Music maestro A R Rahman says composing the music of his debut Hindi film “Rangeela”, which completes 25 years in cinema this month, felt like he was discovering something new.
The Ram Gopal Varma-directed romantic drama, starring Urmila Tatondkar as a backup dancer Mili, Aamir Khan as her ‘tapori friend Munna and Jackie Shroff as Bollywood star Raj Kamal, is considered one of the landmark musical hits of the ‘90s.
The 1995 film, which marked the arrival of Rahman in Bollywood, had seven songs composed by him including evergreen hits such as ‘Tanha Tanha’, ‘Rangeela Re’, ‘Yayire Yayire’ and ‘Kya Kare Kya Na Kare’.
His songs for “Roja” (1992) and “Bombay” (1995) were dubbed from Tamil.
“Composing the songs of ‘Rangeela’ was like discovering something new. The soundtrack arrived naturally and we didn’t feel the pressure for this movie because I was enjoying the new company I had in Ramu and lyricist Mehboob. We would just talk and joke and have fun. It was my kind of vibe,” Rahman told PTI in an interview.
Crediting the film’s team, including choreographers Saroj Khan, Ahmed Khan, actors and producerJhamu Sughand, Rahman said he learnt a lot while working on the movie.
“The first song that we worked on was ‘Tanha Tanha’ and then came ‘Rangeela Re’. The most important decision we made was getting Asha Bhonsleji to sing. Her voice brought something extraordinary to the music… She lent credibility to the soundtrack in a big way because Mehboob, Ramu and me, we were all new,” the music maestro said.
Rahman still remembers Aamir’s yellow jacket that he says “stood out” during the scoring. “I was stunned, I still remember. And the way he acted was brilliant. And Urmila was brilliant,” Rahman recalled. The composer added he was already a huge fan of Shroff, having seen Subhash Ghai’s “Hero”.
What makes the film stand out for Rahman is the fact that the team trusted their instincts while creating the music.
“I think the whole soundtrack was an experiment. Apart from ‘Tanha Tanha’ and ‘Yayire’, nobody does a (‘raag’) Bhairavi for the beginning of a song, it is used at the end but I didn’t know that information. I was like happy tuning ‘Tanha Tanha’. There were strains of Bhairavi constantly in it.”AGENCIES