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Congratulations A.R.Rahman on winning 2003 MTV Asia Awards

Topic started by Indian (@ 202.4.190.67) on Sat Jan 25 23:24:16 EST 2003.
All times in EST +10:30 for IST.

Indian Music Moghul A.R.Rahman has done us proud again by winning the 2003 MTV Asia Awards for
"Favourite Music Artist - India".

Hearty Congratulations to A.R.Rahman on behalf of all music lovers.

Winners in some other categories

favourite male artist - Robbie Williams
favourite female artist - Avril Lavigne
favourite breakthrough artist - Avril Lavigne
favourite pop act - Blue
favourite rock act - Linkin Park
favourite video - Linkin Park

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Responses:

• From: Indian (@ 202.4.190.67) on: Sat Jan 25 23:27:15 EST 2003
  
  
  http://www.hindustantimes.com/news/181_146930,0005.htm
  
  
• From: Indian (@ 202.4.190.67) on: Sat Jan 25 23:27:35 EST 2003
  
  http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/cms.dll/html/uncomp/articleshow?artid=35396168
  
  
• From: Paran (@ 210.193.13.186) on: Sun Jan 26 05:36:39 EST 2003
  
  Congratulations Rahmanji...
  
  May God Bless You..always...
  
  
• From: geeth (@ 195.226.230.37) on: Sun Jan 26 06:48:11 EST 2003
  
  Congrats to ARR for getting the favourite Indian music artiste award.
  
  
• From: Are Yaar (@ 203.115.31.67) on: Mon Jan 27 04:23:22 EST 2003
  
  Latest ARR's interview for FF magazine
  ---------------------------------------
  
  Your stints abroad seem to be getting longer. How much time doyou spend in india these days?
  
  It all depends on the nature of my project abroad. On an average I spend six months of the year outside of the country. This year it has been a little more than that because of bombay dreams. But please, london is nt my base as some peope seem t think. Chennai will always be home for me. Because that's where my family and my studio are. But yes london has become a cultural centre for me, halfway between mumbai and newyork.
  
  How important has andrew lloyd webbers bombay dreams been for your career?
  
  It came out of the blue. I always thought id do film compostions and maybe some non film albums but never a play. I didn't know the importance of a musical until I watched a few after I was signed for bombay dreams. That's when it hit me that there so I much I can do in this area too. BD has been a rewarding experience. The critics havent been too kind to the play but they've liked the music.
  
  Anyway all the flak has now faded. I think BD has a charm of its own. It has certainly made a very strong impact in England. When I stop out of a flight in london, asaians tell me"we were thumbs down before BD. Now we are thumbs up." And when I speak to andrew now, he scares me a little. He keeps telling me I have to establish a base in london.
  
  Are you contemplating that possibility?
  
  There are unlimited opportunities out there but my roots are in chennai so it's a bit confusing right now.
  
  The problem is that the whole music industry here is going through a slump. Sure my music is selling but when the whole business is on the blink you cant prosper. On the other hand there s a lot happening in the west including soundtrack offers from hollywood. It's a tough decision to take. I cant chuck up everything here and leave just like that.
  
  Ten years ago it was my dream to study music and work abroad. It's a different high to see your work being appreciated there but more important is the work ive done at home in the last 10 years because that's whats got me western attention in the first place.
  
  Icant leave my home behind. But at the same time I must move on. Anyway I guess life hasa way of working itself out. I always feel god decicdes the right time for everything that happens. If he doesn't will it nothing happens.
  
  What kind of offers do you have from the west?
  
  There have been quite a few including a cross over movie for columbia pictures. I got offers for two films with major directors in hollywood but they didn't excite me. I also have an offer to do a philharmonic album. Im toying with various ideas.
  
  Im off to london again to do a couple of songs for an artsite called karen david from toronto. This is my first attempt at composing in the the english language. I hope I succeed.
  
  What according to you ails popular indian music?
  
  Popular film music in india has reached a dead end. That's what happens when people being to play safe. If you have durable melodies and good poetry people will respond to them at least over a period of time. When I see the so called difficult songs being sung effortlessly by children on tvs talent scouting contest, sa re ga ma pa, I realise that the most hummable songs are those that touch on life. Composers take the easy way out and make tunes that hit the charts for a month and then exit. Therefore nothing memorable is created.
  
  But I wonder why an album like my TLOBS didn't work. I worked really hard on it. I had to invent new tunes for established classics like mer rang de....and then nothing happened ! tragically if a movie doesn't do well, everything including the music falls by the wayside. I think people got put off tby the element of terrorism tthat'sunderlined the overt patriotism in bhagat singhs story.
  
  Well your new hindi score Saathiya is one of the few winning albums of 2002
  
  Hmmmm that's good. After taal all my music like that for lagaan , zubeida and TLOBS have been period specific. After a long time with saathiya a music soundtrack of mine has been liberated from a specific situation. That's why it has been liked.
  
  Yes a lot of the music is from the tamil original that's because it's the same story. When I had heard the story it conjured up a specific set of ideas in my mind. When ihad to do the same thing in hindi again I couldn't revise those images. There were however two tunes that didn't fit in the hindi version so I composed two new tunes.
  
  After saathiya I ve got m f husain's meenaxi coming up in a couple of months. Its got a quawali, a romantic song and an abstract song.
  
  How do you connect your work in indian films to an international sound?
  
  For me music is music. It doesn't belong to any region. My theme in Bombay was done in tamil and then in hindi and soon it was playing oall over europe and australia. If a tune comes to me, it takes wings. The problme now is the shrinking film market in india. Because the budgets for films are shrinking so are the funds for composing the music. So my creative vision has to be tailored to suit the altered financial state. This is the first time im facing this situation in the last 10 years and I don't relish it. For one recent tamil film, I had a mental bloc for 10 days because my vision was far bigger than what the film requried.
  
  Every major filmmaker in mumbai wants to work with you
  
  Im honoured and flattered. Im always in chennai and mumbai. Im open to more offers in mumbai. I dotn know why they fnid me hard to reach. Im easily accessible. Now im working with subhash ghai on a very interesting project. We ve recorded one song.
  
  How are you selecting your assingments in mumbai and chennai
  
  A good producer is a must. See between 2000 and 2002 nine of my projects in hindi and a couple in tamil never took off. So 70 percent of my output during this period has nt been released. It was frustrating because there were so many people waiting to work with me and I had to turn them down to do work that enver got released. I know what the industry si going through. But im hoping something like my work in deepa mehta's WATER gets released.
  
  Did she offfer you hollywood bollywood
  
  Yes she did. But I had to do bombay dreams. Shuttlign between london and toronto was difficult. It takes me one week to get my bearings after I go to a new place. I have to decide where to put down my coffee mug before I get down to creating music.
  
  Are you going to clooaborate further with ALW?
  
  He wants to do an opera with me though I don't know what he has in mind. I ll know soon I guess! Then shekhar kapur wants to do film called panni. It's a futurstic film set in mumbai. Lets see if it happens. Shekhar has started working on the script.
  
  How life treating you ?
  
  I take everday as it comes. Everyday is manned by destiny. No point in going against whats destined but when you get the chance you shouldn't goof up. I have to live upto my commitments constantly. Millions of rupees are invested in these projects and I dotn wante to be the cause of any delay.
  
  How much is your family life affected by your constant work load?
  
  Not much. My studio in chennai is in the house. We also spend tiem together in london. I take the children there during their holidays. Ive never been away from home much. Right now I spend about 1 5 days in london after every two months in chennai to maintain my links abroad.
  
  
  
  
  
  

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