I spent a lot of time learning the language, its poetry, its pronunciation. Bollywood is fantastic, but how would you like to eat daal the whole day? Which genre is the closest to your heart? Ghazal, decidedly. Everyone is playing the Top Ten, so they all sound the same. Today it's the same, so everyone's playing Bollywood songs to maximize TARPs (Target Audience Rating Points).
Our government should've levied different taxes or had different rates of license fees for different forms. We have so many FM stations but they all play only film songs. But it's just one aspect of Indian music! Sadly, we don't get to hear the other forms we're rich with Sufi, folk, ghazals, thumri, classical, devotional. How important has Bollywood been in taking Indian music to the world? It has certainly played a role in carving a place for us. His melody is beautiful, and he gives it a larger perspective with his orchestration.
Seedha aadmi hai (he's a straightforward person), and his music reflects that.
He has an amazing soul in his compositions. Presented in a well-made film that's also well projected, it has caught the fancy of BAFTA, Golden Globe and others. It is because our kind of sound is new to western ears. He became an international figure with Andrew Lloyd Webber's Bollywood Dreams, and today he is being feted for Slumdog Millionaire. I'm lucky to have been his favourite voice. Ratnottama Sengupta spoke to the versatile singer about his quest for the soul of India: What about A R Rahman makes him the toast of global music? He's always been good. Still, the Tamil singer who signed in with Urdu ghazals, scored with Bollywood songs and ruled MTV with the English fusion album, `Colonial Cousins', returns to Rajasthani Maand and Sufi songs. From `Chanda re chanda' to `Tuhi re' and `Jana gana mana', the bonding has matured.