Oscar-winning musician AR Rahman‘s recent remarks in an interview with BBC Asian Network about him getting less work in Bollywood in the past eight years due to possible communal bias has stirred a heated debate in the industry. Even people who worked closely with the renowned music director stand divided over his views; while some have come out in his support, others have strongly opposed his stance.
Even after Rahman took to social media to clarify that “he never intended to hurt anyone’s sentiments”, the debate refuses to die down with more people expressing their opinion on what they thought about Rahman’s remarks.
‘I have never faced it in my entire career’
The latest Bollywood personality to talk about the matter is Oscar-winning sound designer Resul Pookutty. Rahman and Pookutty have collaborated on a number of projects, but their most memorable project remains Slumdog Millionaire, the film that earned both of them an Oscar trophy each for Best Original Score & Song, and Best Sound Mixing respectively.
In an interview with Subhash K Jha, Pookutty said that his Slumdog Millionaire should have avoided making the controversial remark and that he didn’t face anything like that in his whole career.
“He shouldn’t have said that. I have never faced anything like that in my entire career. I think film industry is one sector where such thoughts haven’t gone deep rooted and we see things way beyond sectarian thoughts. I’m very proud of that aspect of my industry,” he told Jha.
However, he also felt that Rahman’s remarks came from a space of sincerity and urged people “not to crucify him for what he felt about the situation at the moment he was being asked about it.”
“If you listen to what he said about this is, when he was removed from projects he ‘heard’ whispers from people referring to it as ‘that might be communal’. Now what he said is what people told him. In the same breath he said, people are too mature to not see things beyond all these factors. It seems we are very quick to pin Rahman down. I think he said things with sincerity,” he added.
What AR Rahman said about ‘communal bias’ in Hindi film industry
In the BBC interview, the legendary music composer said that while he didn’t feel it earlier, after the power shift in eight years, he heard whispers from people about him being dropped from projects due to possible “communal thing.”
Speaking to the BBC Asian Network on whether there is prejudice in the Hindi film industry against people from the Tamil community or those outside Maharashtra when he began his career in the 1990s, Rahman said he did not feel it at the time.
“Maybe God concealed all this stuff. For me, I never felt any of those. Maybe I never get to know of this, maybe it was concealed. I didn’t feel any of this earlier. Maybe in the past eight years, because the power shift has happened. People who are not creative have the power to decide things now,” he said.
Rahman said things were conveyed indirectly in the form of Chinese whispers. “It might have been a communal thing also, but not in my face. It comes to me as Chinese whispers that they booked you, but the music company went ahead and hired their five composers,” he said in the interview.
How film industry reacted to AR Rahman’s remarks
Renowned lyricist Javed Akhtar said that it was not communal bias but Rahman’s stature that people were simply scared to approach him. Kangana Ranaut on the other hand called the music director “prejudiced and hateful”, alleging he refused to work on her film Emergency because he viewed it as ‘propaganda’. Anup Jalota stirred another controversy by saying the music director should “convert back to Hinduism”.
Imtiaz Ali who collaborated with AR Rahman on projects like Rockstar and Tamasha said that Rahman’s remarks were likely ‘misconstrued’. Paresh Rawal showed solidarity for Rahman on social media, writing, “We love you sir. You are our pride.”