A R Rahman reveals he learned Hindi to stay away from THIS humiliation; composer says, ‘Bad comments like…’ |
AR Rahman is one of the greatest singers of India. The music maestro hails from the state of Tamil Nadu and has contributed music in various languages. In a recent interview, he explained why he decided to venture into the Hindi film industry. He debuted with Ram Gopal Varma‘s ‘Rangeela’, starring Aamir Khan. Let’s read what he has to say.AR Rahman shares he learned Hindi for THISIn an interview with NDTV hosted by Shruti Haasan, the Mozart of Madras—AR Rahman—shared that he felt embarrassed after listening to his Tamil songs dubbed in Hindi with literal translations. According to him, every language carries an “aura” with it.
He said, “When my movies like ‘Dil Se’ and ‘Roja’ did well, people started making literal translations of Tamil songs. It was humiliating for me to see bad comments like, “These Hindi lyrics suck; I would rather listen to the Tamil version.”AR Rahman added that this situation came into existence after the movies from all three languages were doing great at the box office.He said, “People saw money. That’s when I started focusing on doing more Hindi-oriented movies instead of dubbed ones.”The composer further shared that he realized this fact after working for several years in the industry. He said, “I even learned a bit of Arabic from our holy book, the Quran. Between 1994 and 1997, I devoted time to studying and reading the Quran Sharif.”He recalled filmmaker Subhash Ghai’s advice about learning Hindi for his own survival. The singer-composer called it “beautiful advice.” He said, “I took it seriously and learned Hindi and Urdu.”Rahman expressed that the love from the Hindi audience around the world is massive. He added that he now even loves the Punjabi language.AR Rahman’s upcoming projectThe music composer has joined hands with Hollywood legend Hans Zimmer for Nitesh Tiwari‘s next ‘Ramayana’. The movie will be out in two parts—first in Diwali 2026 and second in Diwali 2027.
