{"id":376161,"date":"2026-01-18T01:46:09","date_gmt":"2026-01-18T01:46:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/376161\/"},"modified":"2026-01-18T01:46:09","modified_gmt":"2026-01-18T01:46:09","slug":"communal-reason-for-not-getting-work-remark-by-ar-rahman-sparks-outcry-india-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/376161\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Communal reason for not getting work?’ Remark by AR Rahman sparks outcry | India News"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"'Communal Composer A R Rahman’s claims that he possibly faced instances of “communal” discrimination in the last eight years in Bollywood caused an outcry on Saturday. During an interview with BBC Asian Network, Rahman was asked, “…today there’s a lot of discrimination against the Tamil community within Bollywood. What was it like in the 1990s. Did you ever face…”Before the question was completed, Rahman answered, “Maybe I didn’t get to know all this stuff. Maybe God concealed all this stuff (laughed). I never felt all those…” before he went on to say, “Past eight years, maybe, because the power shift has happened… people who are not creative have the power now to decide things. And this might have been a communal thing also, but not in my face. But I would hear like Chinese whispers that this happened. And they booked you and the music company went and funded the movie and got five composers. And I said, ‘Oh, that’s great. Rest for me’.”The answer put out verbatim suggested there was a possible communal angle to some producers preferring other musicians. The interview said \u201cyou\u2019re very proud of the soundtrack of \u2018Chhaava\u2019 and it is a really good soundtrack, but it is a divisive film.\u201dThe composer said, \u201cIt is\u2026 I think it cashed on divisiveness. But I think the core of it is to show bravery.\u201dInterestingly, A R Rahman said that the director insisted on him working for the project. In his words, \u201cThe director, I told him like, \u2018why do you need me for this?\u2019 He said, \u2018We need only you for this\u2019.\u201d \u2018Chhaava\u2019, directed by Laxman Utekar, was among biggest hits of 2025.The maestro has won a clutch of National Awards for best music; more recently for \u2018Kaatru Veliyidai\u2019 (Tamil, 2017) and \u2018Mom\u2019 (Hindi, 2017) and \u2018Ponniyin Selvan 1\u2019 (Tamil, 2022).Writer-lyricist Javed Akhtar sought to play down the controversy. Speaking to IANS, Akhtar said, \u201cPeople in Mumbai have great respect for him. Maybe they think he has got busy with the West (producers). Or they think he is busier with his big shows. Small producers are also scared to approach him. I don\u2019t think there is any communal element.\u201dBollywood singer Shaan also said there\u2019s unlikely to be any communal angle to the situation. He told IANS, \u201cI have sung so much over the years, yet even I don\u2019t get work at times. But I don\u2019t take it personally, because it is a personal matter; everyone has their own thinking and their own preferences\u2026 Rahman saab has a signature style and he is a great composer. His number of fans hasn\u2019t gone down, but are increasing. I don\u2019t think there is any communal or minority angle in music. Music doesn\u2019t work that way.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Composer A R Rahman’s claims that he possibly faced instances of “communal” discrimination in the last eight years…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":376162,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[109844,143127,390,6491,143129,143130,96,4903,308,4501,4901,143128,4902,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-376161","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-ar-rahman","tag-bollywood-discrimination","tag-breaking-news","tag-celebrities","tag-chhaava-movie-soundtrack","tag-communal-angle-in-bollywood","tag-entertainment","tag-google-news","tag-india","tag-india-news","tag-india-news-today","tag-tamil-community-bollywood","tag-today-news","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/376161","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=376161"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/376161\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/376162"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=376161"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=376161"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=376161"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}