Ram Gopal Varma Believes AR Rahman Didn’t Compose Oscar-Winning ‘Jai Ho’? Filmmaker Responds

Ram Gopal Varma never shies away from sharing his views, and to let go of any speculations and rumours circulating because of him being misquoted is something the filmmaker won’t let pass. Recently, headlines had it that RGV allegedly said that singer Sukhwinder Singh, and notAR Rahman, had composed the Oscar-winning song Jai Ho. However, now RGV has himself taken to his social media to react and put the record straight.

On Wednesday, taking to his X account, RGV reacted to ongoing speculations and said, “To all concerned… I am being misquoted and misread out of context in the matter of the Jai Ho song.”

To all concerned .. I am being misquoted and misread out of context in the matter of the Jai ho song . .. in my view @arrahman is the greatest

composer and the nicest human being I ever met and he’s the last person to take away anybody’s credit ..I hope this puts an end to the…

— Ram Gopal Varma (@RGVzoomin) January 21, 2026

Further, while praising Rahman, the ace filmmaker continued, “In my view @arrahman is the greatest composer and the nicest human being I ever met, and he’s the last person to take away anybody’s credit… I hope this puts an end to the negativism surrounding the issue.”

The clarification came soon after a clip of RGV’s old interview went viral on social media. In the clip, the filmmaker was seen saying, “Rahman was doing a film called Yuvvraaj for Subhash Ghai, and Rahman is notorious for delays… On this day, Rahman was arriving from the airport and Sukhwinder was there, doing something. Rahman came and said hi and asked Sukhwinder right in front of Subhash Ghai, ‘Did you compose?’ Sukhwinder said yes, played a song, and Rahman said he liked it and asked if Subhash liked it. Subhash got angry and started shouting at Rahman saying, ‘I’m paying you ₹3 crore for you to do it… I also can get Sukhwinder to do it, why do I need you?’”

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“Rahman said in reply, ‘Mind your tongue, Mr Ghai, you are paying for my name, not my work, don’t get confused. I only said, did you like it … I did not say accept it; if you don’t like it, I’ll do another song.’ Rahman said this and then left for Chennai. Sukhwinder told me that Rahman later called him and asked him to complete the song and email it to him. That was it. Then, one year later, Rahman’s manager sent a cheque for ₹5 lakh to Sukhwinder, and Sukhwinder asked why. The manager said, ‘You made a song for Rahman, and Rahman sold it to a party, and this ₹5 lakh is your share. Who did Rahman sell the song to? Slumdog Millionaire and the song Jai Ho,” RGV added.