Recently, AR Rahman suggested in an interview that he hasn't been getting enough work because of his religious identity. He also described the Hindi movie, Chhaava, as "divisive". Since Chhaava is deemed a Hindutva movie, Right Wingers have been trolling Rahman non-stop. Many handles have opined that Rahman deliberately tried to hurt Chhaava by composing a weak background score. While it is true that Chhaava's BGM was bad, one can't be sure whether he did it on purpose.
Pro-BJP and pro-Hindutva handles have also pulled out an old RGV interview to whine against Rahman. In the interview, Varma revealed that the Oscar-winning Jai Ho from Slumdog Millionaire was tuned by Sukhwinder Singh, the playback singer. Rahman had bought it from him for Rs 5 lakh. In another interview, Varma said that he was aghast to find that Rahman wasted five days in Goa during the making of Rangeela. Any music lover will tell you that Rangeela's music was top-notch; most producers didn't mind Rahman's "notorious delays" because they knew that his songs alone were enough to ensure footfalls.
Rahman was paid a bomb for composing the anthem for Commonwealth Games 2010. The song, however, fared badly. This example has been highlighted by netizens as proof that Rahman has been rewarded despite his "mediocrity". Well, by then, Rahman had worked in the music industry for nearly two decades. He was not in his prime and most composers run out of their best tunes after tirelessly working for two decades. How many great songs has Maestro Ilaiyaraaja composed in the last 25 years?
There is absolutely no way that Rahman is anything less than a genius. Granted that his output has been poor since the early 2010s (barring a few exceptions like Enthiran). However, he ruled the roost as India's most iconic composer since his debut with Roja for a period of two decades.
