Heart-Touching interview. Do we know a person who is very special for everyone.
He is one and only our A.R.Rahman.
Regards,sribalaji
--- On Fri, 12/6/09, Vithur <vith...@gmail.com> wrote:
From: Vithur <vith...@gmail.com>
Subject: Re: [arr] The man who did the first ever interview of ARR!
To: arrahmanfans@yahoogroups.com
Date: Friday, 12 June, 2009, 5:06 PM
Congratulations to Mr. Kalyan Kumar for , he can never be forgotten. The
Man who interviewed AR for the first time in history.
Thanks to Aravind for posting the same.
On Wed, Jun 10, 2009 at 10:50 PM, <aravind...@yahoo. com> wrote:
Hey all,
I came across the blog of Kalyan Kumar, who was the sub-editor of "India Today"
magazine. He's also a screenplay/script writer for movies.
He was the first person to interview Rahman, and the first ever interview of
Rahman appeared in India Today.
He has written in his blog about his interaction with Rahman.
Not sure if it has been posted before!
Here's the link for the blog post (It's in Tamil... Scroll down for my
translation)
http://kalyanje. blogspot. com/2009/ 02/blog-post_ 26.html
ARR pics from the blog:
http://3.bp. blogspot. com/_5HXnPkUOnPk /SaeXS2fCkkI/ AAAAAAAAAIQ/ ZTCD7Pfx7oQ/
s1600-h/arrahman .JPG
Translation:
It was a fine Sunday morning, when I got a call from my friend, cinematographer
Rajeev Menon, asking if we can meet!
The meeting happened at 5 pm that day. I was then the sub editor of India
Today, and was handling movies section too. Those days, Rajeev was working
more on Ad films, than for movies. He told me about a youngster who was
composing for his ad films - "His name is Dileep. He has tremendous music
sense. He's extremely talented in playing and handling all modern instruments.
Moreover, Mani sir has signed him on for his next movie, after listening to
some of his jingles."
"Wow.. thats something new", I thought, and collected a pic of Dileep shot by
Rajeev and his phone number from Rajeev. Next day, I called up Dileep and he
answered. I introduced myself and asked for a meeting with him. He immediately
refused saying "No sir... No Interviews now! Mani sir has asked me not to speak
anything about the project!"
I retorted - "You dont have to speak about the movie; speak about you! I would
be pleased if India Today publishes details about the new music director who is
Mani Ratnam's new find."
I also told him that I'd already collected his photo from Rajeev Menon.
Finally, later acceded to my request!
The meeting happened at 4 pm. He was not a school kid. He was not yet a college
student. He seemed to be just in that transition phase, with a shy smile on his
face! His mom and sister were with him. His mom offered me cake and savouries
they had purchased from the neighbourhood bakery, for me. Coffee followed.
Then, we started talking. He told me a lot - about his father RK Shekar, about
how music became his full-time job after his father's death, about the family
background, about the conversion to islam, about his name change! He mentioned
that the Mani film was a God-given gift for him. He conversed with him as
though we're very close friends for a long time! He took me to his studio and
played 2 songs from his new film.
One of those songs was Chinna Chinna Aasai. After listening to it, I requested
Rahman to play it once more. He was overjoyed and played it again. "Just this
one song is enough to take you to heights of fame", I told him and wished him
all luck. "Other their Mani sir, others connected with the film hadn't listened
to the songs. I played it just for you. Your words are very encouraging", he
said and thanked me. When I was leaving, he came out till his front gate and
bid farewell to me.
One week later, Rahman's mom called me - "When can we see my son's photo in the
magazine, dear brother?" I could sense the eagerness and excitement in her
voice.
"It will hit the stands in 2 days, mother. I'll come and give a few copies to
you, even before that", I told her.
En-route to my house from office, I visited Rahman's house with 5 copies of
India Today, and gave it to them. The images of the proud mother and sister,
smiling and sharing their happiness on seeing Rahman's photo in the magazine,
still remains fresh in my memories. But, Rahman took this big news in a calm
and composed manner. With a smile, he thanked me. His humbleness was there with
him right from that time.
After the release of Roja, there was no magazine which didnt feature Rahman's
photo. After that, I met him a few more times as a reporter. Much to the envy
of other reporters, he would approach me personally and talk to me like a
friend. Once, in a press meet, he openly said "He's the first person to
interview me.... How can I not be close to him?". He hasn't yet lost that
closeness to me.
8 years later, I'd moved from the press and started working for TV and movies.
I wanted to produce a special program for Sun TV for Tamil New Years day, in
association with my friend Balakrishnan. That program was - "Special interview
with Isai Puyal A.R.Rahman."
Rahman had started rocking both the Hindi and Tamil film industry by then, and
was very busy! It took me one week to just meet him. Since I was producing the
program, I personally met Rahman, and asked for an appointment for the
interview. He said, "Re-recording of Kandukondain will be over in a couple of
days. After that, we can have the interview in my studio itself. But, on one
condition... You should be the interviewer, lets not have any other anchor!"
I agreed. In the next few days, Rahman allotted five hours of his time for us,
and also arranged for Biriyani for us, for lunch.
The interview was aired on 14th Jan, 2004. In that interview, Rahman had listed
down his favourite tamil songs, and had also explained why he liked these songs.
- "Kaatril Endhan Geetham" composed by Ilayaraja (from the film Johnny)
- "Unnai onru ketpen" by MSV
- "Thora guna" by KV Mahadevan (Sankarabharanam)
- "Kaalangalil Aval Vasantham" sung by PB Sreenivas
This was the day Alaipayuthey had hit the screens. He'd got Mani Sir's consent
to show clips of songs from the movie, during the interview. He didnt stop with
just that. That night, he invited me home and thanked me for the good
interview. I told him that it is he who has to be thanked! I can't forget that
late night meeting with him.
Today, all the world media focusses on the man who got two Oscars. At this
proud juncture, I'm really proud to say that I was the first man to interview
him.
Cheers,
Aravind
Rahmania show interviews: http://rahmania. 4shared.com
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regards,
Vithur
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