A.R. Rahman’s music often feels like pure magic. He’s shown his incredible talent across many languages in the world of cinema. But even a musical genius like him once realized he needed to learn a new language. He picked up Hindi, not just to connect with more people, but for a deeply personal and artistic reason.
The famous singer and musician has created amazing scores for films in different languages. He’s also crafted music for many well-known Bollywood movies. Recently, he shared why he decided to enter the Hindi film scene. He also opened up about his journey learning Hindi, a decision sparked by a director’s suggestion.
An Embarrassing Moment Led to a Big Change
A.R. Rahman made his Bollywood debut with Ram Gopal Varma’s film ‘Rangeela’, starring Aamir Khan. He mentioned he learned Hindi for this very project. During an interview with NDTV, hosted by Shruti Haasan, Rahman revealed something surprising. He felt ashamed when he heard his own popular Tamil songs dubbed into Hindi, especially because the translations were often too literal.
He found it upsetting. “Every language has its own special feeling,” A.R. Rahman explained. He noticed that when his films like ‘Dil Se’ and ‘Roja’ became hits, people started directly translating his Tamil songs. This led to negative comments from listeners. They would say, “These Hindi lyrics are bad, we’d rather listen to the Tamil version.” Rahman pointed out this happened even when his films were doing well in all three languages. “People were just looking at the money,” he added. That’s when he decided to stop focusing on dubbed tracks and instead create original Hindi film music. He said it took him many years in the industry to truly understand this.
Taking Key Advice to Heart
Rahman also shared a personal detail about his spiritual journey. He said, “I also learned a little Arabic from the Quran.” He spent time reading the Quran Sharif between 1994 and 1997. Interestingly, it was producer Subhash Ghai who gave him the crucial advice to learn Hindi. Ghai told Rahman that knowing Hindi would help him thrive in the industry. A.R. Rahman saw this as wonderful advice. “I took it seriously,” he stated, “and learned Hindi and Urdu.” He feels that Hindi-speaking audiences globally have shown him immense love. Today, he also has a great fondness for the Punjabi language. Looking ahead, A.R. Rahman is busy with Nitesh Tiwari’s upcoming film ‘Ramayana’, where he’s composing music alongside Hollywood legend Hans Zimmer.