"People say, ‘I am reimagining.’ Who are you to re-imagine?", the Ponniyin Selvan music composer AR Rahman said in a recent interview.
AR Rahman is one of the most celebrated artists in the history of world cinema with six National Awards, two Academy Awards, two Grammy Awards, a Golden Globe Award, a BAFTA Award, and more than 30 Filmfare Awards (including the South ones) to his name. The music composer and singer lashed out at the remix culture in a recent interview.
When Rahman was asked about other music composers remixing his tracks, he told India Today, "The more I see, the more it is distorted. The intention of the composer gets distorted. People say, ‘I am reimagining.’ Who are you to re-imagine? I am also very careful of taking someone else’s work. You have to be respectful and I think it is a grey area, we need to sort it out."
The composer even shared that he often gets requests from producers and directors to remix his own old songs. Talking about the same, Rahman said, "The other day, we had the Telugu music launch (of Ponniyin Selvan) and the producers said, every song that you two (Mani Ratnam and AR Rahman) make sounds fresh now because it is all done in digital mastering. It already has that quality and everyone appreciates it. So, if I need to do that, I need to recreate it. Of course, people take permission, but you cannot take something recent and remake it again. It feels weird."
AR Rahman has expressed his opinions in the wake of the recent controversy around the Maine Payal Hai Chhankai remix, originally sung by Falguni Pathak and recreated as O Sajna by Neha Kakkar. The Indian Idol 13 judge has been heavily criticised and even the Dandiya Queen has expressed her shocking reaction saying she was about to puke when she first heard the remix.
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Meanwhile, on the work front, Rahman is currently promoting his next film Ponniyin Selvan along with the film's director Mani Ratnam and the actors including Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, Chiyaan Vikram, Jayam Ravi, Karthi, Trisha, and Sobhita Dhulipala among others. The music director has composed for every Mani Ratnam directorial since he made his debut with the filmmaker's romantic thriller film Roja in 1992.
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