A. R. Rahman Quotes

An ideal world can definitely be created with a pure mind and optimistic results.

We didn’t know what kind of music we’d make, we didn’t know if it would be any good, but we hoped we’d have fun. He brings so much musical knowledge, amazing musicianship, melody and singing power from a different culture.

What a film and what a team to work with. The spirit of the film is reflected in its team. [Rahman] with "changing the entire face of Indian film music.

Rahman is a genius and has made the world sit up and take notice of Indian talent with his success. He has put the Indian film industry on the world map."

Ever since I embraced Sufism, I have learnt to separate myself from my desires and my success. Now, I can distance myself from all the adulation showered on me.

The first day I was in a daze thinking, ‘What am I doing? What’s my role?’ and then slowly we started writing with each other, and it was great. It took me way back to my high school days when I was playing in a rock band.

Yes, 6 songs... Thiruda Thiruda: Great. I felt honoured since it was the last song Ustad Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan did before his death. We miss him a lot, it was an emotional bond in the 50th year to bring a synergy between India and Pakistan.

He works less but he has given Indian music a completely different sound which has worked.

The ultimate enjoyment for a composer is when his compositions get recognised and appreciated. For me, a small village in Kanyakumari is as important as New York or France.

May he win such an award every year. He is a genius. Rahman's music is a blend of a little South Indian music and what we commonly call Hindi film music.

Musical theater had become very predictable. I think Andrew felt that Bollywood musicals could be a new treat for the Western audience.

My mother's belief in spiritual healers grew stronger after our family went through a rough patch following my father's death. Sufi saint Karimullah Shah Kadri changed our lives and all of us converted to Sufism. But it wasn't an instantaneous decision — it took us 10 years to convert. The change in religion was like washing away the past.

The billboard outside the Broadway Theatre reads, A R RAHMAN'S BOMBAY DREAMS. That name may mean little to musical-theater devotees, but in the rest of the world it's golden. Like Gershwin or Lennon-McCartney, the name stands for melody, quality, energy, instant hummability — a sound both personal and universal, devouring many older forms and transforming them into something gorgeously new.

Rahman, the world's most prolific and popular composer, lent his irrepressible melodic gift to Danny Boyle's Slumdog Millionaire, set in Rahman's native land, and nearly tops himself here with music that is tense, oppressive and finally exalting.

Bombay, which sold about 120,000 copies, is widely rated as my most successful work, though Roja is definitely the score that brought me where I am today.