For the soundtrack of his critically acclaimed film, Slumdog Millionaire, Danny Boyle went with the one of India’s best composers A R Rahman. He had heard Rahman’s work on Rang De Basanti and other films and wanted his music for his film. Boyle spoke with Rahman and the composer only agreed to do the soundtrack after seeing the film. Rahman said after seeing it he was “totally drawn into the film” and wanted to do the entire score.
Amazingly he only had three weeks to complete the soundtrack. Rahman said to IANS, “It’s probably one-fifth of the time I normally take. For one thing, a normal film has about 150 cues. But in this one there were only 17-18 cues for me. Boyle uses music very less but very efficiently.”
About working with Boyle, Rahman praised him saying, “I have worked with different people. Most Westerners are generally reserved. But Boyle was different – like a friend, very helpful. It was like working for Mani Ratnam, Rakeysh (Omprakash Mehra). He was very excited about India. He loved India. He loved Mumbai. He loved everything.”
In an earlier interview Rahman said, “I am rediscovering myself doing this kind of film, and when you work with a new director, there are new challenges, new expectations.”
He added, “After I started the work, I got a lot of feedback from him and then it became something else. I was surprised to hear the whole soundtrack in the end, which is quite different from what I have ever done. It’s younger, it’s more today and contemporary and its completely taking risks. It’s very edgy, hard kind of music and it will make you sit up.”
Rahman is very excited that this film will bring his music to more of the world, “If they love a piece of work, then they want to follow the composer. This could be the biggest bridge, connecting them to all my work.”
For his work on the film Rahman not only received nominations from the LA Critics award for Best Soundtrack and Best Song – ‘Jai Ho’. He was also recently nominated for a Golden Globe and there is buzz that he will get an Oscar nod as well! Just imagine stars Dev Patel and Freida Pinto performing the full on Bollywood number from the film on the Oscar stage. Maybe host Hugh Jackman might even join in! We will keep our fingers crossed and wait and watch! Go see Slumdog Millionaire it is in theaters now!
