Rahman snubs Yash Chopra (BM&C)
11 October 2008 Music maestro turns down opportunity to work with the legenadary Chopra due to money matters Going by the recent fate of YashRaj Films at the box-office since his retirement, Yash Chopra decided to make a comeback for one last time. However, Yashji's plans of pulling a grand casting coup failed thanks to music maestro A R Rahman. Due to his friendship with the Bachchan family, Yashji signed Amitabh Bachchan and Abhishek Bachchan and even convinced them to work in the film with Shah Rukh Khan. But it wasn't the cast that Yashji was worried about; it was getting his dream music director, A R Rahman that he was more concerned with. Says a YashRaj source, ìYashji is a big fan of Rehman but he never got to work with him because Aditya isn't too fond of Rehman's brand of music. Since this is Yashji's last directorial film he was adamant on fulfilling his dream by getting Rehman to score the music of his romantic musical drama.î Yashji personally called Rahman for a meeting. Rahman was equally excited to receive a call from the legend, but what followed later was something that Rahman never expected. Reportedly, Yashji put a list of demands on Rahman which upset him so much that he walked out of the meeting. A source close to Rahman reveals, ìRahman works only at night and Yashji was informed about this before the meeting. Despite knowing this, Yashji demanded that Rahman should work in the day because Yashji owing to his health could only work in the day. He also insisted that Rahman should record only at the YashRaj studios and even stay in the studios during the recording.î Apparently, Rahman agreed to all this but what transpired after this is what angered Rahman. When it came to Rahman's fee, Yashji offered him an extremely paltry sum and when Rahman protested Yashji reportedly said, ìYou should consider yourself lucky that you are getting to compose music for a Yash Chopra film. This is a privilege and not all music directors get this chance.î This angered Rahman, who is a legend himself. He excused himself from the meeting and never returned. Later Rahman asked his office to tell Yashji that Rahman wasn't interested in his project. Yashji tried getting in touch with Rahman but the latter has been avoiding him. With little choice left, one last heard that Yashji is in talks with the trio of Shankar-Ehsaan and Loy to compose music for this film. source:http://www.khaleejtimes.com/citytimes/inside.asp? xfile=/data/citytimes/2008/October/citytimes_October77.xml§ion=ci tytimes