Mani Ratnam’s iconic film Roja, which was released back in 1992, is etched in our minds after three decades and one of the major reasons for its massive success was its music. AR Rahman hit the jackpot with his debut movie album. All of the songs were big chartbusters and the first single Chinna Chinna Aasai introduced the lead actress Madhoo has a separate fanbase. The song was sung by Minmini, who shot to instant fame after the soundtrack of Roja was released. One would expect that Minmini would be sought after by all the top music composers after the track was released but one composer steered clear of her just because she worked with AR Rahman.
While AR Rahman continues to have a flourishing musical career since Roja, Minmini had a short-lived career spanning just 3 years from 1991 to 1994. During this period, Minimini worked with many top music composers in the industry except one. She did not work with Ilaiayaraaja because he refused to work with her. Minimini revealed this on a Malayalam show, saying that there was a time when she sang a song for Ilaiyaraja every day. However, when the music maestro came to know that Minimini had sung Chinna Chinna Aasai for AR Rahman, Ilaiyaraja reprimanded her for ‘singing elsewhere’ and insisted that she sing only for him.
Minmini said she was left shocked by this and started crying in the studio itself and had to be consoled by singer Mano who was present there.
She said that Ilaiayaraaja never summoned her to sing for him ever again after that. She also said that she kept this to herself and never revealed this all these years since she did not want to taint Ilaiayaraja’s image.
When Minmini was at the height of her success, she had to completely cease singing due to voice loss. Fortunately, the singer recovered her voice and began singing again in 2015.
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