Source : INDIA TODAY NEWS
AR Rahman isn’t losing sleep over every opinion coming his way over the music of Nitesh Tiwari’s Ramayana: Rise of a Legend. The composer, who has faced questions about the sound and treatment of the recently released song Mangal Rang, has a rather straightforward response to the criticism. Quoting Steve Jobs, he said, “If you want to satisfy everyone, go sell ice cream.”
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Rahman also offered a glimpse into the thinking that goes into his compositions, explaining that music isn’t always meant to be understood immediately. He said he often spends months living with a tune before deciding what works, adding that listeners sometimes need to give a piece of music time before judging it.
“I am my first critic. It is not that I just love everything I do. We don’t decide something in a day. We live with it for months sometimes. There’s a thought process,” he said in an interview with Screen.
Using an interesting food analogy, Rahman compared certain compositions to pickle, suggesting that some tunes only get better with time. “Sometimes you need to take anthropology into consideration. Sometimes, you let something be, like pickle: for certain tunes, the older it is, the better it becomes,” he said.
He added that listeners can sometimes focus on just one aspect of a composition without considering the larger idea behind it. “But people sometimes see one side. They don’t see the whole picture, right? So sometimes you just have to be patient. And they discover it and say, ‘Oh, that’s why you did this’ or ‘that’.”
However, Rahman acknowledged that there’s only so much importance one can give to public opinion. After a point, he believes, a composer has to learn to move on rather than get caught up in trying to please everyone. That’s where he brought up Jobs’ famous ice cream remark.
Mangal Rang and Ravana Tandav criticism
The comments come after Mangal Rang, featuring Arijit Singh and Shreya Ghoshal, with lyrics by Kumar Vishwas, sparked a debate over its musical treatment. The song depicts the wedding of Lord Rama and Goddess Sita, but some listeners questioned its perceived qawwali influences and whether the arrangement suited the setting of the epic.
While some wanted the music to sound more rooted in Sanatan Dharma, others felt the electronic treatment of the Ravana tandava lacked the energy they expected. The lyrics also came under scrutiny, with some listeners questioning whether they had the emotional depth and fluidity associated with Rahman’s compositions.
Speaking about his collaboration with Oscar-winning composer Hans Zimmer, Rahman said the Hollywood composer’s association with Ramayana could bring a new set of viewers to the film. “His name coming in Ramayana would bring a whole set of new audience curiosity,” he said.
He also offered a sense of the scale of the project, describing it as “probably like 10 movies’ worth of work”. “The film has a score, and it has songs, and it has probably like 10 movies’ worth of work, where there were five different languages and two different versions: the Hollywood version and the Indian version,” he said.
Directed by Nitesh Tiwari and produced by Namit Malhotra, Ramayana: Rise of a Legend stars Ranbir Kapoor as Lord Rama, Sai Pallavi as Sita, Yash as Ravana, Ravie Dubey as Lakshman and Sunny Deol as Lord Hanuman.
The first instalment is set to release in theatres worldwide on November 5, 2026, with the second part scheduled for Diwali 2027.
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SOURCE :- TIMES OF INDIA
