Academy Award-winning music composer A R Rahman is now donning a different hat and is working on his own screenplay.
Rahman was in New York City for the world premiere of Jai Ho on February 25, a documentary about his life and career that was screened at the Museum of the Moving Image before a packed theatre.
The musician said the idea of film producing and script-writing came to him as he wanted to challenge himself by moving beyond the realm of music and trying something new.
Rahman, who has composed music for over 100 Hindi and Tamil films as well as for Hollywood projects, said there is a repetition in the way songs are composed for Indian movies. He said every movie ends up having a few melodious numbers and an item song.
“How much can you do that? You have done it all, so for me to force myself to challenge myself, I thought let me build my own platform to challenge myself. So this idea of film producing and script-writing came about,” he said, adding that the casting for his first film has already begun. He, however, did not give further details of the movie.
He added that when he was working on the British musical Bombay Dreams, he was asked by its composer Andrew Lloyd Webber if he had some story ideas. Rahman replied that he was a music composer and did not have any story ideas of his own.
“But one day I thought, why not?” he said, adding that when he observed people from various cultures he would wonder what their story would be and that is what got him interested in script-writing.
Rahman, 48, best known in the US for his Academy Award, Golden Globe and Grammy-winning score for Danny Boyle’s Slumdog Millionaire, however, ruled out trying directing, saying since he is an “introvert” he does not see himself as a director.
