AR Rahman, in 2009, became the first Indian to win two Oscars on the same night but the music composer says on the eve of the ceremony, he was “starving” to look in shape. Rahman bagged two Academy Awards, one for the original score for “Slumdog Millionaire” and the other for the hugely popular global hit “Jai Ho.” While things changed dramatically for Rahman post his win, when asked what was his mental space on the eve of the big award event, Rahman told PTI, “Actually nothing. I was just starving to look thin for the ceremony!”
Danny Boyle’s movie swept eight wins out of ten nominations and Rahman shot to global fame with his win and went on to get two more Oscar nominations in 2011 for his original score and song for Boyle’s “127 Hours”.
When asked if it was difficult to move on after the Oscars, “Yes. I have moved on because it’s a great identity for me and I needed that identity to be in Hollywood. Now, whenever I am mentioned there, people know my name.
“That helped me move further not just in music, but also producing movies and going into technologies like virtual reality and cinematic virtual reality and so much of the stuff that’s going to come this year. So, all this freedom came with this power.”
The composers spoke about the Oscars during a special event that happened in Dharavi, Asia’s largest slum, as an ode to “Slumdog Millionaire”, which chronicled the story of a boy’s journey from rags to riches.
