Fans’ love spurs me to make more music: AR Rahman

Composer talks about his increasing love for music.

MUMBAI: Bollywood music composer AR Rahman, who has produced some remarkable tracks in movies such as Roja, Bombay, Dil Se, Taal and Slumdog Millionaire, announced on Monday that he will go on a road tour called Rahmanishq in October across India. The tour will begin with a concert in Sydney this August.

“This is what keeps me going. Their (the audience) love makes me want to make more and more music,” Rahman said at a press conference about his road tour. The artist, known for his humility said, “Any true artist will have creative ego — without that your work can’t be the best. But you have to be at war with your personal ego.” He feels that there are two kinds of failure. “If failure comes due to nonpreparation or lack of work, then you feel guilty. If it comes through destiny, then you understand that it just turned out that way.”

He is all set for this road tour which will be the first of its kind in two decades and feels this is the right time for it. “Everything has a right time. It is so good that this is happening now. Three years ago, I didn’t even know my future,” he said.

Talking about the cities selected for the tour, Rahman said, “I always wanted to go to cities you usually don’t think of. You generally think of Delhi, Mumbai...the idea was to meet fans in these [other] cities.” He will visit Kolkata, Visakhapatnam, Jaipur and Ahmedabad. The keenness to please his fans shows that he is very passionate about his work and loves his fans.

On his tour, Rahman will be joined by singers such as Javed Ali, Neeti Mohan, Shweta Pandit, and Harshdeep Kaur. “It will be an experience of music, great production, joy and fun,” he said in a very excited tone about the upcoming tour.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 31^st, 2013.

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