AR Rahman speaks on the future of music.

A.R. Rahman, credited as one of the most influential music composers in Indian cinema, said good music demands honesty and spirituality. The music maestro is currently doing a series for Amazon Prime Video. Called Harmony with AR Rahman, the series will see him exploring India’s rich music heritage along with preparing for his upcoming North American tour. Follow Spotlife Asia for the latest updates.

Rahman makes a clear distinction between the two genres and how he has fused them in an interesting fashion for Harmony... “Western Classical allows little or no room to improvise as music is written and composed according to the musical notations. Indian Classical, on the other hand, accommodates improvisations,” he explains, adding how viewers will discover a new element in the music of his new series.

When asked about the deterioration of music in Bollywood, the Academy Award-winning composer said that people are not working on integrating music with the story, he believes music should be treated as a character in films and not something that is dispensable.

“Music should become a character. In films like Rockstar and Taal, they had music as a central force. If you treat it like a chewing gum, just one song or two songs and then spit it out, then that’s what you get.”

Rahman, credited as one of the most influential music composers in Indian cinema, said good music demands honesty and spirituality. The music maestro is currently doing a series for Amazon Prime Video. Called Harmony with AR Rahman, the series will see him exploring India’s rich music heritage along with preparing for his upcoming North American tour.

In India, where chart-topping songs come almost exclusively from films, A.R. Rahman occupies a position for which there is no equivalent in North America. Imagine a cross between a renowned film composer (John Williams, say) and a blockbuster recording artist (Michael Jackson, maybe) and you’ll start to have a sense of his celebrity.

“The effort is always to deliver my best, to create an experience that can touch people’s hearts,” says Rahman.

In the process of delivering that experience, almost nothing extreme criticism or praise has stopped him from experimenting with new sounds and tunes. He finds it funny when many come and tell him about his music taking time to grow on them.

This year he completes 25 years in the music industry. Winner of two Oscars and Grammys apart from a BAFTA and a Golden Globe, Rahman says, “When I look back, it’s so complicated. I never thought my journey will be like this. It was for music and I was doing that faithfully. But I never thought I’ll get a larger role. It’s been a blessing,” says Rahman.

Among his fellow Tamils, he’s known as Isai Puyal, or Musical Storm, an apt description for the way his songs have thundered across the Indian film industry and into the national consciousness. His Oscar-winning soundtrack for Slumdog Millionaire is a source of national pride, but redundant in a way: Everyone in India already knew that Rahman’s music rocked.

While the ‘Mozart of Madras’ as he is lovingly called is constantly striving to find the meaning of life through music and spreading the joy of music to the new generation, Rahman says some of his young students keep him on his toes creatively.

Mentioning his music school K.M. College of Music and Technology, he said: “Apart from educating the new generation musically, now we have some new talents stepping into the world of Bollywood. We have our Shashwat Singh, Poorvi Koutish, Nikhita Gandhi. All of them worked in Sanju. When I listen to them, they bring new energy to me and I feel like doing better music now.

“I think that is how I want this to continue. I want them to become a better musician, and then I want to do much better than them,” he said, breaking into laughter.