A R Rahman Has Become A Passe in Bollywood
By Sumit Paul, New Age Islam
20 January 2026
In a recent interaction with BBC Asian Network, famous composer A R Rahman made an observation, revealing that he has received significantly less work in Bollywood over the past eight years. He attributed this decline to what he described as the film industry becoming “communal.”
He further said, “Maybe I never got to know of this, maybe it was concealed but I didn’t feel any of this. Maybe in the past eight years because a power shift has happened and people who are not creative have the power now. It might be a communal thing also… but it is not in my face. It comes to me as Chinese whispers that they booked you but the music company went ahead and hired their 5 composers. I say good, I have more time to chill with my family. I am not in search of work. I don’t want to go in search of work. I want work to come to me; my sincerity to earn work. Whatever I deserve, I get.”
Had the film industry been communal, it'd not have tolerated three and a half Khans (Saif Ali Khan being 'half'). Three old Khans in their 60s, Amir, Salman and SRK, have been constantly acting and succeeding for more than three decades. There have been many exceptionally successful Muslims in Bollywood for decades, whether it's direction, singing, composing or acting. In all the spheres of film-making, the contributions of Muslims have always been admired and appreciated because they've been truly talented individuals and some of them like Rafi and Dilip Kumar (Yusuf Khan) were unquestionably great.
A R Rahman must understand that the listeners don't appreciate his brand of repetitive music any longer. There's no communal angle to it. The plain reason is: Listeners are bored with his kind of synthesized music. It lacks the soulfulness and variety of Khayyam (though at times, he was slightly monotonous), Madan Mohan, Chitragupt, Roshan and S D Burman's compositions. Agreed, all the current composers composing music are even worse than A R Rahman, but they're affordable. Producers hesitate to approach Rahman because he's too expensive and also a tad arrogant.
He thinks that his humdrum tunes descend on him just like the verses from Allah descended on Muhammad! He calls his music divine which's in fact, too much noise, unnecessary beats and full of technicalities. Even those who went gaga over his music 20-25 years ago, don't sing or hum his songs anymore. But even after 6 decades, Naushad Ali's immortal composition in raag Jan Sammohini, " Koi saaghar dil ko bahlata nahin " (Film: Dil Diya Dard Liya, Lyricist: Shakeel Badayuni, Singer: Rafi, 1966) is sung and remembered by the cognoscenti.
Rahman should have understood this before accusing Bollywood of being communal. He should also remember that he's not a great or a genius; just a good composer whose time is over. It's, therefore, time for him to bask in past glories.
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A regular columnist for New Age Islam, Sumit Paul is a researcher in comparative religions, with special reference to Islam. He has contributed articles to the world's premier publications in several languages including Persian.
URL: https://newageislam.com/spiritual-meditations/a-r-rahman-become-passe-bollywood/d/138507
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