Celebrated musician AR Rahman says it was his work on Subhash Ghai\u2019s musical romance drama \u201cTaal\u201d that led him to compose for Andrew Lloyd Webber\u2019s Bollywood-themed musical \u201cBombay Dreams\u201d, which catapulted him to international recognition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The multiple award winning-composer said filmmaker Shekhar Kapur, who served as an executive producer on Webber\u2019s 2002 musical \u201cBombay Dreams\u201d, played the English impresario of musical theatre the soundtrack of \u201cTaal\u201d which clocked 25 years in August.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Rahman, who had already made a name for himself across India with Tamil movies such as \u201cRoja\u201d and \u201cBombay\u201d, said Ghai\u2019s film helped him reach out to a whole new section of audience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt was the soundtrack of \u2018Taal\u2019, which Mr Kapur played to Andrew Lloyd Webber, and hearing the songs of \u2018Taal\u2019, he wanted me to work on \u2018Bombay Dreams\u2019. I was no longer called a \u2018South Indian, doing only Tamil music\u2019 and all that stuff.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cEven though \u2018Roja\u2019, and \u2018Bombay\u2019 had crossed that stuff. I also felt that there was a little more space to go into it, and \u2018Taal\u2019 perfectly filled the void. If you look at \u2018Amar Singh Chamkila\u2019, it is pure Punjabi (music). The confidence comes from working on all these movies,\u201d Rahman told PTI in an interview here.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He was speaking on the sidelines of a special screening of \u201cTaal\u201d, organised by Radio Nasha. The composer later ventured into the international music scene, transcending geographical boundaries and captivating global audiences with his compositions in prominent productions such as Kapur\u2019s \u201cElizabeth – The Golden Age\u201d, \u201cCouples Retreat\u201d, \u201cSlumdog Millionaire\u201d, which made him the first Indian to win two Oscars, \u201c127 Hours\u201d, \u201cPeople Like Us\u201d, \u201cWarriors of Heaven & Earth\u201d, and \u201cMillion Dollar Arm\u201d, among others.
Rahman shared another anecdote about how he went on to become a part of 1999\u2019s \u201cTaal\u201d, which will be re-released in select theatres across India on September 27.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
During the 1990s, the 57-year-old said everyone he met would tell him to do a Hindi film with Ghai. Rahman\u2019s first Hindi film was 1995\u2019s \u201cRangeela\u201d, directed by Ram Gopal Varma.
\u201cAnd then boom, when this fax came. I was like \u2018Wow, the man himself sent the fax\u2019. He invited me to Mumbai and we hung out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cHe talked about various aspects of my music and what I should do to learn more Hindi. We did a movie called \u2018Shikhar\u2019, which he launched but it didn\u2019t happen (release). And then we did \u2018Taal\u2019,\u201d the composer said. \u201cTaal\u201d, starring Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, Akshaye Khanna, and Anil Kapoor, continues to be widely loved for its soulful melodies like \u201cTaal Se Taal Mila\u201d and \u201cIshq Bina\u201d, the meditative \u201cNahin Saamne Tu\u201d to the electrifying dance number \u201cRamta Jogi\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Creating its soundtrack didn\u2019t take much time, said Rahman, adding the film provided him a platform to explore new dimensions in music.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cHe (Ghai) would say, \u2018I want a symphony and then I would go and do some stuff or I want this to be a mountain folk song\u2019. So, I was like, \u2018My sensibilities are also expanding\u2019. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Coming from the South, I was always open to what else is there to do (in terms of music).
\u201cFor instance, in \u2018Roja\u2019, I had used Hindustani ragas and not Carnatic ragas. I wanted it (music) to have a different feel. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
So, I became a fan of Darbari, Bhairavi, and Des ragas, which was not common in the south of India. So, that (\u2018Roja\u2019) was more on the classical side, this (\u2018Taal\u2019) is more on the folk and Punjabi side,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Celebrated musician AR Rahman says it was his work on Subhash Ghai\u2019s musical romance drama \u201cTaal\u201d that led him to compose for Andrew Lloyd Webber\u2019s Bollywood-themed musical \u201cBombay Dreams\u201d, which catapulted him to international recognition.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":446473,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[688],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-446469","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-infotainment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/446469","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=446469"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/446469\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/446473"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=446469"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=446469"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=446469"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}