A. R. Rahman

L. Subramaniam: It's a great honor, privilege, and pleasure that you're doing it for Rahman global music festival. A. R. Rahman: Of course, sir. L. Subramaniam: And it's really, I can't thank you enough. You's, the very first film itself, you know, you became the most famous music director instantly after the first film in Tamil.

Then in Hindi, Roja. After that, you know, Slumdog Millionaire, which brought not only notoriety, but also to India, two Oscars. Can you tell what was in your mind when all these things happened all of a sudden?

A. R. Rahman: As you know, like, you were also neighbor when my parents lived in Mylapore, and you talked about my father a lot. So I think my father, had set a very high standard as a human being. He The way he was nonstop working for the family, you know?

Like, because we he wanted to get a house for us, and he work, overworked, spoiled his health. And so when I came in, after he passed away, my mother said, "Music is your life, what your father did, so take it up." For me, the first 12 years of my life was whole childhood had gone, age of 12 to 22.

So there was a kind of rebelliousness like, I don't want to work like my dad who worked, you know, day and night, and he lost his health and he passed away. So that gave me the thing that I should do quality work and do less work intentionally so that I can have a life, I can learn from life. I can experience the beauty.

Because studio life is always like 7:00 to 1:00, 2:00 to 9:00, 7:00 to 1:00, 2:00 to 9:00. You become a slave to it, and it's a trap which you can't get out. And I was seeing that people had lost their zest for life and they were like machines.

Oh, there's money coming in, so let's work day and night, day and night. Something told me there's much more to life. And while working, I wanted to learn more.

I mean, like, people are paying me to learn. That's been still there, you know, that when I work, I wanna learn more, I wanna explore more, so that if I feel excited, the audience is gonna feel excited. So that started from my first movie, and that worked out because the sense of inquisitive curiosity actually brings in interest for anyone.

So the music has curiosity. It asks questions, it answers questions, takes to. And we are trying to find another realm for them to, you know?

It's not just notes. It's creating a mood, a feel, creating something which is, which they can be transported from the mundaneness of life. We all live in mundaneness, but I think music, when you go into it, we don't see the time stretches.

And that stretching of time and that happiness which we see in an audience, you know, the eyes which has so much love, so much enthusiasm, so much of expectations from the eyes, is what I think drives me. So from the first movie to now.

L. Subramaniam: Fantastic. But when you change the whole style of, composition in the movie, which completely changed the whole thing, all of a sudden, they used to, you know, record with a lot of people in the studio and live takes and you know, 100 musician, 50 musician. But you brought much more access to the public, but using almost like a minimalistic approach, but beautiful arrangements. How did that thought came to you?