Many of the singers featured in the film including Hariharan, Madhushree, Rehana, Blaaze, Naresh Iyer and Vijay Yesudas will be coming to USA and Canada with Rahman for a concert next month. In New York the concert will be held at Nassau Coliseum on June 16. Chitra, Sadhana Sargam and Sukhvinder will also be joining the concert, expected to be the biggest desi musical event of the year 2007.
"We will be performing at least two songs from Sivaji, apart from my recent Hindi and Tamil hits including Guru and Rang De Basanti [Images]" says Rahman who is performing in the US and Canada after
3 years.
What was it like composing music for Sivaji?
"It was a very special feeling," Rahman said. "The expectations were very high, since Rajni, Shankar and I were working together. And this being a very big budget film, there was little room for a flexible recording schedule. Though we recorded a different version of the same song, and ended up retaining both versions in the film, it was still a very tight schedule."
"With some of the directors I have worked the schedule has always been tight, and I like it," Rahman says. "Even then, there are a few last minute decisions. For instance, the theme song of Guru (sung by Rahman and Chitra) was thought of just two weeks before the film's release. There was no such thing with Sivaji."
In the past, for some reason the songs in a Rajnikanth film have taken time to become big hits, the composer says. "In some cases, it is only after a month of the album's release have the songs become hits," he adds. "But here from Day 1 there has been a tremendous demand for the music."
In the case of Guru, he says, the song Tere Bina became an instant hit, followed by several other songs in the course of next two or three weeks.
But with Sivaji, there were three instant hits a few hours of the CDs release.
Apart from Balleilakka, there was the song Vaaji Vaaji, sung by Hariharan and Madhushree, and Rahman's own number. Also a big hit is Sahara.
"I have said many times how Madhushree has been evolving as a singer," he continues. "The Vaaji Vaaji song is another example of her growing status. We had to work for several hours on her Tamil rendition, but in the final reckoning I am very happy with her work."
Hariharan, along with SPB, has been associated with Rahman in many interesting films. Some of Hariharan's best work is found in Rahman's compositions in Bombay and Guru (Ye Hairathe).
"He is very different from most singers I have known," Rahman says of Hariharan. "The more you push him, the more inspired he becomes. Most other singers are content singing a song and go away. But Hariharan likes to be challenged.'
There are stories in Indian publications that Rahman was paid Rs 3 crores for Sivaji. The composer is not commenting on the fee. But he says right from his early years, what mattered him most while composing was the situation, and how enthusasiatic a director is about music.
"I don't like the idea of a director thinking, OK, we have Rahman and we expect him to come up with good music. Composing a good score is partnership with many people including the director, lyricist, and singer." The budget of a film or the remuneration he receives has no real bearing on the final product. "Around the time I was working on big budget films, I was also composing music for relatively smaller films such as Meenaxi made by MF Hussain." He had been told the film had no commercial prospects. "But I thought it was an interesting subject, and I was also excited that I was working with one of the greatest artsists India has produced."
Many of the tunes in Sivaji were finalised when Rahman was touring Australia or composing the music for Golden Age, Shekar Kapur's sequel to Elizabeth, in London.
"One of the interesting developments in this film's music is the way the two versions of the same song came about," Rahman continues. The song Sahara was recorded in the voices of Vijay Yesudas, son of the veteran singer and Gomathishree, daughter of Rahman's guru Dakhshinamurthi Swamigal.
"Gomathi is not just a film singer but she has an interesting voice," says Rahman. "I have plans to compose a few songs for her for a non-film album I want to produce ."
When director Shankar heard the song Sahara he liked it to some extent, but he wanted a faster moving version. That version, called Sahana, was sung by Udit Narayan and Chinmayee.
"But then we still thought the Vijay and Gomathi version had its own beauty," he adds. "Shankar decided to keep it in the film but as a background song." One guess is that it will be used in the film, similar to Yeh Hairathe in Guru.
The songs of Sivaji have become chartbusters in all the four southern states, particularly in Andhra Pradesh where the Telugu version of the sondtrack has become a must-have. According to industry insiders, over 500,000 CDs and cassettes were released and sold within a week. The Sivaji music is also huge in Malaysia and Singapore, which have a significant Tamil population.

The film also has an elaborate background score and composing it and recording it was a severe challenge to Rahman for he was also working in London on the music of Golden Age at the same time.

"I just could not go to India and spend many days recording the music for Sivaji," he says. So he asked the producer (AVM Pictures) if the music could be recorded in Prague, Czech Republic (where he has recorded many songs including one or two numbers in Meenaxi), and in London.

'Not a big deal,' the AVM honchos told Rahman, adding that it was all right if the budget went up. They were going to be very happy to have a superior score.

"You hear a good range of music," he says. He has used the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra and the choral singers in the country's capital.

"I don't want to give many details but in my book, the score is as important as the songs in the film."

a.r.r

I have learned music since I was 13 years old. The biggest advantage is that one can create music of any country. Once you listen to its style, you can present the music in your own way. You don't have to steal it.
But for Kisna, I didn't listen to anything. I just looked up what kind of musical instruments were available in those days. Kisna is not like Asoka where the film moved in one direction and the music in another.
If I had done such work, I would have criticised myself. Take Deewangee . When I saw it, I liked it so much that I told director Anees Bazme to remove the song from the film, as that would enhance the movie. But he thought I was joking. I am the type of person that if I don't like my work, I will admit it.
There was a great amount of understanding between Subhashji and me. For example, Kisna had a vocalist Ustad Rashid Khan. We recorded Rashidbhai's voice without any music. But the song was not going to be used in the film. So Subhashji asked me why I was wasting time on this song, as it would not be used



But I replied we must use a singer as powerful as Rashidbhai.

Later, I thought we should use the song in the film. So I arranged the music according to the film. When Subhashji heard the song, he fell in love with it.
The song, Kahein ujadi moree neend, was used in the beginning of the film, when the titles roll out.
I have launched a new singer Ayesha I Darbar, who also happens to be my wife. She sang the title track, Kisna hai and Chilman.
No one will believe me, but I had composed Chilman in my dream! I had dreamt about this song for three nights! It is my favourite in the movie, and also the toughest.
Subhashji and I worked on the music for 92 days. We don't get satisfied very easily.
I visited on the sets only once -- when the song, Hum brahmasmi, was being picturised on Isha Sharvani.
We actually had another title song in mind, which was finalised. But one day Subhashji came to my house with his assistant and said he wanted to listen to the song again. After he heard it, he decided to do it in a different way. Mein bahut junooni aadmi hoon jab aisa kuch hota hai. Mujhe aisa lagata hai kya aap ek mahine se behere the kya? (I am a very passionate person. When this happened, I wondered if he was deaf for the past month!)
When I started working on the new title track, I asked him to be present for the entire composition. Now, it has become very popular -- Woh Kisna hai.
I get a lot of calls from my fans, who have liked my songs. These are not people from the film industry but common people. It is satisfying that today's generation liked the songs.
People seem to think now that I can create music for period dramas only. I can't change everybody's thinking. If a director comes to me with a new type of music, I will prove myself.
I have learnt to play the violin. It is not difficult for me to make music of any style. I just need to understand it. But I don't feel scared about being typecast in period dramas because making music for such movies requires guts. What I am doing is not easy. God has given me talent.

A.R.Rahman,I,and the sound of Music

A few years back I was recording some instrumental pieces for a tele-serial. I was working out a few pieces with an exceptionally talented flautist. I was looking out for a particular tone of the flute which I was somehow not getting. The excessive sound of the breath was making me uncomfortable. I told the flautist twice or thrice that I did not want the sound of breath, but the sound persisted. I could see that if I told him one more time, he was bound to get irritated with my suggestion. But the musician in me could not bear the little deviation from my idea of the musical piece. Finally, softly, I told him that I was not getting the sound that I wanted and the sound of the breath refused to go away. As I had expected, he flared up.“What’s your problem?” he asked me. “Even Rahman likes the sound of the breath. He insists on it.”“Then play for Rahman.” I quipped, even my temper rising a little. “What are you doing here?”It was a reaction that I had to give but I was aware all the time about the degree of influence Rahman commanded when it came to the ‘sound’ of music. It was as if people, and more particularly musicians, were under a hypnotic spell of the music of this man from the land of filter coffee. Everybody was talking only about Rahman. Musicians swore by his sense of sound production. It was not just ‘Rahman – the musician’; it was ‘Rahman – the magician’ It was not as if there was no other side... there was... and they were equally ferocious in their criticism of Rahman. “He’s getting predictable-” was a reaction that started with his third film. The people who dismissed Rahman were mostly seen to be from the earlier generation. But again these people could not tolerate the music of Anu Malik either. The magic of yesteryear songs was still prevalent among this generation. I had also seen and heard film musicians of the earlier era not being so impressed with Rahman. So where was I in this milieu and how do I see myself as contemporary of A. R. Rahman?The story starts in 1992, with the release of the film Roja in Tamil. I was such an avid fan of Mani Rathnam after Nayakan that I had made the brave attempt of seeing Dalapathy in Tamil, a language that was way beyond my comprehension. My attempt did not go unrewarded and I was completely taken in by the manner of story-telling of Mani Rathnam. I had also become an avid fan of Illayaraja, whose many Tamil cassettes I bought and heard again and again. So when I heard that a Mani Rathnam film called Roja was being screened, I went immediately to Aurora, a theatre at King’s Circle. I was a little disappointed that Mani Rathnam’s usual music composer, Illayraja, had been replaced by a newcomer called Rahman. My doubts about A. R. Rahman were razed to the ground the moment I heard the first note of the background score play. This sound was BIG… and it was definitely different. Not just different, it was drastically different. Then the first song came - ‘Chinna Chinna Asai’. The effect of the song, together with Mani Rathnam’s visualisation, Santosh Sivan’s brilliant cinematography, and Rahman’s music was pure alchemy. And how could one forget the background score of the movie? I was so hypnotised by the movie’s background score that I went back to Aurora again the following week, just to hear the background score. I think it must have been the first (and perhaps the only) instance where a Marathi youth went twice for a Tamil film without subtitles to a theatre!At that time Rahman was not known much in North India, but the music was a rage in South India. Roja was followed by Shankar’s Gentleman and then Mani Rathnam’s Thiruda Thiruda. K. Balachander’s Duet was another film that was released during this period. The way Rahman had explored Kadhari Gopalnath’s saxophone in the film was phenomenal. I used to go to Matunga and buy these cassettes, because Rahman’s sound excited me no end. The score of Thiruda Thiruda, I remember, was a culture shock for me and I grudgingly nodded to the beat of the music. It was shockingly western, but there was an Indian soul lurking behind those harmonies. I later came to know through some Tamilian friends that although Thiruda Thiruda didn’t do too well, the music was given stupendous reviews.In 1994, Roja was released in Hindi and A. R. Rahman became a household name in India. The magic had spread to the entire nation. This was followed by the film Kadhalan directed by the whiz kid Shankar. Songs like ‘Muqabla’ and ‘Urvashi’ made everybody tap their feet while the song 'Ennavale Adi Ennavale' won the National Award for the Carnatic vocalist, P. Unnikrishnan who made a debut in film singing with this song, and also hearts of those who loved melodious tunes more than foot-tapping ones. (The song is known to Hindi listeners as ‘Sun Ri Sakhi Meri Pyari Sakhi’.)Now, doyens of Hindi film industry were running to Chennai to meet and work with Rahman. He signed Shikhar with Subhash Ghai and Droh-kaal with Govind Nihalani. But as fate would have it, Shikhar was shelved and Rahman lost all the tracks of Droh-kaal due to a computer crash. And so, Rahman’s first original Hindi film was Ram Gopal Varma’s Rangeela and that marked Rahman’s definite foray into Hindi music. Mani Rathnam’s Bombay saw Rahman singing playback for the first time in ‘Humma Humma’. The Hindi version had Remo singing the song. While ‘Kehna hi Kya’ became a big hit with Chitra and Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan singing, even the title track of Bombay caught the imagination of his fans. Not since R. D. Burman had any composer been successful in popularising the instrumental title track of a movie. From then on, we all know the journey of A. R. Rahman to the dizzying heights of fame and popularity. From then to the music of Swades and finally Rang De Basanti Rahman has entertained, enthralled, excited, captivated, mystified, bamboozled, and very rarely but surely disappointed his fans. What excites me about Rahman as a musician is that his music is multi-layered, both in the physical and abstract senses. He appeals to emotion or intellect and sometimes – both. As a musician and as a public figure, he is mysterious and is more fun to unravel than simply sit back and enjoy.Rahman & His TunesI started humming the tunes of Roja, the moment I stepped out of the theatre. The tunes had a great recall value and despite that, I discovered in some time that humming these tunes was not so enjoyable. I did not give it much thought then, but later when Bombay released, and the same phenomenon was repeated, I was curious. In both cases, I had loved the music. It had excited me. And yet humming it was not enjoyable. It was when I was going through an economics book and came across Alfred Marshall’s Law of Diminishing Marginal Utility when I broke the ‘Rahman’ code, and like Perry Mason, I kicked my leg for not getting the solution earlier. Strange? But the truth, no less! Alfred Marshall’s law of economics stating that as a person increases consumption of a product - while keeping consumption of other products constant - there is a decline in the marginal utility that person derives from consuming each additional unit of that product. So how does it fit into Rahman’s composition? It is a technique invented by Illayaraja. I often wondered how I could memorise Illayaraja’s tunes so quickly in spite of not understanding the language. And I must confess to having an extremely bad memory when it came to remembering tunes. Using Illayaraja’s technique of composition, Rahman’s standard composition was broken into short musical phrases which were repeated in different words. Take for example:Dil hai Chhota sa,(Repeat with a minor change) Chhoti si Aasha(Repeat the same phrase) Masti bhari Man kiBholi si AashaNow what has happened here is that you have already heard the complete phrase twice. The same formula is repeated throughout the song. Now, what happens in effect is that we are hearing the song twice or thrice in one go! You can compare it to a Salil Chowdhari’s song for instance – ‘Tasveer teri dil mein’. You’ll notice that all the musical phrases in the sign line (dhruvapad) are different. Illayaraja, and later, Rahman used this new technique of composition. It gave a recall value to the tune but also ensured that its shelf life was shorter. Slowly but surely all music directors in the Hindi film industry also started using the same technique. It was a very foolproof technique and you could see that in songs of Anu Malik and Anand-Milind, whenever they were not lifting a composition in toto! But nobody could do it like Rahman and that is what differentiated him from the pack. It is not enough to just have short, repetitive phrases – they also needed to be consistently melodious and this is what Rahman did the best.I also noticed that Rahman in Tamil was a different person as compared to Rahman in Hindi. The language of music was the same, but I have always thought Rahman was more at home with Tamil than in Hindi which was obvious. I remember an incident narrated by Mahalaxmi Iyer. She was recording for a song in ‘Dil Se’. The words were ‘Paakhi Paakhi Pardesi’. Rahman kept pronouncing it as ‘Paaki’. Of course, merely wrong pronunciation does not reflect a sense of discomfort with the language. Now, Tamil has many syllables which end on very staccato notes. Hindi doesn’t. In Hindi, there is an unwritten halant on each ending consonant. Rahman’s composition is very staccato even in Hindi. The merit in this is that the composition sounds different and fresh because nobody composes it like that in the Hindi idiom. The down side is that lyric takes the back seat. Although the feeling and the mood in the song are conveyed, the subtler nuances of the language evaporate.

What makes Rahman, RahmanI have always maintained, and I have no doubt that I am in the minority, that Rahman is more a technocrat than a composer. This opinion was formed mainly because I could trace the origins of his composing techniques to Illayaraja, with whom Rahman worked as a keyboardist. But my opinion cannot be permanent because, Rahman being an intelligent musician, keeps evolving and growing with each film. For example, in The Legend of Bhagat Singh, he had composed the song Mera Rang De Basanti Chola. The composition was so Southern that one could not identify it with the Sikh freedom fighter at all. But in Lagaan and then in Rang De Basanti, one hardly sees the southern touch. There is a conscious effort to keep the North Indian flavour. But where Rahman can be considered a path-breaker is the manner in which he revolutionised the sound of music. And he changed the way his contemporaries looked at the concept of sound. He makes even ordinary compositions ‘sound’ extraordinary by using instruments and synthesised music to great effect. A criticism has been that Rahman uses synthesised music in excess. But Rahman has recognised correctly the places in which the aesthetics of synthesised music lie. Right from Kalyanji Anandji to Bhappi Lahiri music directors have used the synthesiser and other electronic music but Rahman has been successful in refining the synthesised sound. It would not be an exaggeration to say that Rahman demonstrated how the synthesised sound should be used. Prior to Rahman’s entry on the film scene, music directors harmonised the song with only the string section. Rahman introduced the synthetic pads and created a different effect for different songs with a different sound as harmony. Notice the sound of the pads in Roja, for instance; it created a warmth and also gave a big-screen feel to the sound. Among other things, Rahman’s music is really BIG. It justifies the Cinemascope screen. The use of available technology was always there. When microphones and sound recording on tape was latest technology it was also used widely. In fact, commercial music has to be credited with making the optimum use of technology in music. So, the accusation that Rahman uses excess of technology does not really hold water. He rides technology; he makes sure that technology doesn’t ride him. The other accusation against Rahman was that he did not use enough acoustic instruments. Rahman himself once admitted that his music was getting too repetitive and dance oriented, probably because of the type of films he was doing. But Rahman redeemed himself by doing a lot of films which had a folk or an Indian flavour to it. In 1999, the Tamil film Sangamam was released. It was a low budget movie and Rahman used a lot of traditional instruments. The entire was score was based on folk and classical music. In Zubeidaa also, the soundtrack has more acoustic instruments. Rahman has awarded the instrumentalists in his films a status that no music composer before him had done. Siva Mani, the noted drummer and percussionist said, “The recognition that I enjoy today is because of Rahman. There are so many talented people behind a film music score. I played for Illayaraja for very long, but my name never figured on the screen or the cassette cover. Rahman changed it all. He gives credit to every single member of his team for whatever part they play, big or small. That makes him really special. People came to know about me only because of him. I thank him for that.” Lot of musicians like – Naveen (flute), Clinton Cerejo (backup vocals), Sivamani (percussions) – became household names with their credits appearing on the sleeves of inlay cards. Not only on the screen (in terms of credits), but even on the sound track (in terms of sound) Rahman made his instrumentalists stand out. How can one forget the sound of the Shehnai in the title song of Swades? Or the sound of the raw flute in ‘Chinamma’ from the film Meenaxi – A Tale of Three Cities? So, however grudgingly, I had to forgive my flautist friend for his outburst. Rahman’s understanding of the timbre of an instrument and how to give old sounds new nuances is without parallel. Also, in case of the flute in Chinamma, he reintroduced an old sound which technology had made us forget. It was like meeting a long lost old acquaintance. A keyboardist friend of mine pointed out how Illayaraja and Rahman had used the higher octave flute for sad pieces, when in Hindi films sad pieces on flute necessarily meant the lower octave. The rhythm that Rahman used was also unconventional to say the least. He could be modern without being western in his approach of treating rhythm which I feel is one of his extraordinary qualities. The song in Bombay – ‘Kucchi Kucchi Rakkamma’ is a good illustration of this quality. The rhythm is essentially ethnic and yet it is modern. There will always be surprises but rarely will they let you down. Sometimes for a song of a slow pace, he will use a rhythm that runs in double the speed. It has a strange but a dramatic effect on the outcome of the song. Two cases in point here are ‘Saawariya’ from Swades and ‘Tu Bin Bataaye’ from Rang De Basanti. In Chhainyya Chhainyya, he used the rhythm instruments to create the movement of running train without using the sound of the train. Rahman is gifted with the quality of saying things between the lines with the use of orchestration.Rahman and his singersI don’t think any other music composer can boast of introducing or working with so many singers as Rahman has. Just to list off hand – P. Unnikrishnan, Anuradha Sriram, Minmini, Chitra, S. P. Balasubramanium, Hariharan, Srinivas, Naresh Iyer, Kunal Gaanjawala, Mahalaxmi Iyer, Shankar Mahadevan, Shoma Bannerjee, Richa Sharma, Sonu Nigam, Sukhvindara, Alka Yagnik, Sadhana Sargam, Baba Sehgal, Adnan Sami, Daler Mehdi, Apache Indian, Michael Jackson, Remo, Shwetha Shetty, Sanjeevani Bhelande, Vaishali Samant, Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, Kailash Kher… It just goes on… And this is just a peek into the vast spectrum of usual and unusual names that Rahman has worked with.Even in a single film, we were used to see only three to four names in the singers’ credits. A standard Rahman film boasts of at least half a dozen singers. Rahman’s own justification for this is, “I do it for variety. Otherwise things would get monotonous. There was a time when the album of a film would have only two voices. Today different singers sing for the same character. The times have changed. The attention span of the average listener has decreased and his geographical purview has broadened. The listeners no longer think in terms of perfect or imperfect. They want different voices, standards be damned.” As a music composer, I don’t necessarily subscribe to this view. You don’t always give people what they ask for. (Like you don’t give a chocolate to a child just because the child wants it!) And although it may be the right commercial move it could have a damaging effect on the song more often than not. Rahman was actually criticised for using singers without judging their ability to articulate language specific nuances. He was pulled up for using Udit Narayan for Tamil songs and Rahman conceded by saying that he would not use Hindi singers for Tamil songs. But he justifies using new and sometimes untrained voices for playback by saying that it is not necessary that all actors must have perfect voices like S. P. Balasubramanium or Chitra, or Hariharan. I once asked a singer friend of mine, why all singers had this incredible urge of singing for Rahman. She said that it is what he does to your voice. You wouldn’t believe that it was your own voice when it comes out as a finished product. He brings out the best tonal quality in you. It was somewhat like what Gautam Rajadhyaksha does with his camera!He has used voices in very unconventional manner to great effect and there are lot of times when voices play roles of instruments rather than conveying poetry of the song. Some examples of having used voices in a very different manner are Shankar Mahadevan in Urvashi (Kadhalan) or Kay Sera Sera (Pukar), Vasundhara Das in O Ri Chhori (Lagaan), Baba Sehgal and Shwetha Shetty in Rukmini Rukmini (Roja).I am, sometimes, confused with choice of singers that Rahman casts for playback. I have, somehow, never been convinced with Asha Bhosale for Urmila Matondkar in Rangeela; or for that matter Lata Mangeshkar for Priety Zinta in Dil Se. In the Tamil version of the film also, he used S. Janaki who sounds as old as Lata Mangeshkar for the twenty something Priety! When a character synchronises his/ her lips on screen with the song, ‘people want it’ sounds like a feeble justification for a loose casting. After all, just because people want, Mani Rathnam couldn’t have cast Jaya Prada in the young bride’s role!Rahman & his Background ScoresPersonally, I feel that Rahman’s real forte is his background scores. Right from Roja to Rang De Basanti, some of the marvellous background scores have come from under his mantle. His precise understanding of the mood of the scene and his irreverent and yet highly appropriate use of instruments is a delight to watch and hear. In Rang De Basanti, during the chase of Chandrashekhar Azad, one expects the sound of strings or brass section but what we get to hear is the wild strumming of the guitars! Totally unexpected and yet it fits the scene like a glove. This irreverence of his reminds me of the chase sequence in Sholay, where R. D. Burman got Pt. Samata Prasad to play a rela on the tabla. The concept here was the same, only times have changed. And in the end… Rahman & IIt is impossible to stay in music industry and ignore Rahman. One just cannot. Producers keep saying – ‘Rahman jaisa sound chahiye!’ Journalists keep comparing your music with his. I remember being upset because a journalist had written a review about a Marathi song of mine saying that it sounded like a Rahman composition. If in those days you used a reverberated aalaap you were accused of copying Rahman! On another occasion a journalist friend of mine had said: “If Rahman can create such a refined sound, why can’t you?” I had replied, “I will, if you pay me a crore for a movie.” My reaction was not at all against Rahman. It was a serious observation. At that time were doing entire Marathi albums at 1/20th the cost of one Rahman song. But Rahman changed things even for people like us. He made us aware of the concept of having a new sound. And he made producers aware that money spent on the product delivered good results!Sometimes, I wonder what Rahman is without all the paraphernalia. I don’t believe that as a composer of tunes Rahman is extraordinary. Where I find him extraordinary is in his understanding and expression of the idiom of sound. Technology being available to you also matters a lot. And Rahman also hasn’t had it coming for free. There has been toil and hard work for him. Rahman started working as a musician at the age of 12 when his father expired. He signed Roja when he was 26. So he smiles when people call him an overnight success. Also, it is a great experience to evaluate Rahman as a music director. He gives a lot of food for thought in one song. I think where Rahman lacks is in his understanding of language. But one must give him the benefit of doubt for Hindi as in Tamil his lyricist, Vairamuthu won National Awards repeatedly for songs set to tune by Rahman, namely for 'Roja', 'Pavithra', 'Kadhalan' and 'Minsara Kanavu'. Rahman himself insists on good poetry for his songs, "Lyrics lend immortality to a melody. The eternal, evergreen hit songs are always the ones with profound lyrics; lyrics that remain true and meaningful even after years."After Rahman’s third film, his critics said he won’t be around for long. Fourteen years later, he is still here and is growing as a cult figure. The success of Rang De Basanti only strengthens his case. He is the face of Indian commercial music abroad. He is not without his flaws, but then nobody is. Rahman is said to be a very spiritual person. A quote that is attributed to him has found a permanent place in my head: “I am a strong believer in destiny. I also believe that destiny can be changed by prayers.” Rahman will be around till he keeps reinventing himself and at least for now, he’s doing just that.

© Santhosh Kumar V. November, 2007.

List of A.R.Rahman awards and accolades

This page presents a list of awards and nominations awarded to film composer and instrumentalist A. R. Rahman.
National Film Awards (India)
1993 - National Film Award for Best Music Direction - Roja
1997 - National Film Award for Best Music Direction - Minsaara Kanavu
2002 - National Film Award for Best Music Direction - Lagaan
2003 - National Film Award for Best Music Direction - Kannathil Muthamittal
Filmfare Awards South (India)
1993 - Filmfare Best Music Direction - Roja
1994 - Filmfare Best Music Direction - Gentleman
1995 - Filmfare Best Music Direction - Kadhalan
1996 - Filmfare Best Music Direction - Bombay
1997 - Filmfare Best Music Direction - Kadhal Desam
1998 - Filmfare Best Music Direction - Minsaara Kanavu
1999 - Filmfare Best Music Direction - Jeans
2000 - Filmfare Best Music Direction - Mudhalvan
2001 - Filmfare Best Music Direction - Alaipayuthey
2006 - Filmfare Best Music Direction - Sillunu Oru Kadhal
Filmfare Awards (India)
1995 - Filmfare Best Music Director Award - Rangeela
1998 - Filmfare Best Music Director Award - Dil Se
1999 - Filmfare Best Music Director Award - Taal
2001 - Filmfare Best Music Director Award - Lagaan
2002 - Filmfare Best Music Director Award - Saathiya
2002 - Filmfare Best Background Score - The Legend of Bhagat Singh
2004 - Filmfare Best Background Score - Swades
2006 - Filmfare Best Music Director Award - Rang de Basanti
He also won a "Filmfare R D Burman Music Debutant Award" for Roja's dubbed Hindi version.
Tamil Nadu State Film Awards
1993 - Best Music - Roja
1994 - Best Music - Gentleman
1995 - Best Music - Kadhalan
1996 - Best Music - Bombay
1997 - Best Music - Minsaara Kanavu
2000 - Best Music - Sangamam
Zee Cine Awards (India)
2000 - ** 2002 - Zee Cine Award Best Music Director - Lagaan
2006 - Zee Cine Award Best Music Director - Rang De Basanti
GIFA Awards (Malaysia)
2006 - GIFA Award for Best Music - Rang De Basanti
2006 - GIFA Award for Best Background Music - Rang De Basanti
IIFA Awards (India)
2007 - IIFA Best Music Direction - Rang De Basanti
2002 - IIFA Best Music Direction - Lagaan
2003 - IIFA Best Music Direction - Saathiya
2000 - IIFA Best Music Direction - Taal
Star Screen Awards
2002 - Best Background Music
Swaralaya Yesudas Award (India)
2006 - Swaralaya-Kairali-Yesudas Award for outstanding performance in music field
2000 - Padma Shri (India)
Screen-Videocon Awards Kadhal Desam (South - Tamil; 1997) Minsara Kanavu (South - Tamil; 1998) Vande Mataram (Non-film; 1998) Taal (Hindi; 2000) Other Awards was nominated for Laurence Olivier Theatre Award (2003) (The Hilton Award) for "Best New Musical of 2002" - Bombay Dreams Musical
Sangeet Awards 2005 Best Music Director (Film music - Swades)
The Mahavir-Mahatma Award (Instituted by the Oneness Forum)
National Lata Mangeshkar awards for 2004-05 ( The awards instituted by Madhya Pradesh government )
Sangeet Awards 2004 Best Music Director (Film music - Yuva) Best music arranger (Critics award) for 'Yeh Rishta' - Meenakshi 2004 American India Awards R D Burman Award at the SuMu Music Awards (1993) Madras Telugu Academy Puraskar (1992 to 1994) Bommai Nagi Reddy Award (1995/96) Lux-Kumudam Award for Kadhalan (1995) Mauritius National Award (1995; for contribution to music) Malaysian Award (1996; for contribution to music) Sanskriti Award from Delhi based Sanskriti foundation (1994) Kalaimamani Award from Tamil Nadu Government (1995) Thangapillai Award Rajiv Gandhi Award 3rd Channel [V] Awards - Coca Cola Viewer's Choice Award 1998 The Channel [V]-IMI Award for Best Producer for Vandemataram 1998 Fanta Award in 1999 Stardust Cine Honours Taal (2000) Filmgoers's Award Taal (2000) First Bollywood Music Awards (Best Music Director and Best Song) Taal (2000) V Shantaram Award: Taal (2001), Best Music(Guru)2006-2007 Bollywood US Awards (2003) Best Music Director : Saathiya 8th Annual Planet-Bollywood Awards (People's Choice Awards! - Best of 2002) Best Music Direction : Saathiya, The Legend of Bhagat Singh Star Screen Award - Best Background Score - Rang De Basanti
Dinakaran Cine Awards Minsara Kanavu (1998) Jeans (1999) Mudalvan, Kadhalar Dhinam (2000)
MTV Awards MTV-VMA Award for Dil Se Re song from Dil Se.. 1999 MTV Asia Awards 2003 for Favourite Artist India MTV IMMIES 2003 - Best Music Composer - 'Saathiya' - Saathiya ( Hindi )
A. R. Rahman has been nominated for the following awards:
Laurence Olivier Awards (UK)
2003 - Laurence Olivier Theatre Award for Best New Musical - Bombay Dreams
Dora Mavor Moore Awards (Canada)
2006 - General Theatre Division - Outstanding Musical Direction - The Lord of the Rings musical
This list is incomplete; you can help by expanding it.

HINDI

1) Jodhaa Akbar
http://www.jodhaaakbar.com

Cast - Hrithik Roshan (as Emperor Akbar), Aishwarya Rai (as Jodhabhai), Sonu Sood, Suhasini Mulay, Abir Abrar, Kulbhushan Kharbanda, Vishwa Badola, Digvijay Purohit
Director - Ashutosh Gowariker
Producer - Ronnie Screwvala [UTV Motion Pictures], Ashutosh Gowariker [AGPPL]
Dialogues - K.P.Saxena
Cinematograher - Kiran Deohans [Aks, Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham]
Editor - Ballu Saluja
Choreography - Vaibhavi Merchant, Bosco-Ceaser, Raju Khan, Saroj Khan
Costumes - Neeta Lulla
Lyrics - Javed Akhtar

- FIRST LOOK

- 6 songs composed by ARR.
- One song by Alka Yagnik. "I'm also singing for 'Jodha-Akbar' - again for Aishwarya, though I suspect this time the songs will be in the background." - Alka. [Glamsham]
- One Qawwali by Sonu Nigam & Alka Yagnik. [A.R.Rahman had talked about him recording a qawwali "Khwaja Mere Khwaja" for a forthcoming film. This could well be it!]

- Recent reports say that Reliance - Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group (R-ADAG) is negotiating with Gowariker for financing the film.
- Huge historical epic about the romance between Mughal king Akbar and his Rajput wife Jodhabai
- Jodhaa Akbar is a sixteenth century love story about a marriage of alliance that gave birth to true love between a great Mughal emperor, Akbar, and a Rajput princess, Jodhaa. Political success knew no bounds for Emperor Akbar (Hrithik Roshan). After having secured the Hindu Kush, he furthered his realm by conquest until his empire extended from Afghanistan to the Bay of Bengal, and from the Himalayas to the Godavari River. Through a shrewd blend of tolerance, generosity, and force, Akbar won the allegiance of the Rajputs, the most belligerent Hindus. But little did Akbar know that when he married Jodhaa (Aishwarya Rai), a fiery Rajput princess, in order to further strengthen his relations with the Rajputs, he would in turn be embarking upon a new journey – the journey of true love. The daughter of King Bharmal of Amer, Jodhaa resented being reduced to a mere political pawn in this marriage of alliance, and Akbar’s biggest challenge now did not merely lie in winning battles, but in winning the love of Jodhaa – a love hidden deep below resentment and extreme prejudice. Jodhaa-Akbar is their untold love story.
- "You could say I've taken a historical decision to make a film called 'Jodha-Akbar'. It'll be a romantic musical. Jodha-Akbar' is one of the two-three scripts that I had in mind for quite a while. I finally zeroed in on this. It won't go into the older days of the pair. It would show them in the prime of their togetherness and probably end where 'Mughal-e-Azam' begins.I just want to dwell on a little-known facet of Indian history that hasn't been exposed in history books, let alone on screen. I intend to appoint a research team of historians and scholars from Delhi, Lucknow, Agra and Jaipur to guide me. Jodha-Akbar' would be a full-on period film without props. It would be expensive. But I'm not getting into highlighting the budget and making that a USP of my project. For me the product will justify the expenses." - Ashutosh Gowariker [Indiavarta]
- With this film, Hrithik gets a chance to play a benevolent Mughal emperor who dared to love and marry a Hindu princess. Says Hrithik, "It will have war, horses and swords. I will play a very young and virile Akbar. It's a very real drama, not theatrical at all. It's my first costume drama because I will wear a costume. But that doesn't mean it will be excessively dramatic. I have faith in Ashutosh Gowariker's abilities. His intelligent perspective during his narrative convinced me he can never make an actor look bad. He believes in the real and tries to capture the real. He never constrains the actor, but allows them to be natural on camera." [MumbaiMirror]
- Scholar Haider Ali Sahib is helping Ashutosh with the research for Akbar-Jodha.
- Hrithik and Aishwarya underwent lessons in horse riding and sword fighting for the film, in Oct 06.

CURRENT STATUS - Shooting started in Jaipur with a Mahurat shot on Nov 1st 2006. The shooting took place in Agra, Delhi, Jaipur and interiors of Rajasthan. Movie release slated for 25th Jan, 2008.


2) Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Na

Cast - Imran Khan (Aamir Khan's nephew), Genelia D'Souza, Manjari Phadnis, Special Appearances by Naseeruddin Shah, his wife Ratna Pathak, Paresh Rawal, Arshad Warsi and Arbaaz Khan.
Director - Abbas Tyrewala
Story, Screenplay, Dialogues - Abbas Tyrewala [Munnabhai MBBS, Maqbool, Asoka, Main Hoon Na]
Producer - Aamir Khan [Aamir Khan Productions Pvt Ltd], PVR Pictures Limited
Distribution - PVR Pictures Limited
Budget - INR 8 crore

- ARR has completed recording all the songs for this film.
- This is a campus based romantic comedy with new comers.
- The film launches Imran Khan, son of Aamir Khan's cousin Nuzhat Khan.

CURRENT STATUS - Shooting complete, post-production in progress. The film is expected to release on 8th Feb 2008.

3) Untitled [Ghajini remake]

Cast - Aamir Khan, Asin, Jiah Khan, Mohit Ahlawat
Director - A.R.Murugadoss
Producer - Allu Aravind [Geeta Arts], Aamir Khan [Aamir Khan Productions Pvt Ltd]
Distribution (Overseas) - Adlabs
Cinematography - Ravi K Chandran
Editor - Antony
Lyrics - Prasoon Joshi
Sound Design - Rassul Pookutty
Audio Rights - T-Series

- Remake of Surya starrer Tamil film Ghajini, which itself was inspired from Hollywood flick Memento

- One song picturized in Dead Pan, Namibia and choreographed by Ahmed Khan. This peppy song has Aamir dancing along with 80+ dancers.
- One song picturized in Cape Town, South Africa.

CURRENT STATUS - Shooting schedules over in Namibia, Cape Town (South Africa) & Bangalore. Shooting in progress in Mumbai currently. Expected to release by May/June 2008.


4) Yuvraaj

Cast - Salman Khan, Anil Kapoor, Katrina Kaif, Zayed Khan, Boman Irani
Director - Subhash Ghai
Producer - Subhash Ghai [Mukta Arts Entertainment Pvt Ltd]
Screenplay - Subhash Ghai, Sachin Bowmik (Krrish), Kamlesh Pandey (Rang De Basanti)
Cinematography - Kabir Lal
Production Design - Umang Kumar
Audiography - Rakesh Ranjan
Choreography - Shiamak Davar
Lyrics - Gulzar
Audio Rights - T-Series

- One song picturized in Khandala, featuring Salman Khan and Katrina Kaif.
- "The most complicated song I have ever sung, is the song that we recently recorded for the Subhash Ghai movie. Rahman ji has used some 3-4 raagas and it is so amazing!!". - Madhushree [Aahaa FM (91.9 FM) - Chennai] [Info courtesy - Aravind AM, ARRYFG]

- According to Subhash Ghai, the film is about the arrogance and overconfidence of contemporary youth. "Everyone wants to be a rock star, regardless of whether they have the morals to go with the appellation.". 'Main Yuvraj' means 'I am the prince' and it hasn't been revealed yet who the prince is; it could be either Salman, Anil, or Zayed.
- Zayed Khan plays the youngest and most spoilt of all brothers.

CURRENT STATUS - Shooting started from 12th Sep with a song shoot in Khandala. After this, the crew will move to Europe for a 21 days schedule.


5) Delhi 6

Cast - Abhishek Bachchan, Asin, Om Puri, Atul Kulkarni, Shefali Shah
Director - Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra
Producer - Ronnie Screwvala [UTV Motion Pictures]
Screenplay - Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra, Kamlesh Pandey (Rang De Basanti), Renzil D'Silva, Syd Fields
Cinematography - Ravi K Chandran
Editor - P.S.Bharati

- Atul Kulkarni has shaved off his moustache for this film.
- Delhi 6 is reportedly based on Mehra's growing up years in Chandni Chowk area of Old Delhi.
- "My next film will be Delhi 6 (as in pincode 6). It is about old Delhi. Cities such as Hyderabad, Lucknow and even Bangalore - that have an old city - that have been left behind in the urban progress, will connect well. In these places, the tiniest of shacks have a colour television but that’s the only change we see in their lives in the last 60 years. I have lived in old Delhi, so I draw from my experience. It is my first attempt at dark comedy. We will begin shooting in November." - Mehra [TOI]

CURRENT STATUS - Shooting starts in November.