I choose projects that leave me sleepless: AR Rahman

“I love music. I always tell my team that we have to move forward and look into projects that excite us. If something doesn’t excite me, I don’t show interest in doing it. I don’t want to let my listeners suffer,” Rahman said at the India prelude launch of his “Le Musk” directorial debut. 

“Before taking up a project, there is research done at first. It needs to excite me. So far, I have done what I had energy to do and will keep doing that. The project needs to make me sleepless to deliver something satisfactory.

“I just look how passionate the other person is about the project, irrespective of the language or place that he belongs to,” added the 50-year-old, who has completed 25 years in the music industry since the release of the 1992 film ‘Roja’. Besides India, where he is known by the ‘Mozart of Madras’ sobriquet, Rahman has carved out a niche for himself in the West through his impactful and award-winning compositions in films like ‘Slumdog Millionaire’, ‘127 Hours’ and ‘Pele’. He has also composed music for Iranian and British movies. For now, Rahman is upbeat about his latest tryst with technology -- “Le Musk”, a Virtual Reality (VR) multi-sensory episodic film which has been shot across various locations in Rome. He has not just directed it, but has also written it. 

Rahman said he was introduced to the technology in 2015. He was hesitant to try it, but got so hooked on to it that he would spend as many as six hours a day working with it. But how did the concept of “Le Musk” emerge? “One day I was chatting with my wife (Saira Banu) and she is fond of perfumes. So, she said, ‘Why don’t you make a movie on perfumes?’ It was actually her initiative.