New Delhi: Less work has been coming his way, says celebrated music composer A R Rahman, attributing it to a power shift within the Hindi film industry in<\/b>
\nLess work has been coming his way, says celebrated music composer A R Rahman, attributing it to a power shift within the Hindi film industry in the last eight years and also perhaps to \u201ca communal thing\u201d though one not in his face.
It comes to him as \u201cChinese whispers\u201d, the Oscar winner told BBC Asian Network in an interview.
\u201cI\u2019m not in search of work. I want work to come to me; the sincerity of my
work to earn things. I feel it\u2019s a jinx when I go on in search of things,\u201d he said.
Asked if he faced any prejudice in the Hindi film industry when he started out in the 1990s, Rahman said, \u201cMaybe I didn\u2019t get to know all this stuff. Maybe God concealed all this stuff. But for me I never felt any of those, but the past eight years, maybe, because the power shift has happened.\u201d
\u201cPeople who are not creative have the power now to decide things and this
might have been a communal thing also but 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 said, \u2018Oh that\u2019s great, rest for me, I can chill out with my family\u2019,\u201d he added.
The 59-year-old said he was the first composer from the south who went to the Hindi film industry and survived it.
\u201cIt\u2019s a whole new culture, no other south Indian composer till then. Mr. Ilaiyaraaja had done a couple of movies but they were not mainstream movies. So for me to cross and them embracing me was a huge rewarding experience.\u201d
Rahman said while his music for Mani Ratnam\u2019s classics \u201cRoja\u201d (1992), \u201cBombay\u201d (1995) and \u201cDil Se.\u201d (1998) became popular, he credits Subhash Ghai\u2019s 1999 musical hit \u201cTaal\u201d for making him a household name in north India.
\u201cI was still an outsider with these three (films) but \u2018Taal\u2019 became famous in every household, like it entered the kitchen of everybody\u2019s house. Even now, most of the north Indians it\u2019s in the blood because it\u2019s a little bit of Punjabi Hindi and the mountain music.\u201d
He also remembered the advice Ghai gave him once.
\u201cI never spoke Hindi and it was difficult for a Tamil person to learn Hindi because we have such an attachment to Tamil. But then Subash Ghai said, \u2018I love your music but I want you to stay longer. So you should learn Hindi.\u2019
\u201cI said, \u2018Okay let me learn Hindi. And I\u2019ll go one step further. I will learn Udu which is the mother of Hindi music of the 60s and 70s, I would say,\u201d he said.
Rahman said as an artist, he tries to avoid movies that \u201care made with bad intentions\u201d.
The interviewer then asked him about his association with a \u201cdivisive\u201d movie like Vicky Kaushal-starrer \u201cChhaava\u201d.
\u201cIt is divisive. I think it cashed on the divisiveness of it but I think the core of it is to show the bravery\u2026 I told the director, \u2018why do you need me for this?\u2019 He said we need only you for this. I think it was an enjoyable finish.
\u201cBut I definitely think people are smarter than that. Do you think people are going to get influenced by movies? They have something called internal conscience which knows what the truth is and what manipulation is,\u201d he said.
The movie, based on the life of Chhatrapati Sambhaji Maharaj, son of Maratha Empire founder Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj, who was tortured and killed by Mughal emperor Aurangzeb, was met with polarising reactions upon its release in February 2025 with many people claiming that it distorted history.
It, however, performed exceptionally well at the box office, raking in approximately Rs 700 crore during its theatrical run.
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