When Mani Ratnam wanted to fire AR Rahman during Bombay, but ended up in tears due to another song

Mani Ratnam was going to 'fire' AR Rahman since the composer had delayed 'Humma Humma' but instead, Rahman presented him with a wonderful surprise.

By: Entertainment Desk

New Delhi | June 15, 2023 02:49 PM IST

3 min read

AR Rahman composed the music for Mani Ratnam's Bombay. (Photo: AR Rahman/Instagram)

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Mani Ratnam and AR Rahman first worked together on Roja and a few years later, they collaborated on Bombay. But, it was during Bombay that Mani wanted to “fire” Rahman. In an interview shared by O2 India, Rajiv Menon shared that the shoot was Bombay was going on and they were all set to film ‘Humma Humma’ but Rahman had not even prepared the song until then.

He recalled, “We were shooting and we had to shoot the Humma Humma sequence but it wasn’t coming.” After much back and forth, Rahman asked them to come in the evening as they were supposed to shoot it the next day. Rajiv shared, “We go there and he says I don’t have the tune. So Mani asked ‘why did you call us?’ Rahman answered ‘But I have something else’ and then he plays the theme music of Bombay.”

Rajiv said that this was an emotional experience for him and Mani as both of them tears in their eyes after listening to the theme music. “Tears started rolling out of my eyes. Mani said ‘what have you done Rahman? I have come here to fire you and you are making me cry with this song. He said ‘I just got this tune’. So he scored the entire thing for three days, unable to do ‘Humma Humma’ but what he did instead was create the background score for the main theme,” he shared.

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In an earlier interview with Galatta Plus, Mani Ratnam spoke about Rahman’s famous music sessions through the night and said that the composer is now “nice” to him. “Earlier we would do the sessions till 5.30 in the morning. What comes out at that time, sometimes it is so blissful. It is quiet, it’s three in the morning and he works with his headphones on, so when you are there, you can’t listen to a thing. Finally, he gets up, gives you the headphones and walks out,” said the director.

After Bombay, Mani Ratnam and AR Rahman have collaborated on films like Dil Se, Iruvar, Guru among many others. They recently collaborated on the Ponniyin Selvan movies.

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