Entertainment

AR Rahman Tackles Ramayana Score Amid Mixed Reactions, Collaborates with Hans Zimmer

By Suanshu Khurana

About 25 years ago, Academy Award‑winning composer AR Rahman gave an austere musical expression to faith, an idea that has since become increasingly fraught in India’s public discourse. In “O paalanhaare,” a Krishna bhajan in Ashutosh Gowariker’s *Lagaan* (2001), penned by Javed Akhtar and sung by Lata Mangeshkar, Rahman delivered a melody with rare tenderness that emerges at a moment of absolute despair, when the villagers pray for a solution to a looming defeat in a cricket match with the British that could force a community to pay three times the land tax. The profundity of the composition is hidden in its simplicity.

Born Arunachalam Shekhar Dileep Kumar, Rahman lost his father and composer RK Shekhar when he was nine and learned music as a session artiste. His family’s subsequent embrace of Islam shaped his spiritual journey, allowing him to draw from diverse devotional traditions. This background may explain the grace in “O paalanhaare.”

In 2026, over two decades later, Rahman has composed the music for producer Namit Malhotra and director Nitesh Tiwari’s upcoming mythological action‑drama *Ramayana: Rise of a Legend* alongside acclaimed German composer Hans Zimmer. The project places Rahman in a demanding encounter with the sacred, as he navigates a space between musical innovation and religious tradition. The epic’s characters have been worshipped, sung about and debated for centuries, and the film’s audience has very specific ideas about what the music should sound like.

The social media criticism of the song “Mangal rang” in the film, which stars Ranbir Kapoor, Sai Pallavi and Yash, began almost instantly after its release last week. Many were concerned about the song’s qawwali‑like treatment, questioning whether a composition in a film on the Ramayana should adopt that style. Some listeners wanted music “rooted in Sanatan Dharma,” while others felt the high‑energy Ravana tandava was too electronic and low on energy. A section of the audience also raised questions about the lyrics by Kumar Vishwas, a poet rather than a lyricist, and the use of the word “rang,” which appears in Amir Khusrau’s Sufi piece “Aaj rang hai” but is also common in Krishna and Ram bhajans.

Rahman, who has spent much of his three‑decade career challenging established ideas of what Indian film music should sound like, is no stranger to criticism. He said in a Zoom conversation with *The Indian Express* from his studio in Chennai’s Kodambakkam that “we don’t decide something in a day. We live with it for months sometimes.” He added that “sometimes you need to take anthropology into consideration” and that “people sometimes see one side. They don’t see the whole picture.” He also said that after a while one must learn not to be bothered by every comment, comparing the experience to Steve Jobs’ remark that “if you want to satisfy everyone, go sell ice cream.”

For “Mangal rang,” Rahman drew from shuddh (natural) notes of Bilawal as the parent scale, with touches of Maand – the serene raga often used in bhajans and wedding songs – and elements of the romantic Pahadi. This differs from the komal (lowered/flat) notes used in qawwali’s parent scales such as Kafi, Khamaj and Asavari. He was attempting to locate the tune in the familiar realm of devotional traditions, though the song’s melodic direction toward a Sufi space has been questioned by some.

When Zimmer, known for sweeping orchestral scores in films such as *Interstellar* (2014), *Inception* (2010) and *Gladiator* (2000), was brought in, Malhotra was looking at the best of East and West. Rahman believes Zimmer’s presence will invite a different audience to engage with a story so important to the Subcontinent’s cultural imagination. He said, “His name coming in Ramayana would bring a whole set of new audience curiosity. 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 and also the kind of pressure the whole team had for every note, every tune.”

Despite the criticism, “Mangal rang” climbed the charts to claim the top spot on YouTube’s trending music chart this week. Rahman’s music has often been about finding a musical language for stories without necessarily banking on their most familiar sounds. His recent work on Imtiaz Ali’s *Main Vaapas Aaunga* (2026), a Partition saga, is a case in point. The beauty lay in how effortlessly some of the melodies carried love, loss and longing, not all emerging from the conventional Punjabi tradition. The synergy between Rahman and lyricist Irshad Kamil was seamless. Kamil said, “There is always scope to add a word or two with Rahman saab; for a lyricist to experiment and complete meanings. One feels a lot of freedom while working with him besides of course the brilliance of his melodies.”

Rahman explained that when he first worked with Kamil on *Rockstar* (2011), it was not just about working together but about creating something that they could be “happy and proud of.” That approach continued with *Tamasha* (2015), *Highway* (2014), *Amar Singh Chamkila* (2024) and now *Main Vaapas Aaunga*. He said, “Highway was supposed to be one song, and we ended up with 14 different tracks. Because I was just writing things and he was fitting those things. Same with Tamasha. Even though he liked one track, I said, can this be better? He said how better? I said the tune could be better. Imtiaz had not shot for the film. The biggest blessing for me is if you have time to improve something.”

Rahman also noted that Hindi cinema has gradually moved from an older tradition of composing songs specifically for a film’s characters and their journeys to a convenient way of selecting different pieces of music – sometimes from different composers – and placing them where they seem to fit. He said, “They started picking things like Hollywood, which was convenient. But this integration of understanding lyrics and the characters and doing music for a complete movie, showed what the real soundtrack (in today’s times) could be. You know, in a way, I think it was a nice comeback for this kind of score.”

Rahman’s observation also speaks of a larger shift in an industry now influenced by algorithms, streaming figures and the pressure to produce music that is reel‑friendly. He is no stranger to the world of instant impressions and recalls. Before Mani Ratnam’s *Roja* (1992) catapulted him into national consciousness, he began his career with jingles, where he had about 30 seconds to get into people’s heads and sell a product. He adapted from Mozart’s Symphony No. 25 for an ad for Titan Watches, a punchy synth‑heavy jingle with Sachin Tendulkar and Kapil Dev for Boost and a veena and flute piece for Leo Coffee.

Rahman said, “These jingles were short and catchy. I had to expand as a full film composer. It was like, if I do a 32‑second jingle which becomes popular, how can I do a five‑minute song? So I literally took the same effort to put many 30‑second pieces together to make a five‑minute song.” He added that his upcoming projects include Shekhar Kapur’s *Masoom: The Next Generation*, Mani Ratnam’s *Inji Vellam* and *Ramayana: Part 2*.

Besides composing for *Ramayana*, Rahman has spent over a year on his ‘Wonderment Tour’, which began last year in Mumbai, expanded internationally, including a North American leg and has again returned to India for a multi‑city 2026–2027 run. He has also become a performer, though he was a reluctant performer early in his career. He first performed at the Malaysia Benefit Concert in 1996 to raise funds for the victims of the Bosnian War. He said, “Back in the day, composers had to go with actors to pull people. But I remember, in 2000, Sukhwinder Singh, Hariharan, Shankar Mahadevan, Sonu Nigam… they all came and people thought, great, this is a musical show. That changed the whole game.”

Rahman explained that the Malaysian concert was followed by the ‘Unity of Light’ tour, which took place while the Iraq War was on in 2003. He said, “It was then that I met my spiritual teacher who gave me a new perspective on life… He made me think, in my small and humble way, that I could be a bridge between the two divided worlds.”

The initial challenge during concerts was translating the intricate, layered sound of his studio recordings into live performances. He said, “At the time, it was very difficult to interpret so much of studio work into live.” The turning point came around 2015, when percussionist Ranjit Barot, his long‑time associate, became music director of his live concerts. “Things loosened up. What was before like a nightmare to be on stage became like, ‘oh okay, I’m going to my living room on a piano to play’. In the studio, you’re just listening to yourself. But during live when you see people singing your songs back again, I see them as one soul… I was completely a non‑performer. But then I questioned myself. Would I like to see somebody behind the keyboard hiding or somebody who can entertain people? Slowly, I changed a little bit, and I started joking around, goofing around, and singing. If I haven’t rehearsed properly, I am a nervous performer,” he said with a half‑deprecating smile, all set to get out there anyway.