AR Rahman recalls how drunk guitarist’s condescending comment on his music left a mark on him: ‘It took me 7 years to…’

(Also Read: AR Rahman to take a year-long break from music post divorce? Daughter Khatija and son Ameen respond)

When a drunk guitarist questioned AR Rahman’s music

AR Rahman recalled a phase in his life when he was working with several composers and started getting influenced by them. He was just 19 when a drunk guitarist from his band questioned his music and his comment left a mark on him. He said, “I went through a phase where I was playing for a couple of composers and I was in a band. This one time, when I was young, the guitarist in the band was drunk and he turned to me and said, ‘What are you playing? You are playing film music.’ He made a very condescending comment about my playing. This was in 1985 or 86 I think.”

AR Rahman on how drunk guitarist’s comment worked as positive influence

He added how it took him seven years to move away from the influences and said, “At the moment, I didn’t realise what he meant, but weeks later, it hit me and I realised that whatever he said was right. When I thought deeply about his remark about me, I realised that I was getting influenced by the composers I was playing for. After this, I consciously began to move away from it. And my mental journey of identifying ‘what will be my style’ began. It took me about seven years, and I completely moved away from the influences.”

AR Rahman further added that though the guitarist didn’t say anything bad to him, but his comment left an imprint in his heart, so much so, that it became a positive influence for him to move away from his own influence too. The music composer will now be composing music for Hansal Mehta’s upcoming series Gandhi. Not only this, he will also be composing the music for Ram Charan and Buchi Babu’s upcoming movie, RC16.