99 Dreams

Music Maestro AR Rahman Is Turning Producer With 99 Songs. Devesh Sharma Chats With Him About His Exciting New Journey

- Devesh Sharma

Last we met, he was shooting for the promotional video of the Patakha guddi song for Highway (2014) at the helipad situated atop a hill in Film City. The sun was merciless but AR Rahman was totally lost in the moment, unmindful of the heat and the dust, making sure director Imtiaz Ali got what he wanted. One of the topics discussed during our chat, as we drove from Film City to his studio in Powai, was the possibility of him turning a filmmaker. Now, five years later, I’m interviewing him at the swanky new office of Jio Studios in BKC, Mumbai. His first film as a producer, 99 Songs, is finally ready and is going to release on June 21. A dream fulfilled.

He looks fitter than before and even after marathon meetings is bubbling with enthusiasm as he talks about his new baby. Rahman is said to approach everything with a childlike intensity, perhaps the reason for his longevity as an artiste. The film started as a ‘fairytale’ of an idea, which he developed over long flights, during breaks, writing down things on his iPad as and when thoughts bombarded his mind. He mentions it’s easier to write music for others as that’s just about ideating on a story brief. But here, he was writing the story from scratch, something he’s never done before. “It’s a love story. I’m an Academy member; I frequently visit Broadway as well as London to watch the theatre there. All those associations opened my mind towards the possibility of a musical,” says he. He began by writing a fairytale. “Later, I started asking myself questions about the central character and those questions formed themselves into a story.”