- Saturday, December 21, 2024
The composer shared that filmmaker Shekhar Kapur played the soundtrack of “Taal” for Webber, who offered him the chance to work on the Bollywood-themed musical “Bombay Dreams”
By: India Weekly
MUSIC maestro AR Rahman says his work on the 1999 film “Taal” led him to compose for Andrew Lloyd Webber’s musical “Bombay Dreams”, which gave him international recognition.
The composer shared that filmmaker Shekhar Kapur played the soundtrack of “Taal” for Webber, who was impressed and offered him the chance to work on the Bollywood-themed musical.
“It was the soundtrack of ‘Taal’, which Mr Kapur played to Andrew Lloyd Webber, and hearing the songs of ‘Taal’, he wanted me to work on ‘Bombay Dreams’. I was no longer called a ‘South Indian, doing only Tamil music’ and all that stuff,” Rahman told PTI.
Rahman, who had gained fame in India with films like “Roja” and “Bombay”, said “Taal” allowed him to connect with a broader audience.
He recalled his journey of entering the Hindi film industry, revealing that many had encouraged him to collaborate with director Subhash Ghai in the 1990s. Rahman eventually worked with Ghai on “Taal”, which will be re-released in select theatres on September 27.
During the process of creating the soundtrack, Rahman said Ghai pushed him to explore new musical dimensions. “He (Ghai) would say, ‘I want a symphony and then I would go and do some stuff or I want this to be a mountain folk song’… So, I was like, ‘My sensibilities are also expanding’,” Rahman added.
In addition to “Bombay Dreams”, Rahman has made his mark internationally with scores for films such as “Slumdog Millionaire” and “127 Hours”. He became the first Indian to win two Academy Awards for his work on “Slumdog Millionaire”.
