Amid Ram Gopal Varma's Controversial Jai Ho Statement, Looking At Song's Origin

amid ram gopal varma controversial jai ho statement looking at song origin sukhwinder singh ar rahman

When the latest controversy erupted over Ram Gopal Varma’s outrageous claim about AR Rahman’s song Jai Ho, we got in touch with the director to understand the matter. To jog your memory, RGV recently said that Sukhwinder Singh, and not AR Rahman, composed the Oscar-winning song Jai Ho, from Danny Boyle’s film, Slumdog Millionaire.

Many have branded RGV’s comment as ‘foolish’. To that, he responded with “Which I am” over text, along with a crying-laughing emoji.

Ram Gopal Varma is known for his deadpan humour, and if one may say, not taking himself too seriously.

His claim that singer Sukhwinder and not Rahman composed the Oscar winning song Jai ho, smacks of sheer mischief too. It appears that RGV simply wanted to have a bit of a fun. Now that Sukhwinder has very clearly stated that he only sang, and not composed Jai ho, let us take a tour through the history of that song.

The tune for Jai Ho was originally composed for Subhash Ghai’s ill-fated film Yuvraaj, featuring Salman Khan and Katrina Kaif. The original tune, with different lyrics, was to be filmed by Zayed Khan, who played Salman’s brother.

But Ghai didn’t find the song suitable for Zayed’s character. Ghai had confirmed this transference of creativity from his film to Danny Boyle’s Slumdog Millionaire.

At the time when the creative exchange happened, Ghai said to this writer, “I happily gave the song to Rahman when he said it was needed for Danny Boyle’s film. I felt the song was slightly too soft and subtle for the aggressive character (Zayed Khan). I’m glad they could use it. Every film and every song have their own destiny. That song was meant to be in Slumdog Millionaire.”

When Ghai’s statement came out, Rahman called to say I should not write about the song’s exchange of hands, as that would disqualify the song from the Oscars.

After the Oscar for Jai Ho was announced Gulzar, who wrote the lyrics, spoke to me. “I feel very proud of Rahman; I always have, always will. I think Rahman brought a change to Indian film songs. He gave a new form to the film song. This recognition at the Oscars proves that he has made a world of difference to the Hindi film song. Otherwise, classical Indian music was always known globally, even before the film songs. I started noticing his path-breaking tendency when he did his first score with me in Dil Se. But even before that, he was doing pioneering work. When I heard the announcement for his first Oscar, I got a lump in my throat. It was enough for me. I got up and left the room. I didn’t know my song, Jai Ho, won the Oscar. My son-in-law, Govind, came and hugged me and said, ‘It’s won a double Oscar—one for your song.'”

Gulzar felt the double Oscar is a benchmark for our cinema. “It makes Indian cinema a part of world cinema, just like there are Asian awards that make us part of Asian cinema. The Oscars certainly put us under a global gaze. Since the Oscars are American, our Indian films never before went into mainstream categories. Slumdog Millionaire has opened up doors for our cinema.”

Global recognition, but at what cost?