AR Rahman was composing music during honeymoon while wife slept in another room, recalls brother-in-law

Actor Rahman, who happens to be related to AR Rahman through marriage, spoke about how different the legendary composer is to him. In an interview, he said that Rahman is a more spiritual man than him, and recalled an anecdote about how the composer spent his honeymoon. He said that they are both polar opposites of each other. The actor’s wife is the sister of Rahman’s wife.

In an interview with Siddharth Kannan, the actor was asked how Rahman is as a person and a brother-in-law, and he said, “We’re pole’s apart in character. He’s north and I’m south; it’s like that. He’s reserved, very spiritual; he’s quiet, and very, very dedicated. I’m open. I remember, when he got married, he took my sister-in-law for the honeymoon to a hill station. I called them that night, it was just 12 or 1… She answered, she was sleeping already. I asked, ‘Where is Rahman’. She said, ‘I don’t know’. He was in another room, practicing his veena… He was composing something; he’s that kind of person.”

Also read – Why AR Rahman changed his name from Dilip Kumar, embraced a different faith after meeting a sufi: ‘The truth is I never liked my name’

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The actor said that Rahman likes to be by himself, and doesn’t ‘gossip’ or ‘talk’ much. He continued, “And I’m directly the opposite. I don’t gossip, but I like to listen to gossip!” Rahman has often spoken about embracing spirituality, and his conversion to Islam. At the Oxford Union, he said, “We all have dark times. One thing is definite; it’s a small little travel in this world. We were born, and we’re going to go. It’s not a permanent place for us. Where we’re going to go, we don’t know. (It depends) on each person’s own imagination and beliefs.”

In a chat with The Glenn Gould Foundation, Rahman said that he first contemplated the idea of conversion while witnessing his father’s struggles. “Nobody told us that you have to come to this faith. I was just more peaceful. I felt like something special, like things were working out. The jingles which were rejected, after prayers would get accepted,” he said about embracing Sufiism.