When Ismail Darbar accused AR Rahman of buying his Oscar, claimed he was spending more time on PR: ‘Kaam ke saath beimaani toh mat karo yaar’

SS Rajamouli’s RRR and Kartiki Gonsalves’ The Elephant Whisperers made history at the recent 95th Academy Awards, when they became the first Indian films to win Oscars, for Best Original Song and Best Documentary Short, respectively. But in 2009, AR Rahman and Gulzar won Oscars for their work on Danny Boyle’s Slumdog Millionaire, a British production. After Rahman’s win, music composer Ismail Darbar alleged in multiple interviews that Rahman had bribed the Academy for the awards. This led to much controversy, and there were reports that the Academy was contemplating suing Ismail, following which he decided to withdraw his remark.

In an interview with Taran Adarsh, he was asked about his comments on Rahman, and he said, “Agar maine bola hai, toh bola hai. Jab se maine Rahman ka PR dekha aur music se door usse paaya, tab se mujhe usse chidd aagayi. Pehle main usse chahta tha kyunki lagta tha iss aadmi mein kuch baat hai, alag sochta hai. Lekin jab maalum pada ke yeh PR mein laga pada hai, ke kaise Oscar milna chahiye kaise Grammy milna chahiye, uske alawa usse aur kuch samajh nahi aa raha hai. Aur aap dekhiye uska kaam gadbad ho raha hai (I said what I said. When I noticed that Rahman was spending more time on PR than on his craft, I began to get annoyed by him. I used to like him initially, I thought that he was unique. But when I saw that he was only scheming about how to win Oscars and make waves abroad, I noticed that his work was suffering).”

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Ismail continued, “Jiss kaam ke liye upar waale ne bheja hai, jiss kaam ke liye duniya tumse pyaar karti hai, uss kaam ke saath beimaani toh mat karo yaar (Don’t disrespect your own talent),” and added that Rahman could’ve only gotten his message this way, and not if he had picked up the phone and told him. Ismail said that even Rahman knew that he had won for a subpar composition. He said that he withdrew his comments because he didn’t want to offend the Academy, because he, too, wished to win an Oscar one day.

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Withdrawing his original comments, he had said in a statement, “I am grateful that I have been respected in the industry for my work. I did say some things about Rahman, because as a friend I want to jolt him out of his reverie and start giving good music. I chose a public platform to do it, because he wouldn’t listen to me otherwise. I have nothing against the Oscars. It is the most respected award, the whole world acknowledges it, and I do, too. If any of them (Academy) are hurt by my comments, I apologise to them.”

Rahman won two Oscars for his work on Slumdog Millionaire — Best Original Song and Best Original Score. Ismail Darbar has none.