The more dollars the studio producers put in, the less freedom we have. If the budget hits $100m, they get scared - they'll take the existing score of a successful movie and expect composers to copy it, like wallpaper. The biggest challenge for any composer in Hollywood is to be as creative as possible within those boundaries.
Interpretation
In the film industry, higher budgets can limit creative freedom as producers tend to play it safe.
A. R. Rahman's quote highlights the tension between artistic creativity and commercial interests in Hollywood. As budgets increase, so does the pressure on composers to replicate successful formulas rather than innovate, which can stifle creativity. This reveals a broader issue in the art world where financial considerations often dictate the limits of artistic expression.
In practice
This quote could be used in a discussion about the challenges faced by artists in the film industry during a panel on creative freedom.
I want young Indian composers to be able to do more than just film music. I want to give them the skills that will enable them to create their own palette of sounds instead of having to write formulaic music. It doesn't matter if they become sound engineers, producers, composers or performers - I want them to be as imaginative as they like.
Music knows no barrier of age or culture. It isn’t about being politically correct or even making a statement. Music is what appeals to the ears and touches your soul.
In my case, dust has become gold: Today, I work with people I grew up admiring.
A good film demands its own score, and if you are a musician, your conscience will never allow you to do something mediocre for a good film.
My music is mostly for the music. And it gives the liberty to do anything which I want. And nobody limits me to one genre of music. But I learn from life and I try to give back to life, in a way, whether it's the thought of the song or whether it's the approach to the arrangement or anything.
I am the kind of person who does not like to carry baggage. In fact, I don't go back and listen to my own music. I believe in closing chapters and moving forward. That's what gives me peace.
My feeling is that poetry is also a healing process, and then when a person tries to write poetry with depth or beauty, he will find himself guided along paths which will heal him, and this is more important, actually, than any of the poetry he writes.
People err who think my art comes easily to me. I assure you, dear friend, nobody has devoted so much time and thought to compositions as I. There is not a famous master whose music I have not industriously studied through many times.
To send light into the darkness of men's hearts - such is the duty of the artist.
I feel like my job is to look at the world and to report what I see, to write what I see as honestly and directly as I can. I don't want to cut it or make it easy, but be as direct as I can.
Acting, to me, is about the incredible adventure of examining the landscape of human heart and soul. That's basically what we do.
In the olden days, everybody sang. You were expected to sing as well as talk. It was a mark of the cultured man to sing.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.