*WELL matured answers for difficult & controversial questions from our BOSS at his young age...* **
On 5/18/07, durba bhattacharjee <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
Just accidentally I came across this old interview of ARR, which was published in the Hindu sometime after Roja. As I read it for the first time, just though of sharing it with every one here. Question: How did you come into films? A.R.Rahman: My father, R.K.Shekar, was a music director in Malayalam films. He assisted Salil Chowdhary, Devrajan and others. He died when I was nine. At 11, I came to the field, playing on the keyboards and later as an accompanyist. I worked under under various music directors in Tamil, Telugu and Malayalam - Ramesh Naidu, M.S.Vishwanathan and Illayaraja. It started becoming a bit monotonous. I thought advertising would be a good alternative. This went on for three years. I built my studio and took to different forms of music - pop, rock and so on. It was then that I met producer Tirlok Sharadha, cousin of ManiRathnam at a party. He (Mani) came to my studio and heard some of my tunes. We agreed to work together though we did not then decide on which movie.Only later he told me it was to be "Roja" which he was directing for K.Balachander. Q: Despite your success, you do not seem to be working in a lot of films. ARR: Rather than making money, I believe in making people happy; all other things are secondary. That is why I am not interested in a lot of movies but only in one at a time. I like directors whom I can vibe with. Ten years of experience in this field has made me quite frustrated. I have evolved a technique which re- quires a lot of time. Other music directors record a song in seven or eight hours. But I am different. we do a basic sitting and we record it. we record the voice and I add instrument by in- strument to improve the quality. Q: Will not the producers say that you are delaying their projects? ARR: My process involves a lot of time. The delay is not inten- tional. That is how I get my results. When people say that in "Gentleman" and "Thiruda Thiruda" the music is good and not like the usual beats, I feel happy. Abroad, in some places, they take three months to make an album. Do you use computer in your films? ARR: No. Not computers. The technique involved is different. In fact, they say the music in "Roja" was computerised. As I said earlier the recording takes time. You can hear the same flute here in a different way. It is not computerised music. Nearly 40 persons sang `Veerapandi Kottayile' (a song from "Thiruda Thiru- da") that does not sound like computer music. `Vellai Mazhai' from "Roja") is sync oriented. I do not restrict the musicians, but ask them to play whatever they feel. Then I record what I want. I spend a lot of time on lyrics too. It takes around four days. We write something in the first instance and then improve. So it takes about a week to complete a song. Q: Then you will be working only in perhaps half a dozen films a year? ARR: What will I do if I work for more films and only a few click? I do not want my energy to be wasted. I want every film to be a musical hit. In fact, "Thiruda Thiruda" songs have created a record for any Tamil film - 25,000 discs were sold in Malaysia. They are going to give us platinum discs. You say you are choosy, but you also go in for popular songs. Why is it so? ARR: Different people need different songs. I want to go down to the people at various levels. When I toured Tamil Nadu, I found that people wanted songs that would make them happy. Also noth- ing vulgar. There is nothing vulgar in "Sikku bukku Sikku bukku raile" (a song from "Gentleman"). Q: So you want to be with the masses? ARR: No, rather I want my music to reach everywhere. If I play rock, only youngsters will understand, while older people will say "Why is he shouting like this?". Each category of music reaches only one circle: for the class audience "Thiruda Thiruda" and for the masses "Gentleman". Q: Does basic knowledge of Carnatic music help? ARR: Sure. I am learning Carnatic classical music from Dakshinamurthy and Hindustani from Krishnan Nair. I like tradi- tional music much. Q: Why is it that the songs these days go out of people's mind soon unlike the old numbers? ARR: In those days, the lyrical value was greater in songs. Q: You want to be called number 1 in the industry? ARR: No. Numbers are not decided by me, but by the grace of God and by the people. I want my job to be interesting and fun. I just do not want to get stuck again in monotony.
