‘Is AR Rahman crazy? What a horrible song’: Ram Gopal Varma recalls first response to Rangeela music, reveals how the ‘slow poison’ worked

He even called Rahman to confront him. “I asked him, ‘I wanted something erotic, and you’ve sent me this?’ Rahman told me, ‘Sir, this is made for the same situation.’ I was like, how can we fit this situation with that tune?”

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Explaining his choice, Rahman shared in the same interview: “If you look at the roots of our culture—including Hindu mythology—songs have always been about ragas. There is a raga for each emotion, and that is the foundation of music. If that is lost and you create a song just for the sake of cheesy lyrics, it becomes too crass and unhealthy for me. I was trying to make it interesting and rooted in our culture.”

At first, RGV simply couldn’t be convinced. But something changed after repeated listening. “When I had the CD with me, I kept playing it every once in a while, and then suddenly, it got stuck in my head.”

Rahman remembered watching Varma’s transformation in the studio. “I was confident this would work. When we produced it, I saw him getting restless, walking around the studio, and already imagining the shots he wanted to take during that song.”

Eventually, when the track was fully produced, RGV admitted it blew him away. “I had never imagined that the tune could be presented like that, in that format.”

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But it wasn’t just “Haaye Rama”—RGV also doubted “Spirit of Rangeela”. “When he sent me Spirit of Rangeela, I was with my cousin. We heard it together, and my cousin’s first reaction was, ‘It’s horrible.’ Now I was confused. I didn’t know if it was good or bad. I had something else in my mind and didn’t expect what Rahman delivered. And when my cousin called it horrible, I felt really low.”

The confusion deepened when RGV sought more opinions. “Later, while traveling for a shoot, I asked my driver what he thought of the tune. He also said, ‘Horrible. Very bad. What is this music?’”

Yet, something unusual happened on set. “I played the song at my shoot location, and by lunchtime, everyone on set was already singing it. The whole phenomenon, which logically I can’t understand, is like the slow poison of Rahman.”

Reflecting on Rahman’s style, Varma explained, “If you look at it logically, I don’t think in today’s time anyone would listen to something so many times in order to like it. I think most people’s first reaction to Rahman’s music is that it’s very unexpected. They always have another hit song in their mind, and when Rahman’s music doesn’t sound like that, they reject it. But eventually, they get used to it.”

Against all odds, Rangeela became a massive hit, while Sanjay Dutt’s Nayak never saw the light of day. The success catapulted A.R. Rahman into Bollywood stardom, paving the way for him to take on several landmark projects that followed.