AR Rahman: It’s not like I sit on my chair and magic happens

By Sugandha Rawal

New Delhi, Dec 6 Oscar and Grammy-winning Indian composer AR Rahman feels it is very important to keep reinventing. For that, he says, he keeps on challenging himself because after sometime the magic fades and the brain becomes numb.

“As humans, after a while, even the best thing becomes boring. In any event of life, that boredom is a human quality. The only way to fight it is reinvention, to do something,” Rahman told IANS in an interview.

He continued: “There’s an old saying which goes something like this: ‘If you do something very well with your right hand, then you should try it with your left hand as well’. So, get out of your comfort zone and muscle memory to find new muscle memories, find something new through that process.”

In reference to his work, he said: “Even now, it’s not like I go and sit on my chair and magic happens. I keep challenging myself because after a while, the magic fades and the brain becomes numb.”

“I think when we’re done with something, we always tend to move away from it,” he shared, while using food choices as an example.

“With food too, if you’ve had the same dish for five days, you will get bored. It’s a human quality and so, I want to try something else. I want to try some other cuisine, you know? So, this is human nature and even in art, even in stories, even in filmmaking, this is something which we’ve always seen. We have to find ways to stand out in order to break the monotony,” he explained.

Having started his journey in the film industry with “Roja” in 1992, Rahman went on to establish his signature of fusing various musical elements in his compositions that include the classical and the contemporary, and the very earthy sounds of nature. His music changed the tunes of Bollywood music, taking Indian sounds on a global tour.

Several years have gone by and Rahman has bagged the Grammy, the Oscar, the BAFTA and the Golden Globe awards among others. Now, he has been roped in as the ambassador of the BAFTA Breakthrough initiative in India.

Talking about the responsibilities that come with the role, Rahman said: “I am looking forward to seeing the brilliant talent chosen from India to be showcased on a global stage. As ambassador, my role is to help BAFTA to recognise ‘breakthrough’ talent across the breadth of the Indian film industry and help them navigate the diverse and creative landscape of the country. It would also include educating the country about BAFTA and all its work and of course lending a supporting voice to reach the many, very talented individuals across all regions,” he added.

For Rahman, it is extremely important to find and nurture talent.

“My desire to give back and nurture new talent has been the cornerstone of most things that I do. You never know what you might learn in the process. If this decade has taught us anything, it is that talent shines, no matter what,” said the musician, fondly called the ‘Mozart of Madras’.

“The internet has democratised the process of talent discovery to a great extent. So much so that there are so many atypical talents that are being recognised through the internet. When I started my school in 2008, I realised that when you want to give something back to the community, people join you, and that is very important to me,” he said.

(Sugandha Rawal can be contacted at sugandha.r@ians.in)