‘AR Rahman doesn’t know Hindi’: Rabbi Shergill says lyrics in Bollywood became ‘secondary’ with composer

He further added, “I feel after Rahman came, the lyrics in the Hindi film industry became secondary and if lyrics become secondary, that means expression becomes secondary, it means that somewhere your humanity and existence become secondary, this is my issue with Rahman.”

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However, Rabbi clarified that he does not blame Rahman for this, pointing out that Hindi is not the composer’s primary language. “It is not his fault because it is not his language. He doesn’t understand it. The stuff that he does in Tamil music is really representative of him. It is another ball game, at least that’s what I hear.”

Talking about Rahman as a human being and his spiritual side, Rabbi said, “At human level, I found him incredibly soft and extremely nice. I think he spends his time in pursuits that are almost saintly. People tell me that if he has time for two days, he will just disappear and will be found at a Sufi shrine. Deep down, he is spiritually a very evolved person. My only issue is and it is not even with him. It is with the music industry. If somebody doesn’t understand your language, I think it was your call. You need to explain all of that to him.”

AR Rahman earlier spoke about learning Hindi, Urdu, Arabic and even Punjabi later in his career, years after making a mark in the Hindi film industry. “It was after ten years of my career that I realised this,” he shared. “I even learned a bit of Arabic from our holy book, the Quran. Between 1994 and 1997, I devoted time to studying and reading the Quran Sharif. When I met Subhash Ghai, he told me, ‘You’re a great composer, but without learning Hindi, you won’t last.’ I thought it was beautiful advice. I took it seriously and learned Hindi and Urdu,” Rahman added. “The love from Hindi-speaking audiences around the world is extraordinary — and now, I even love Punjabi too.”