Oscar-winning music composer AR Rahman’s daughter Khatija Rahman, who recently sang for her father in Ponniyin Selvan: II, has revealed that she took a long break from singing at the beginning of her musical journey and returned to music after eight years only at the bidding of her mother.
“I felt overwhelmed….couldn’t take it anymore,” she said in a video titled Music and I, shared by A.R. Rahman on social media on Wednesday.
“💿🎶 @RahmanKhatija - ‘Music and I’ showcasing her journey and seeking your kindness and blessing in advance as she takes the next step with her album ‘Kuhu Kuhu’ in collaboration with @FirdausOrch ☺️,” Rahman wrote in the caption.
In the video, Khatija also talked about her experience of collaborating with the Irish rock band U2. “My father said my life was going to change. We had recorded some lines from Thirukkural, but little did I know that it was a collaboration with the biggest band in the world, U2,” she said.
Terming Bono and Edge as the kindest superstars, Khatija went on to describe her experience of working with them. “The respect they gave me, and the way they made Rahima and me feel, and put me at ease, was incredible. Apart from being great musicians, I think they are incredible human beings as they stand up for the right things. The track we did is called Ahimsa — it is a collab between my father and U2. We performed as a part of the Joshua Tree Concert in Mumbai in 2019.”
Khatija also shared how her father prodded her to work on her upcoming music album Kuhu Kuhu. “My father put me to the toughest test. He suggested, ‘why don’t you do an album of light classical songs by Lata Mangeshkar ji, composed by the greatest musicians and written by the greatest lyric writers of cinema,” she revealed.
“He added, ‘by doing these songs you are bringing their talent, their genius and their art to the younger generation. These are the goldmine of treasure, tradition and culture of Indian music and written in gold.’ Thousands of singers have tried singing them. Some have done them justice and some haven’t,” she recalled in the video.
The album Kuhu Kuhu has been arranged by the all-women orchestra Firdaus Orchestra from Expo 2020, Dubai. It will feature songs like Aapki nazron ne samjha, Piya tose and Kuhu kuhu bole koyaliya.
