Dear friends,
Well, I dont think i can cope with translating a Tamil song, but I have tried
to do a translation of this interview. Hope I have done justise. I would surely
appreciate if our tamil friends can correct the below where need be. Man, I
salute all those guys here who do translations.. its much tougher than I
thought :) My admiration for ARR as a person has increased even more reading
this interview (specially the last q). Proud to be a ARR fan.
Here's the interview:
When you meet ARR, the first thing you notice is his simplicity. Starts
speaking to you like a classmate in college. Its been the same way this time as
well....
He pointed to the wall and said "the keyboard and mixer were the ones used for
Roja, Kept it as a memorablia". ARR hasnt forgotten his past.
Q: SJ Surya mentioned in one KTV interview that 'Simplicity means AR Rahman'.
How are you able to be without Ego.
ARR: We cannot plan these things. Once you become Spritualist, all egoes
vanish. Why do hindus keep ashes in their forehead? its to remind that we are
all going to be ashes someday. Money and fame last only till you live. Its
enough if a man remembers the end, all evil thoughts like 'Jelousy and wanting
to live at the cost of others' vanish and you automatically get Fear and
humbleness'
Q: You sound very Philosophical?
ARR: Life has taught me a lot (Laughs). Once when I had been to Gulbarga, I
bought a book titled 'Isi Ahmadiya Dheen' [forgive me if I got this wrong]. It
is a compilation of what the world teaches us from the beginning. It was in
simple short poems. Interesting as well. After I read it I felt 'Is that all
life is about'. Any one who reads this book would mature [I need help on the
correct word here please]
Q: You are busy with Kollywood, Bollywood and Hollywood. Do you have time for
your family?
ARR: It is difficult. Manytimes, I may have to miss my family and kids for 2 -
3 months. In a situation where you have to compromise on one thing, i have to
resort to Video conferencing to keep in touch with my family. My kids are not
interested in costly things (for 10k, 15k). All they ask for is for their
father to be with them always and to shower love and praise on them. Recently
my second daughter asked me to come for her school function, but I had to be
travelling abroad at that time. She told me. "You wont come to my school
function, but I have to listen to your music is it? I wont listen from now on".
I felt like a hard hit on my temple. I postponed the function by 2 days and
attended the school function. She was very happy.
Q: There is talk that Sakaraikatti is delayed because you have not composed the
songs.
ARR: (laughs) They have made such a story is it? [said that in a nice tamil
slang]. All recordings except for 1 song is complete. When the director Kala
Prabhu came and told me that I will have to compose the music for this movie, I
told them that I can do it immediately, there might be a delay. He said, I will
wait even if it will take 10 years. No one would delay for 10 years isnt it?
(Laughs). I accepted because it was very interesting.
Q: During the Felicitation ceremony for your guru Gopalakrishnan, it seems you
left as soon as you came in.
ARR: Firstly, he never knew that I was going to attend (the function). I went
there to give him a surprise. TVG was elated/emotional when he saw me there. I
had a violin session for a hindi song recording and hence had to leave and TVG
knows that.
Q: What is the issue between you and Shah rukh Khan? It seems that you refused
to do (music for) OSO.
ARR: We dont have any issues at a personal level. I was not able to do the
music for the movie because of an issue in the contract. They said, "If the
music composed for the movie is used for any Hollywood movie, we would give you
the title credit but will not pay you". In this case it will be a problem in
the future, not just for me but for any music director. So I refused.
As techonology grows, you dont know what (music) gets picked up from where.
Suppose we give away all the rights, anything can happen in the future. You
shouldnt feel left blindfolded then. There are so many MDs who have given their
heard and sole to compose music and still live in rented houses. Their music is
still telecast in radios and tvs, but the unfortunate thing is that they do not
get anything back (monetarily). In overseas markets, a MD settles down in a big
way once you give 1 hit song.
Q: Ilayaraja has given so many hits. but his earnings are less when you compare
with MDs of current generation.
ARR: Yes. Assuming he has composed for 500 movies with 6 songs each, he would
have composed 3000 songs. But we dont know if he has been paid that much money.
If it was so, he could have purchased the whole of Tamil Nadu. We are all
frustrated. Its ok so far (past is past), My opinion is that we have to be
careful from now on. It is a little difficult task. Outside india, they legally
deposit you share of money in your account, even when music is sold through
internet. But here, even if the songs are a big hit, they claim that it sold
only for Rs. 5000.
Q: What is your opinion on Remix songs?
ARR: There is nothing wrong in Remix songs. Its only a trend. Its only till
people like it, after that this trend will vanish. There are good and bad
remixes. There is a difference between maintaing the sole of the old song and
spoiling that song (Laughs).
Q: Recently SP Balasubramaniam said on stage in a very strong / harsh tone that
'Todays MDs are just doing whatever MS Vishwanathan left behind' [Verbatim
translation: Today's music directors eat whatever MSV ate and left behind].
Whats your take on that?
ARR: Why cant we take that as a praise? He would have said that only in the
right sense. MS Viswanathan was a trendsetter. He would have even meant others
to follow his path, which is true. He could have used a little derrogatory
words in the spur of the moment (like remains of what he ate). My opinion is
that he would never have spoken bad / wrong.
End..
Cheers,
Srini
PS: I thought I was a big ARR fan, till I joined this group :)
----- Original Message -----
From: Gopal Srinivasan
To: [email protected]
Sent: Sunday, January 13, 2008 8:51 PM
Subject: [arr] Fwd: ARR Kumudam interview 2008
May I request someone to translate the below interview for everyone's benefit?
Thanks, Sree.
Gopal.
--- in2mind in2mind <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>
> Hi Gopal
>
> Came across this interview of arr on net - seems to be from kumudam
> magazine (The author
> says it is from Jan 2008 issue).
> A insightful interview I should say.
>
> http://mayyam.com/hub/viewtopic.php?t=1923&start=979
>
> Sree
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