In a conversation with popular violinist L Subramaniam, Oscar-winning music composer AR Rahman said that India is nominating the ‘wrong’ movies to the Academy Awards. In an interview that was uploaded on his YouTube channel on Wednesday, March 15, Rahman is heard saying, “Sometimes I see that our movies go till the Oscars [nominations]... and they don’t get it. Wrong movies are being sent for the Oscars. And I am just like… don’t!” According to the Times of India, this conversation took place before Indian filmmaker Kartiki Gonsalves’s The Elephant Whisperers was announced as the winner of the Oscar for best documentary short film earlier this week.
The music composer further said to win such awards, Indian filmmakers have to have to be in the viewer’s shoes. Rahman said, “We have to be in the other person’s shoes. I have to be in a Westerner’s shoes to see what is happening here. I have to be in my shoes to see what they are doing.” It is to be noted that Rahman has been invited to become a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, which gives out the Oscar awards annually. Meanwhile, 'Naatu Naatu' from the movie RRR, which was not India’s official Oscar nomination, won an award for Best Original Song.
In the 20-minute conversation, Rahman also spoke about how he began using technology instead of a whole orchestra to compose music. He also briefly touched upon how people only saw his successes and not his failures because the latter happened only inside his studio. The music composer mentioned how having a home studio gave him the freedom to experiment with different styles of music.
AR Rahman has been working on the music for the sequel of Mani Ratnam’s PS-1, PS-2, which is set to release next month. Apart from that, he is also composing the music for Aishwarya Dhanush’s next movie Lal Salaam starring Rajinikanth, Vishnu Vishal, and Koushik Mahata.
Watch: Creating Magic with Music | A conversation with AR Rahman and L Subramaniam