Is it Hollywood over Bollywood for AR Rahman?

A few months ago there were rumours that music composer AR Rahman had cut down on his work in India considerably due to the swelling number of international projects that he had in hand.

Now, finally Rahman has admitted that he has reduced his work in Indian movies. “I did cut down my work a bit because I could not manage time. I feel that the expectations from me are huge and the film that I choose to do has to match the expectation of the audiences. I have become very careful about signing any movie, be it Indian or Hollywood. I don’t want to compromise on quality and for that reason I cannot get into a signing spree,” Rahman says.

Earlier, there were rumours that because Rahman had hiked his fee manifold most Indian film-makers couldn’t even think of approaching him. He says, “The fee depends on the movie. The market has expanded and nowadays you don’t really work with a producer-paying-a-certain-sum-of-money-to-the-composer formula. There are many other factors like holding publishing rights which I like to keep as it gives me an opportunity to increase the life of a song. I had the rights for Jai Ho! And that’s why I could team up with Pussycat Dolls and take the music forward.”