The 1999 musical romantic drama film Taal, directed by Subhash Ghai, has become a classic. While the screenplay, performances, and dialogues were highly appreciated, the soundtrack was equally lauded. AR Rahman composed the soundtrack, with Anand Bakshi penning all of it. The two musical maestros worked together to give the audience some top-class music. But did you know they weren’t able to communicate with each other on sets?
Filmmaker Subhash Ghai was chatting with Radio Nasha when he spoke about his film Taal, starring Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, Akshaye Khanna, and Anil Kapoor. During the interview, the director revealed how he had to mediate between composer AR Rahman and lyricist Anand Bakshi. He told the publication that when he first introduced Anand Bakshi and AR Rahman, the former didn’t know English, and Rahman didn’t know Hindi.
When he placed a harmonium between them, thinking there might be some jugalbandi between the ace artists, they asked each other, ‘No, you play something,’ ‘No, you play something.’ It was only during the 15-minute silence that Ghai realized there was a communication gap between them.
However, they were able to sort out their differences and find a solution to their problem. Rahman and Bakshi eventually found a way to collaborate creatively for the film. “The first song we worked on for Taal was ‘Kariye Na.’ Rahman composed the music first, and then I took it to Bakshi ji to write the lyrics,” Ghai stated, adding that AR Rahman was paid minimum fees in Taal. For the unversed, the iconic movie Taal will be re-released in theaters on September 27.
In an interaction with PTI, Rahman also noted that because of his stint in Ghai’s movie, he was able to be a part of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Bollywood-themed musical Bombay Dreams. “I was no longer called a ‘South Indian, doing only Tamil music’ and all that stuff,” he said, adding that while everyone wanted to work with the Taal maker, Subhash Ghai himself sent him a fax and invited him to Mumbai to hangout. This is how he bagged the movie that recently completed 25 years after its release.
