Ram Gopal Varma claimed AR Rahman didn't compose Oscar-winning Jai Ho? Director says he is being misquoted

On Wednesday, Ram Gopal Varma took to social media to dismiss ongoing reports that quoted him as claiming that AR Rahman did not compose Jai Ho.

There has been ongoing chatter on social media suggesting that filmmaker Ram Gopal Varma claimed singer Sukhwinder Singh, and not AR Rahman, had composed the Oscar-winning song Jai Ho. However, the filmmaker has now stepped forward to set the record straight, making it clear that he is in no mood to let the speculation slide.

Ram Gopal Varma worked with AR Rahman on Rangeela.

Ram Gopal Varma issues clarification

On Wednesday, Ram Gopal Varma took to X, formerly known as Twitter, to dismiss the buzz and ongoing reports that quoted him as claiming that AR Rahman did not compose Oscar-winning song Jai Ho.

“To all concerned .. I am being misquoted and misread out of context in the matter of the Jai ho song,” Ram Gopal wrote.

The filmmaker, who collaborated with Rahman on Rangeela, described the music maestro as one of the nicest human beings and stressed that he would never take away credit from anyone.

“In my view @arrahman is the greatest composer and the nicest human being I ever met and he’s the last person to take away anybody’s credit ..I hope this puts an end to the negativism surrounding the issue,” added RGV.

This comes after a clip from RGV’s old interview went viral where he is seen talking about Rahman. He is quoted as saying, “Rahman was doing a film called Yuvvraaj for Subhash Ghai and Rahman is notorious for delays… On this day, Rahman was arriving from airport and Sukhwinder was there, doing something, Rahman came and said hi and asked Sukhwinder right in front of Suubhash Ghai, ‘did you compose’" Sukhwinder said yes, played a song and Rahman said he liked it and asked if Subhash liked it. Subhash got angry and started shouting at Rahman saying 'I'm paying you ₹3 crore for you to do it... I also can get Sukhwinder to do it, why do I need you?’”

It further claims that RGV added, “Rahman said in reply, 'mind your tongue, Mr Ghai, you are paying for my name, not my work, don't get confused'. I only said, did you like it … I did not say accept it if you don't like it, I''ll do another song. Rahman said this and then left for Chennai. Sukhwinder told me that Rahman later called him and asked him to complete the song and email it to him. That was it, then one year later Rahman's manager sent a cheque for ₹5 lakh to Sukhwinder and then Sukhwinder aked why? the manager said, ‘you made a song for Rahman and Rahman sold it to a party and this ₹5 lakh is your share/ Who did Rahman sell the song to? Slumdog Millionaire and the song Jai ho."

However, now RGV has cleared the air saying that he is being misquoted.

About Jai Ho

Composed by Rahman for the 2009 film Slumdog Millionaire, Jai Ho won an Academy Award in the Best Original Score and Best Original Song categories. It is sung by Rahman, Sukhwinder Singh, Tanvi, Mahalakshmi Iyer, and Vijay Prakash. The film featured Anil Kapoor, Irrfan Khan, Dev Patel, Freida Pinto, Madhur Mittal, Imran Hasnee, Mahesh Manjrekar, Shruti Seth, Saurabh Shukla, and Raj Zutshi.