The sweet sound of Rahman's musicPrithwish Ganguly / DNAThursday, September 10, 2009 23:59 IST Email Print ShareMumbai: AR Rahman has become the first Indian composer to hold the rights of an entire Hollywood project's background score. The composer has turned music producer for a short film titled Passage which has been directed by the Oscar-nominated director Shekhar Kapur. The movie stars Julia Stiles (who has earned rave reviews for her work in 10 Things I Hate about You, Mona Lisa Smile and The Bourne Ultimatum) and is jointly produced by Swarovski Entertainment and Curious Pictures Production.Rahman's special aide revealed the news to DNA: "It is true that Rahman has turned music producer and holds all rights of the five tracks Passage has. That means he can sell the music to record labels and enjoy royalties for his creations. He has been producing tracks in Bollywood too -- he owns the songs he composed for Akshay Kumar-starrer Blue but subsequently sold them to T Series." A highly placed source at a major Indian music label informs that Rahman usually takes part of his remuneration as profit sharing from the sale of the music. As of now, T-series has rights to most of his compositions.Says Bhushan Kumar of T-Series: "All rights including publishing rights now belong to us. We are marketing and distributing these titles ourselves."But owning the rights for a Hollywood production is a first even for Rahman. He has come up with some very different and classical compositions for this movie -- the five tracks are Opening, Aria, Tango, Waltz and Atmosphere.DNA has also learnt that Rahman is now looking to get rights of every film venture he will embark on in the future. "Rahman will be negotiating hard with producers of all international projects for the rights of his music. Some studios, especially international ones, might have a problem parting with the rights, but we'll try hard," adds Rahman's aide.Now an increasing number of musicians are looking to garner rights of their compositions. "Once the job is done, the musicians who made the tracks don't even get royalty and lose out on a lot of money. They want to change this and Rahman has showed them the way. Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy are also negotiating for their music and more names will follow. Apart from the money, you also make sure that your music isn't indiscriminately remixed into some goofy number and also you can use them the way you want for stage shows or tours. It is a very advantageous position to be in," a leading Bollywood music composer told DNA on condition of anonymity.
