sakkarakati director abt ARR ( Posted from orkut ) How difficult was it to rope in A R Rahman?
When my dad took me to Rahman sir, I was not able to believe my luck at all. I belong to the generation which has grown on Roja and here I am in front of him in flesh and blood. I was given 45 minutes but I exceeded my time by another 45 minutes and then he had agreed to do my film. The magnitude of the situation struck me when I came out of his room. I saw many distinguished people waiting for hours to get just a glimpse of him and here I go happily in torn jeans, rubber chapal and dirty T shirt and had his rapt attention for 90 minutes!. I simply could not believe my fortune and should thank the Almighty and my dad for such an opportunity. Did you and Rahman discuss the music? Yes, of course. I had explained about the placement of songs and the feel of them and he had those as reference points. Later when the tunes were played, they were one hundred times more than what I had sought out for. The tracks would be given and the lyricist asked to pen their verses. The time taken for each song to get completed was different. 'Taxi taxi' took us four days while 'Elay' was completed in almost 24 hours. When it came to lyrics, Rahman can never be easily satisfied and he would be at it till it reached a stage of perfection. I was privileged to have Muthukumar and Paa. Vijay working in sync with Rahman and they understood each other perfectly. Any interesting anecdote during music composition? While working on 'elay' number, Muthukumar was in Rahman's house till midnight and completed it and was asked to come again next afternoon. The next day when we went and gave the completed lyrics, Rahman sir looked at the paper and there was one word 'ulagam thiranda vaazhai'. He was apparently impressed with the word and said, "Wow! This phrase is nice, we can start from this." And we ended up having a totally different start to the song. Rahman as a person When you work with him in such close quarters, you realize that besides being an ace music composer, he is such a wonderful human being. His presence makes you feel that you still live in a good world. At the same time he does not take anyone lightly and gives everybody their due respects. He is always concerned about society and talks constantly about the welfare of people. I am certainly blessed to have worked with such a great person. Can you say something about 'taxi taxi'? This song is a super duper hit and is on everyone's lips now. We felt that this number would be on the top list while we were recording and we are proved right. On Chinnamma chilakkamma taken from Hindi movie Meenaxi? When I went to Rahman to tell the story, I felt that he would be too busy and thought that it would help him ease out if I had taken few Hindi tunes of his. However, Rahman sir took his Hindi 'Meenaxi' number for Chilakkamma and the rest of the songs are all freshly scored for Sakkarakatti. As regards Rahman sir, I think he would accept any film only if likes the story and if there is any scope for his performance. And I am glad that he did my debut film. Graphics in the songs and Saundarya Rajnikanth's role? My friend Karthik is the only reason behind this. Through him I got to know Sunil who is the visual coordinator at Ochre. Initially it was only Chinnamma chilakkamma song. However they ended up doing all the numbers. There is a solid team there and I liked their working style. We had brain storming sessions and worked in unison. If one of us felt something was not alright, we would analyze, discuss and take the remedial course. -- regards, Vithur ARR in my Heart; His Music in my Blood;
