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Whenever Ram Gopal Varma’s name comes up, the films that are most often mentioned are Shiva, Satya, Company, and sometimes even Kaun or Sarkar. Yet, perhaps the most underrated among them, despite boasting a strong cast, is the 1995 musical Rangeela, starring Jackie Shroff, Aamir Khan, and Urmila Matondkar. Long before Satya put RGV firmly on the mapit was Rangeela that announced his arrival, and much of the credit goes to the film’s chart-topping soundtrack, composed by none other than AR Rahman.
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While Rahman’s music continues to be celebrated worldwide, RGV recently opened up in an interview with Pinkvilla about the challenges behind the composing process, which were far from smooth despite the soundtrack’s eventual success. He revealed that Rahman, “notorious for his delays” in RGV’s experience, took his own time delivering the music. Recalling the composition of the song “Hai Rama”, RGV said:
“We went to Goa for the composition of the ‘Hai Rama’ song. We were there for five days. First day he told me, ‘Ramu, I’m just thinking of something, I’ll make you listen tomorrow.’ Second day he said something else. Third day he said something… all five days he was not doing anything. And then he said, ‘I’ll do one thing, I’ll go to Chennai and I will send you from there.’”
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RGV further recalled, “And then he told me, ‘Next time you get me to a hotel, make sure there is no TV. Because all this time I was watching TV.’ I wanted to hit him, you know. But then, when he finally came up with that ‘Hai Rama’ song, obviously, I guess for great things one needs to have the patience to wait. And it’s worth it at the end of the day, which is what he proved.”
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Previously, marking 30 years of Rangeela, RGV spoke to O2 India about the first time he heard the song “Hai Rama”. He revealed, “I wanted a very erotic number. At the back of my mind, I had ‘Kaate Nahi Katte’ from Mr India as a reference. I described to him how we wanted to shoot it, and he came up with this tune.” Humming the track, RGV recalled his initial reaction: “I thought he had gone mad. I thought, by mistake, he had sent me something else, some classical Carnatic raga.”
He even called Rahman to confront him. “I asked him, ‘I wanted something erotic, and you’ve sent me this?’ Rahman told me, ‘Sir, this is made for the same situation.’ I was like, how can we fit this situation with that tune?” At first, RGV remained unconvinced. But after repeated listening, the magic of Rahman’s composition gradually revealed itself: “When I had the CD with me, I kept playing it every once in a while, and then suddenly, it got stuck in my head.”
