A R Rahman is back home with double Oscars

Music director A R Rahman, who arrived home with two Oscars during the early hours on Thursday to a tumultuous welcome, wants India to achieve more, get more Oscars, and through other artistes.


Interacting with the media later in the day, Rahman, who was his friendly self, said, “My hopes of winning an Oscar were only 5 per cent. I concentrated more on the performance because I was taking Indian music onto the world stage.”

He said his music was highlighted because Slumdog Millionaire was a good movie. “It is like the jewel that looks prettier when it is on a beautiful woman.”

Rahman said the movie would have got the same awards even if Danny Boyle had directed it in Hindi and found foreign distributors. He admitted that he took up the project because of Boyle.

Not refuting the viewpoint that Slumdog Millionaire was not his best but only appealed more to Hollywood, he said he thought his score for 'Lagaan' was worthy of an Oscar. “I enjoy my devotional music the most,” he responded to a question on his favourite composition.

When asked what next, now that he had the Oscars and a Golden Globe, he offered, “I’m back in Tamil Nadu.”

He will be doing Hindi, Tamil and Telugu films and he is mulling over three Hollywood offers as well.

Much before his flight landed around 2.20 am, thousands of people queued up outside the airport and at his Kodambakkam residence. Both venues reverberated with percussionist Sivamani’s beats and celebrations went on till dawn at his residence, where his hits were being played since Wednesday.

AR Rahman's Roja Film is still an all time Hit.

Two Oscars for his work in Slumdog Millionaire may have taken AR Rahman's popularity to new heights, but the songs he composed for his 1992 debut film Roja remain the hot favourites with his Indian fans.

A majority of respondents covered by a poll commissioned by Economic Times rate Roja as Rahman’s best film album, with Slumdog coming a close second. Dil Se (1997), Taal (1998) and Bombay (1994) complete the list of the maestro’s top five albums.

Conducted by market research agency Synovate, the five-city survey that covered 257 music lovers among SEC A and A Plus consumers reveal that while a majority of the respondents (86%) across metropolitan India (Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai and Ahmedabad) agree that Rahman’s work in Slumdog is his best, the composer’s work in Roja emerged their favourite when they were asked to name his top three films.

A sizeable chunk of the respondents in Kolkata (86%), Chennai (48%) and Ahmedabad (44%) rated Roja as Rahman’s top album while it was the favourite with 30% of those surveyed in Mumbai. The films Dil Se, Taal and Bombay figured prominently among the favourites in Delhi, Kolkata and Ahmedabad.

Some leading industry figures also feel Slumdog may not be Rahman’s best work to date. “The legacy of Rahman’s music makes it amply clear that he’s capable of much better work than Slumdog Millionaire,” said lyricist Prasoon Joshi. Composer Aadesh Srivastav agrees. “Slumdog Millionaire is not a complete reflection of Rahman’s true genius. It’s mainly fusion music in a foreign director’s film. There are other films where he has done better,” he said.

Besides his two Oscars at the 81st Academy Awards, Rahman also has won four national awards (the only music composer to have done so) and one British Academy Award (also for Slumdog Millionaire). Apart from scoring music of over100 Indian films, Rahman has also composed music for several international projects such as Bombay Dreams (2002), a stage show; The Lord of The Rings (theatre produc-tion in 2004) and Elizabeth: The Golden Age (2007).

A R Rahman Wins 2 Oscars for Slumdog Millionaire Movie

Los Angeles, Feb 23 (IANS) It's "Slumdog Millionaire" all the way. After shining at the Golden Globes and BAFTA, the Mumbai-based film swept the 81st Academy awards winning eight Oscars, making the same fairytale journey that its hero had done in the movie.

Directed by Briton Danny Boyle, based on Indian author and diplomat Vikas Swarup's novel "Q & A", the film had received 10 Oscar nominations, including three for Indian music maestro A.R. Rahman and one for Resul Pookutty for sound mixing.

The film managed to rake in over $100 million from collections across the globe, thougn in India it has grossed only Rs.215 million so far.

Set and filmed in Mumbai, "Slumdog..." narrates the story of an 18-year-old tea boy Jamal Malik, who appears on a quiz show "Kaun Banega Crorepati", the Indian version of British reality show "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?" and ends up being a winner, arousing suspicion from the show host as well as the law enforcement officials.

The film starred British-born Indian actor Dev Patel, Freida Pinto besides well-known Bollywood actors Anil Kapoor and Irrfan Khan apart from others. The screenplay has been written by British writer Simon Beaufoy and co-directed by India-based Loveleen Tandon, who was also the casting director for the film.

List of Oscars won by "Slumdog Millionaire":

1. Best Picture
2. Best director - Danny Boyle
3. Best original song- A.R. Rahman and Gulzar
4. Best original score - A.R. Rahman
5. Best adapted screenplay - Simon Beaufoy
6. Best cinematography - Anthony Dod Mantle
7. Best sound mixing - Ian Tapp, Richard Pryke, Resul Pookutty
8. Best editing - Chris Dickens

Earlier, "Slumdog Millionaire" had created ripples across the international film industry by winning seven BAFTA and four Golden Globe awards.

The film won seven BAFTAs for best film, best director, best original music score, best cinematography, best editing, best sound and best adapted screenplay.

At Golden Globes it bagged awards for best original music score, best motion picture-drama, best director and best writer.

At the 14th Annual Critics' Choice Awards, the film bagged five trophies - best composer, best picture, best director, best writer and best young actor/actress for Dev Patel.