AR Rahman responds to Abhijeet slamming him for using technology in music-making

Abhijeet Bhattacharya has often stirred controversies with his comments. Recently, the singer took a dig at Oscar-winning music composer AR Rahman for using technology in the music-making process. The singer slammed the composer saying that his usage of technology is causing the decline of live instrumentation. Abhijeet labelled this practice as a reason behind many instrumentalists being out of work. Now, Rahman has broken his silence on the remarks, giving it back to the singer.

Speaking with Indian Today, AR Rahman said, “It’s nice to blame me for everything. I still love Abhijeet, and I would send cakes to him. Also, it’s his opinion, and there’s nothing wrong with having one. I recently set up an orchestra with 60 women in Dubai. They are being employed every month and are being paid insurance, health, and everything. In every movie that I do, be it Chhaava or Ponniyin Selvan, there are close to 200-300 musicians involved, and some songs have more than 100 people working on them. I don’t show off or post photos with them, and thus no one gets to know about it.”

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Moreover, the celebrated composer added that using technology assists him in experimenting with different harmonies. It allows him in the early stages of the process to sample different harmonies without having to reject musicians if things don’t work out. Subsequently, a team of live instrumentalists renditions the final music. “All the rejections need to be in the soft part, and all finals are always recorded live. One can go to any producers I have worked with to check on how many musicians we get.”

For the unversed, while speaking with ANI, Abhijeet slammed Rahman. He claimed that the composer was the one who encouraged the industry to stop using live musicians. “Baaki jo filmon mein musicians bajate the, woh ab berozgar hain. Mostly thanks to Mr. Rahman. Unhone sabko bataya ki koi zarurat nahin musician ki… sab kuch laptop par ho sakta hai. (The musicians who used to play in films are now without jobs — mostly because of Rahman. He told everyone that they don’t need musicians and everything can happen on a laptop.)”

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Meanwhile, this is not the first time the singer has slammed the composer, he previously criticised his working style. Notably, Abhijeet and Rahman only collaborated on one song, ‘Ae Nazneen Suno Na.’ In an interview, Abhijeet said that Rahman kept delaying the recording, and eventually didn’t show up in the studio. He also mocked Rahman’s rumoured preference for working at odd hours. He said that one cannot mask the lack of a system under creativity.