After a hiatus of four years, Imtiaz Ali is poised to return as a director with his upcoming film Amar Singh Chamkila, which is set for release next month. The film, a biopic on the assassinated Punjabi musician Amar Singh Chamkila, stars Diljit Dosanjh and Parineeti Chopra in the lead roles. The music of the movie has been composed by AR Rahman.
Ali recently opened up about his rapport with the Oscar-winning composer, with whom he joined forces in Rockstar (2011), Highway (2014) and Tamasha (2015), earning significant acclaim for their soundtracks. “There have never been creative conflicts between me and AR Rahman. I immediately go into surrender mode when working with him,” the filmmaker said during a chat with Mashable India.
“This puts him under even more pressure. The first time we sat together for a discussion, he reminded me that I was the director and said that I have to do my job (and give instructions). That’s when I realized that it’s my job to communicate to them (the cast and crew members) as to what’s in the movie and what feelings are depicted,” he pointed out.
“But Rahman sir has such strong senses that he understands the things that you don’t even tell him. Whenever I listen to his compositions (for my movies) for the first time, I wonder how he understood that these were the very feelings that were going through my mind about this situation,” Ali added.
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Imtiaz Ali also spoke fondly of his association with singer Mohit Chauhan, highlighting their longstanding friendship and admiration for each other’s craft. He also mentioned that he was great friends with Mohit’s wife Prarthna Gehlot as well.
“It took me four to five years to make my debut directorial endeavour Socha Na Tha. Back then too, I had many friends who were musicians, and we used to jam a lot. One night, we were at a hotel, jamming, and that’s when I saw Mohit for the first time. It was soon after his ‘Dooba Dooba’ song had come out. That’s also the night I heard him sing for the first time: his smooth, silky voice. He sang a Pahari tune, and I realized that this man has something really special and precious with which he could provide any song with a mystic quality,” Ali noted.
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The filmmaker also recalled that the first song Chauhan sang for him was “Tum Se Hi” from Jab We Met (2007), composed by Pritam Chakraborty with lyrics by Irshad Kamil. Since then, he has lent his voice to at least one song in almost all Imtiaz Ali movies.
“When doing Rockstar, we wanted all the songs to be sung by the same singer because that’s Jordan’s (Ranbir Kapoor) voice. So, Rahman sir and I started thinking about whom to pick. Since it’s Rahman, I didn’t even give any suggestions since he is a legend in what he does, and any advice I give him would sound stupid. Then he himself suggested Mohit Chauhan’s name. And I was pleased,” Ali added.
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