NEW DELHI/MUMBAI: Two days after musician AR Rahman mentioned the ‘C’ word to cite he has been getting less working in the Hindi film industry over the past eight years, a number of stalwarts have dismissed the claim.
Rahman in an interview to BBC Asian Network, had said the reasons often reach him indirectly and tagged it as “Chinese whispers”. He went on to say in the interview: “People who are not creative have the power now to decide things, and this 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. I said, ‘Oh, that’s great, rest for me, I can chill out with my family.”
Sharing his perspective, veteran lyricist Javed Akhtar firmly ruled out any communal angle, saying he has never experienced this sentiment in Mumbai and stressed that Rahman continues to command immense respect across the industry. “People may think that he has become very busy in the West. They may think that his shows are very big. He spends a lot of time in those shows.
So, he may not be available for us.”
People who are not creative have the power now to decide things and this might have been a communal thing also... they say they booked you but the music company went ahead and hired their five composers
AR Rahman
Dismissing any communal bias, playback singer Shaan said “it doesn’t happen in music. Our three superstars have been working for 30 years, their fan base is only growing.”
