Bollywood director Imtiaz Ali made a startling confession about Oscar-winning music director AR Rahman. Imtiaz and Rahman worked together for the first time in Rockstar in 2011. Their went on to collaborate on many other projects, including Highway (2014), Tamasha (2015) and Amar Singh Chamkila (2024). In a new round table chat with Rahman, Mohit Chauhan and Irshad Kamil, Imtiaz said he was not happy neither nervous about meeting Rahman. Instead, he went to meet him like it was a responsibility.
“I was not happy, I don’t think I was nervous either. But it wasn’t as though, ‘Oh, I’m happy that I am going to meet AR Rahman. It was just like a responsibility,” Imtiaz said, in a video released by Netflix India. “The producer, I believe, told him, ‘Get him!'” AR Rahman recalled.
“So the producers at UTV said that we will take you to Chennai, we’ll put you in a room with him, you can tell him the story of Rockstar. In one way or the other, catch him because he doesn’t say yes or no. You have to get a yes from him. And then he comes in and said, ‘Yeah, what is your story.’ I started saying the story. I went on and on. I knew when I was looking at him and talking to him, I had a sense that it’s going all over. It wasn’t registering in his head,” Imtiaz said.
“Then I stopped and again started but this time, I said in the beginning, there is a dark screen, we hear some sort of the music and then we hear these lines (Nadaan Parinde lyrics),” Imtiaz added. He narrated the lines, “Kaga Re Kaga Mori Itni Araz Tose Chun Chun Khaiyo Maas, Re Jiya Re Khaiyon Na Tu Naina Mor, Piya Ke Milan Ki Aas.” Imtiaz said Rahman asked him the meaning of the lyrics. As soon as it was translated, Imtiaz felt a shift in Rahman’s interest in the film. “At that point of time, I got a sense that we are on and maybe he will do it,” he said.
Rockstar released in 2011 and is considered as a cult classic. The film starred Ranbir Kapoor in the lead and marked Nargis Fakhri’s Bollywood debut.
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