Music composer AR Rahman created history when he won two Oscars for his work on Danny Boyle’s film Slumdog Millionaire. However, his speech at the Oscars was misinterpreted by some people back in India. Now, Rahman took to his Twitter account to clarify the meaning of his words in a new video.
The video was shared by the Academy on Twitter, and featured Rahman revisiting his victorious experience in 2009. He recalled that when his name was called for the first time, he expressed gratitude and spoke a line in Tamil, which translated into, “All perfect praise belongs to God alone.”
He was called on the stage for the second time, to receive the award he shared with Gulzar for the song “Jai Ho.” In the video, he said, “The second time when they announced my name for the best song, I had said in the speech that the essence of the film is optimism and hope, because the world was going through that economic depression, and Slumdog Millionaire was done in a way that anybody who sees it would feel high.”
In his speech, Rahman had said, “All my life, I had a choice of hate and love. I chose love and I’m here. God Bless.” Remembering that moment, Rahman said in the video, “Some people have misinterpreted that statement over some religion and this and that, which is not true. This is the state of every artist in the world and that’s what makes them the artist. They want to give and love is about giving, not taking.”
The hopes are high for India at this year's Academy Awards too as filmmaker SS Rajamouli’s RRR is nominated in the Best Original Song category for its popular track “Naatu Naatu,” along with the documentary The Elephant Whisperers and 'All That Breathes' in other categories.
