Thirty-four years after Roja, AR Rahman is bringing the Wonderment Tour back to India with a set that keeps absorbing new releases, and he says the years have taught him to do less.
Returning home with a different show
The two Indian dates this November are Mumbai’s Jio World Garden on 1 November and a first-ever Delhi stop at Backyard Sports Club on 21 November. Rahman frames the show as a contradiction: “It’s the same show, but it’s not the same show,” he told The Hollywood Reporter India.
The setlist moves as his catalogue moves. In earlier legs, Chhaava supplied the new material; Main Vaapas Aaunga followed. Now the Ramayana soundtrack has been released, and its songs have entered the show along with new singers.
- Mumbai: 1 November, Jio World Garden.
- Delhi: 21 November, Backyard Sports Club, the tour’s first Delhi stop.
- Setlist: Ramayana joins the show after Chhaava and Main Vaapas Aaunga.
An outsider who built for the long run
The concerts land as Rahman marks 34 years since Mani Ratnam’s Roja, a debut score that won the National Film Award for Best Music Director. He says his Hindi cinema entry was accidental, not planned. North Indian ragas such as Desh, Pilu and Darbari had been his way of sounding different in Tamil work; Hindi audiences turned out to hear themselves in those choices.
To sustain, he took advice from Subhash Ghai and learned Hindi, a step that let him understand words even when he did not speak them comfortably. “Even though I can’t speak, I understand every word,” he said. That comprehension became a phrasing tool, while his early small-team habits kept the sound personal: he often played instruments and recorded to tape until the vibe matched his instinct.
His quality filter remains simple. If he would cringe playing a piece for Mani Ratnam or another collaborator he respects, it is not ready.
Less work, but not a quiet slate
Rahman calls this an interesting phase. “I want to do less work, have more time to study nature, be with family, all that stuff,” he said. His argument is that constant work can become a trap, and that a composer should not be a slave to it.
Even so, the calendar is far from empty. He is co-writing a biography, Rahman: A Renaissance, with Rupa Chakravarthi, who wants a more edgy book than the usual career biography. He has also finished shooting with Mani Ratnam on Inji Vellam, and scoring for the songs is now ahead.
Looking at a new generation, he mentions Raghav Kaushik, whose Darmiyaan work made Rahman listen repeatedly; Kaushik is part of Ramayana’s Kannada and Telugu albums. On AI, Rahman sees a double-edged tool: it lowers barriers for creators, but it also makes authenticity harder to identify. The test, he suggests, is still storytelling.
Source: The Hollywood Reporter India
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