Birthday Special: When AR Rahman couldn't compose a 'Rangeela' song because of TV

AR Rahman celebrates his birthday on January 6 and has turned 54 this year. The Mozart of Madras has been creating music since the 90s and received international recognition in no time. Rahman went on to win six National Film Awards, two Academy Awards, two Grammy Awards, a BAFTA Award, a Golden Globe Award. After making his debut as music director with Tamil film Roja directed by Mani Ratnam, AR Rahman forayed into Bollywood with Ram Gopal Varma's Rangeela released in 1995.

In 2020, the film starring Aamir Khan, Jackie Shroff and Urmila Matondkar completed 25 years of its release. During an interaction with Film Companion, RGV recalled his experience of working with Rahman. 

He stated, "(I found) Rahman a very, very peculiar guy in comparison to how my experience was with the other composers from the beginning of my career. He doesn’t impress you. When I heard the first tune he composed, I was very confused. He sang ‘Yayi Re Yayi Re’. I didn’t know what to say. It sounded like some tribal song to me, something from an African forest. And he has a thin voice and now because we heard many songs, we’ve got used to him. I am talking about the beginning. I met Mani and told him I couldn’t make out what this song was. Mani played it twice, thrice and said, ‘just take it. At least it sounds like something we’ve never heard before’."

While narrating the story behind composing 'Hai Rama' song, Varma further shared, "Rahman and I went to Goa and for five days we stayed in two cottages – Rahman was in one and I was in another waiting. The first day he said I am doing something, I’ll make you listen tomorrow. Tomorrow came, tomorrow evening came, day after tomorrow… and then he had to go. I said, ‘Rahman, I have to shoot. What do I do? There’s no song’. He said, ‘Ramu can I request you one thing? Next time you take me somewhere for music composing, see that I am in a room where there’s no TV. Because all these four days I was only watching TV.’ I wanted to punch him in the nose man! Why would he even tell me that? I was so angry. I just refused to talk to him in the flight."

However, when Rahman sent the final composition of 'Hai Rama' song from Chennai later, Ram Gopal Varma was superbly impressed with the magic he created.

Happy Birthday, AR Rahman!