Ram Gopal Varma Claims He Was 'Misquoted' In Viral Interview About AR Rahman 'Not Composing Jai Ho' - FULL Clarification

Filmmaker

Ram Gopal Varma has issued a clarification after his old interview about AR Rahman and the song Jai Ho surfaced. RGV claimed he was "misquoted and misread out of context" where he stated that the Oscar-winning song from Slumdog Millionaire was composed by Sukhwinder Singh and not Rahman. This comes as Rahman remains embroiled in a controversy after he hinted recently that he was not getting work in Bollywood due to "communal bias." While several celebs have so far reacted to Rahman's remark, Varma's quote about his long-term collaborator also received a lot of traction on social media.

Ram Gopal Varma issues clarification

As controversy heats up, Ram Gopal Varma on January 21, took to X (formerly Twitter) and posted, "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 negativism surrounding the issue."

What did RGV say in his interview?

In an interview which has now gone viral, Varma confessed that working with AR Rahma often tested his patience. While he lauded Rahman's craft, he revealed that the composer works as per his own whim, that often lacks fixed schedules or predictable routines.

'Jai Ho was NOT composed by AR Rahman'

RGV shared an episode from Rahman's work during Subhash Ghai's film Yuvvraj. Varma revealed that Rahman came late to the meeting at Sukhwinder Singh's studio and asked the singer if he had composed the song. This angered Ghai who shouted at Rahman reminding him that he was paying "Rs 3 crore" to him and not Sukhwinder to compose the song. Varma added, "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 lakhs to Sukhwinder and then 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."Other Bollywood celebs like Javed Akhtar, Paresh Rawal, Kangana Ranaut, Honey Trehan, and others have shared their views on the ongoing AR Rahman's "communal bias" row.