99 Dreams
Last we met, he was shooting for the promotional video of the
Patakha guddi song for
“99 Songs is about music and has layers. It’s not just a love story... It’s about self-discovery… I’m an Academy member; I frequently visit Broadway and London to watch the theatre there. All those associations opened my mind towards the possibility of a musical”
Highway (2014) at the helipad situated atop a hill in Film City. The sun was merciless but AR Rahman was totally lost in the moment, unmindful of the heat and the dust, making sure director Imtiaz Ali got what he wanted. One of the topics discussed during our chat, as we drove from Film City to his studio in Powai, was the possibility of him turning a filmmaker. Now, five years later, I’m interviewing him at the swanky new office of Jio Studios in BKC, Mumbai. His first film as a producer, 99 Songs, is finally ready and is going to release on June 21. A dream fulfilled.
He looks fitter than before and even after marathon meetings is bubbling with enthusiasm as he talks about his new baby. Rahman is said to approach everything with a childlike intensity, perhaps the reason for his longevity as an artiste. The film started as a ‘fairytale’ of an idea, which he developed over long flights, during breaks, writing down things
