The soundtrack of Ram Gopal Varma’s 1995 blockbuster Rangeela, composed by the legendary A.R. Rahman, remains one of Bollywood’s most celebrated musical achievements. However, the path to creating this iconic album was reportedly filled with dramatic challenges and, according to Varma himself, moments of intense frustration, stemming from a rather unexpected culprit: a television set.
The Frustrating Goa Composition Session
Varma, in several interviews, has openly recounted the difficulties he faced in getting the initial music from the prodigious composer. Recalling the composition session for the hit track ‘Hai Rama’, Varma described taking Rahman to a hotel in Goa, envisioning a focused, productive creative retreat. The director’s patience, however, was tested significantly over the course of five days.
Each day, Varma would eagerly check in on the progress, only to be met with vague assurances. Rahman would reportedly say things like, “Ramu, I’m just thinking of something, I’ll make you listen tomorrow,” or “I’ll do one thing, I’ll go to Chennai and I will send you from there.”
Varma grew increasingly agitated, feeling that no actual work was being done. The delay was pushing the film’s schedule and the director, known for his fast-paced style, was at his wit’s end.
The true reason for the delay, revealed by Rahman himself, was remarkably simple and almost comical in its ordinariness. When the composition trip concluded without a single tune being finalized, Varma was left exasperated. It was only then that Rahman confessed what had truly occupied his time during those five days in the scenic Goa hotel room.
Rahman reportedly told the furious director, “Next time you get me to a hotel, make sure there is no TV. Because all this time I was watching TV.”
Varma vividly recalls his reaction to this confession, stating, “I wanted to hit him,” in a mix of incredulous rage and humor. The revelation that the maestro had spent five days distracted by television instead of working on one of the year’s biggest film soundtracks speaks volumes about the composer’s unique, and sometimes maddening, creative process.
Despite the early creative friction and the bizarre TV-induced delays, Varma acknowledges that the end result was worth every moment of waiting. After returning to Chennai, Rahman eventually delivered the complete score, which went on to become an instant classic.
Varma was initially skeptical of some tunes. For example, for ‘Hai Rama,’ Varma had wanted a highly “erotic” number, even citing ‘Kaate Nahi Katte’ from Mr. India as a tonal reference. What Rahman sent back was a melody that Varma first thought was a mistake—something that sounded like a “classical Carnatic raga.”
He called Rahman to confront him, but the composer calmly stood by his work. Varma admitted that the tune, which he found jarring at first, slowly grew on him. He later described Rahman’s music as “slow poison”—it might sound unusual initially, but it eventually embeds itself deeply into the listener’s mind.
Ultimately, the genius of A.R. Rahman’s unconventional approach was undeniable. Varma conceded that for something truly great, one must have the patience to wait, a lesson he learned directly from the making of Rangeela’s monumental soundtrack.
Ram Gopal Varma’s anecdote about the television and the creative delay offers a fascinating glimpse into the human side of artistic collaboration between two fiercely independent, visionary personalities, proving that even legendary creative endeavors can be held up by something as mundane as the lure of the remote control. To know such latest updates, stay tuned to tellyboosters.com Thank you!
