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.
Unfortunately, the boards of art institutions tend to be populated with well-meaning supporters of the arts who often lack any business background or appetite for imposing appropriate discipline.
We took away your art because we thought it would reveal your souls. Or to put it more finely, we did it to prove you had souls at all.
A book is never a masterpiece: it becomes one. Genius is the talent of a dead man.
It is the only point of getting up every morning: to paint, to make something good, to make something even better than before, not to give up, to compete, to be ambitious.
In the old days, people shared music; they didn't care who made it. A song would be owned by a village, and anyone could sing it, change the words, whatever. That is how humans treated music until the late 19th century. Now, with the Internet, we are going back to having tribal attitudes towards music.
This is where you see the truth of entertainment, because it is not edited. You see it on stage as it is happening. Even if we fall down or forget our words, it's a part of live entertainment.
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