Imtiaz Ali On How AR Rahman Composed Vida Karo From Chamkila: 'He Asked For Lights Off, Candles Lit'

AR Rahman is known for making music late at night in a spiritual environment. Filmmaker Imtiaz Ali shared stories about how the songs for Amar Singh Chamkila were composed. Discussing the emotional climax song Vida Karo, Imtiaz told Radio Nasha how it was made at 2.30 am. The Oscar-winning composer took to his piano at the wee hours when Irshad Kamil and Imtiaz were about to leave his studio, he recalled.

“Rahman came and sat at his piano at 2:30 am when I and Irshad Kamil were getting ready to leave his studio. He said to switch off the lights and asked for some candles to be lit so that we enjoy the process. He started playing the tune while we spoke about old Hindi film songs… Rahman was talking about music in Guru Dutt films. I was simply enjoying the music as an audience. Irshad sat down and wrote the lines within 45 minutes. Rahman said let’s sit down and compose the song right now. While it was happening, some people started crying in the studio. Rahman joked ‘what have you done Irshad Kamil, you are making people cry,’” he recalled.

Vida Karo serves as a goodbye to the characters of Chamkila (played by Diljit Dosanjh) and Amarjot (played by Parineeti Chopra), who faced discrimination for their music and ultimately met a tragic end. The song, written by Irshad Kamil and inspired by a poem by Shiv Kumar Batalvi, shows Chamkila accepting his fate while challenging prejudice.

Imtiaz also talked about choosing Arijit to sing the song, mentioning that Rahman suggested him. ” “When a composer sings their song, there is a gravitas and attachment to it. Sometimes you need a singer who can sing the melody with the same attachment. Arijit brings that to the music — he sings truthfully and without milawat. I also enjoy that he sings the whole song. He doesn’t sing one line to bring it in ‘sur’. In this era when people say you can auto tune or get AI to sing the song, he sings truthfully,” he said.

In a recent chat with News18 Showsha, when asked him about what convinced him to say yes to Ali’s latest venture, Rahman said, “I love working with Imtiaz. He is very friendly, you know, with certain people work happens [just] like that and there’s no pressure. With him, there’s never been pressure at all. I always wanted to do Punjabi music. I love the potency in the language in music. So, this was a great opportunity.”