A.R. Rahman is the biggest name in Indian music and has won international renown with his Sufi-inspired, genre-defying melodies. In Notes of a Dream, Rahman’s authorised biography written by Krishna Trilok, we are given a comprehensive portrait of the composer, who continues to find in every accomplishment the impetus to reach for greater heights. His ambition is now driving him towards filmmaking, as is revealed in this exclusive excerpt.
Make no mistake, AR is serious about getting into the movies. Now it’s just about making his presence felt, making a mark. That’s why he is starting to spend more and more time in Mumbai, the pulsing heart of the Indian entertainment industry.
One question AR’s colleagues and friends have been asking him lately is “why?”. Why, at the peak of his musical career, does A.R. Rahman want to plunge into something new? When the world is eating out of his hand, where music is concerned, why does he want to be a beginner again in another field? And why, oh why, of all things, does that field have to be movies?
An executive at one of south India’s top media companies, upon being told at a dinner party about AR’s moviemaking plans, said: “Does he want to lose all the money he’s made?”
The question sums up the collective doubt nicely. The film industry can bury you. It is doubtful you’ll be able to identify a riskier line of business. Entire studios have been brought down by a single mega-budget movie which tanked at the box office.
AR’s answer to all these questions and doubters and naysayers: “I get bored easily.”
Music will always be there for him, no doubt. He will never let go of that. It is the core around which all his other ventures—from film to philanthropy—revolve. But he is clear now that it cannot be only music. To fully understand this, the first thing one must realise about AR is that he’s borderline obsessed with the future and has remarkably little sentiment for the past.
“That was always the case,” says director Rajiv Menon. “Even when he was composing jingles or soundtracks for films, he never cared much for the past, for the kind of music you had heard before and said you liked. He was always saying, ‘I want to discover new things. I want to move forward.’ He’s an explorer. He really is the Ibn Battuta of music.”
AR is asking himself what else he can do with his life now that he’s gone nearly as far as he can go with his music. And he isn’t the kind of entertainer who’d ever want to live out the rest of his days clinging to past glory, or—worse still—trying to recreate it.
It is unlikely AR could think of anything worse for himself than doing just one thing with his life—simply waiting for someone new to come along and take his place. Until the world starts respecting him as a phenomenal icon who’s had his day, the legend you revere only for what he’s already achieved. No Indian musician with AR’s brand of nationwide and global appeal seems to be on the horizon just yet, but he isn’t one to risk waiting around and letting someone else take his crown. He intends to have an identity so vast and complex that nobody’s going to be able to challenge him for years to come. And there will simply be no need for him to bow out.
While he seems a mild-mannered, introverted sort of fellow, the truth is AR is as competitive as they come. One doesn’t get to where he has by being otherwise.
Plus, AR likes revolutionising things. He constantly asks himself how he can do things better, do things differently. And when he talks about the films he wants to make, one thing that quickly becomes apparent is that he wants to make movies unlike anything made in India before. The concepts he talks about, the scale, the look— everything is different. Thanks to the time he has spent abroad—in the United States, in Europe—along with his lifelong yearning to be an entertainer of international standard, AR’s creative vision combines Western and Eastern sensibilities in a unique way. “We in India see something in the West and try to imitate it,” he ruminates. “I was like, ‘Let’s do something here and make them want to catch up with us,’ you know.”
After listening to him talk about his movies for a few minutes, one has no doubts about who his target audience is. The man doesn’t say it outright, but you know he wants to make movies that are going to do for Indian cinema what Ang Lee’s Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon did for China. He wants his movies, Indian movies, to be seen by kids in the Bronx as well as by the residents of a small town in Bihar. He wants them to be mainstream all around the planet.
When he says, “I want them to see it”, “them” means nothing less than the world. He wanted that for his music, right from the beginning, and now he wants the same thing for his films.
Complication: Easier said than done.
The challenges one faces while putting a film together are many, and daunting. Enough directors and producers have said that making a film is a bit like going to war. And there is also the very real question of AR’s own capabilities. He might have spent a lot of time with some of the top filmmakers from around the globe, for over two decades, but he has never actually been “on the field” before. He has visited sets and made music videos, but those aren’t the same as driving a full-fledged two-hour-something production. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg.
A.R. Rahman is going into uncharted waters without entirely being sure if he can swim—just how he likes it. Only time will tell how things will pan out, but AR certainly intends to get what he wants, come what may. And he is nothing if not perceptive. He knows exactly what kind of challenges he’s facing. And the man has faced challenges before—challenges, it must be said, greater than what a lot of men will face in a lifetime: changing the face of Indian music, setting up a first-of-its-kind musical school. He’s come out on top almost every time. And if he could do it before, he is fully confident that he can do it again.
“There’s one thing you have to remember about Rahman—he’s a doer,” says Mani Ratnam, the director of Roja, the first feature film AR ever composed for, and whose every film AR has made music for since. “A lot of us talk about our plans, but he actually acts. He’ll tell you he wants to do something and, a few months later, he’s actually done it. That’s an incredible thing about him. He doesn’t just talk.”
According to intimates, AR is fearless, isn’t afraid of failing. He’s a highly driven man who’s always up for taking risks, creative and financial both. “But I think this is by far his most difficult phase,” says Rajiv Menon. “Music is changing. The role of music in film is changing. He loves movies, Rahman. And he’s looking at how to be in the movies without music now. He has been involved in films only through the recording theatre and I think he’s looking to change that.”
AR is a fighter, always has been. The man may concede a point when it is clear there really is nothing more to be done. But while he has the chance to alter something in his life, something he wants to change, he is going to fight for it until he can do so no longer. Behind all that calm, there’s a wrestler’s spirit. It’s a spirit he values, even in others. If someone complains that something isn’t working out for them, he’ll say, “They’re not trying hard enough.” He respects it when you don’t give in easily—even if it is in the context of you questioning something he says.
“Growth for him is natural because he’s a man interested in a million things,” says director Imtiaz Ali. “He’s very aware of what’s happening in the world, right from politics to warfare. He goes on to the Net and gets information all the time. He’s interested in visual media; cameras, drones and all that. He knows more about these than most directors even. He always told me he wanted to produce films. To guide films. He has so many stories written, I know. And it’s exciting that he’s looking at media as a whole. It’s very thrilling. I’m happy he is extending his
talent beyond music.”
“The way I see it,” AR adds quietly, “you’re not going to be able to take anything you have with you when you go, finally. Everything you’ve got now, you might as well use it and do what you want, while you can.” As Rahman sets out on his latest journey, the struggle ahead is all too real for him. But then so is his spirit of endurance.
Extracted with permission from ‘Notes of a Dream’ , by Krishna Trilok, published by Penguin Random House India