Playback singer and independent musician Sona Mohapatra, known for hits like Ambarsariya, Bedardi Raja and Jiya Laage Na among others, spoke to The Indian Express about Oscar and Grammy-winning composer AR Rahman’s recent BBC interview that sparked intense public debate, saying that “the facts simply do not support AR’s communal claim.”
In his interview, the Chennai-based composer spoke of a “power shift” in the Hindi film industry, apart from losing work in the last eight years due to the communal environment in India. After much backlash, Rahman came out with a clarification and called India his inspiration. “I understand that intentions can sometimes be misinterpreted. But my purpose has always been to uplift, honor and serve through music,” he said in a video statement.
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“He got Chhaava. He is scoring Ramayana. He continues to be attached to some of the biggest and most high-profile projects in the country, while at the same time he is globally active and travels constantly and is probably not available for many projects. From any objective point of view, that is not marginalization,” Mohapatra told The Indian Express.
He said he would even argue the opposite, as he believes Rahman remains a “first-call composer for prestige projects” and that in the case of Chhaava one could argue that the choice of Rahman over composers like Ajay-Atul, “who may be more culturally rooted in that specific soundscape, was not merely aesthetic but also symbolic.” “It makes a statement about a plural, pan-Indian idea of culture. Similarly, the fact that Ramayana is composed by Rahman and not, say, Ram Sampath, tells us something about how scale, international visibility and brand stature increasingly influence these decisions,” said Mohapatra, adding that it is important to examine these power dynamics honestly and “explore how many equally capable musicians remain outside these circles not for lack of merit, but because of how the system privileges familiarity and symbolism,” he said. Mohapatra.
Mohapatra, whose last film appearance was in Kiran Rao’s Laapataa Ladies under the direction of composer-husband Ram Sampath, also reiterated that what she is saying is “not a criticism of Rahman’s talent, which is certainly beyond doubt”, but according to her, it “complicates the narrative that he is being excluded”.
Talking about how the industry operates, Mohapatra said, “What we are really seeing is how Bollywood works today through a combination of optics, global positioning, legacy names and risk-averse startups.”