Mumbai: Indian lyricist and poet Manoj Muntashir has strongly criticised Oscar-winning composer AR Rahman over his comments about alleged discrimination in the Indian music industry and the film Chhaava.
Rahman had said that he would not have composed the music for Chhaava had he realised that it was a propaganda film.
Speaking on his YouTube channel, the 50-year-old lyricist questioned whether Rahman had agreed to work on the project without reading its script.
“It is not as though you began composing music for the film without reading the screenplay. You could not have suddenly started working on it without knowing its content,” Muntashir said.
He added that Rahman was entitled to avoid the project if he believed it promoted propaganda, but questioned why the composer described it that way only after completing the film.
“If it was a propaganda film and you did not want to be associated with it, that would have been understandable. But calling it propaganda after working on it is something I cannot comprehend,” he said.
Responding to Rahman’s claim that his religious identity may have affected the work offered to him, Muntashir suggested that professional relationships could instead be a factor.
Muntashir’s remarks followed an earlier BBC interview in which Rahman spoke about facing possible discrimination in the Hindi film industry because of his religious identity.
