Music legend AR Rahman is in the eye of a storm after his polarising comment about the Hindi film industry on Thursday (January 15). When asked about his reducing frequency of works in Bollywood and potential change in political climate, Rahman hinted at possible communal angle to Bollywood in the last eight years. This comment has drawn widespread reactions on either extreme on social media and outside it.
On Friday (January 16), VHP national spokesperson Vinod Bansal hit out at Rahman for his comments on the Bollywood industry. Bansal felt that Rahman's thoughts lacked gratitude to an industry that had embraced him during a period when no other music director from south India had managed to make a mark in Hindi. Bansal also made a taunting remark, asking Rahman to re-convert to Hinduism.
"Instead of looking within himself, that's why he is not getting work, he is badmouthing the system and defaming the entire industry," said Bansal in a video posted by ANI.
"What does he want to prove? He was once a Hindu himself. Why did he convert to Islam? Do 'gharwapasi' now. Maybe you will start getting work once again...Such petty statements can be made by a politician, it does not suit an artist."
For those unaware, Rahman's original name was AS Dileep Kumar and he converted from Hinduism to Islam in 1989 along with his entire family after being reportedly influenced by a Sufi saint. On conversion, the inevitable name change also happened from AS Dileep Kumar to Allah Rakha Rahman or AR Rahman as we know today.
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Rahman's comments on Bollywood weren't critical in its entirety. In fact, he had praised the industry for embracing him wholeheartedly during the 1980s, 1990s and 2000s but had only expressed his opinion at the political scenario since 2017-18. While the comment can be considered as a subjective take, Rahman's words have clearly upset the apple cart of the public and politicians.
"Maybe I didn't get to know all this stuff. Maybe God concealed all this stuff. But for me, I never felt any of those, but the past eight years, maybe, because the power shift has happened," Rahman had said as quoted by PTI.
"People who are not creative have the power now to decide things, and this might have been a communal thing also, but not in my face. It comes to me as Chinese whispers that they booked you, but the music company went ahead and hired their five composers. I said, 'Oh, that's great, rest for me, I can chill out with my family."