Fear of failure haunts AR Rahman

A string of hits over the years hasn’t helped composer AR Rahman get rid of his biggest fear -- that a bad project might harm his reputation as Bollywood’s best composer.

A string of hits over the years hasn’t helped composer AR Rahman get rid of his biggest fear -- that a bad project might harm his reputation as Bollywood’s best.

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Rahman, who shot to fame with his compositions for Roja in 1992, is known for his musical versatility. He has innovated with different instruments and sounds to create some of India's best known musical hits for more than a decade.

But the composer knows success comes at a price.

"It does scare me sometimes (but) not about staying on top - first place or second place," Rahman told Reuters.

"It is about what I'm delivering, how good the music is always, how precise I have to be while composing as I might be putting my reputation of 15 years at stake."

Rahman has several big budget projects lined up for release in 2008, including Ashutosh Gowariker's Jodhaa Akbar, Subhash Ghai's ManiHoonYuvraaj, Rakeysh Mehra's Dilli 6 and the Aamir Khan-starrer Ghajini.

But he’s eagerly awaiting Tamil filmmaker Shankar’s science fiction venture Robot.

"Robot' is very futuristic and I am looking forward to composing for it," Rahman said. "I have never tried the genre before and it is an exciting venture."

Selecting the right project might be tough for some but for Rahman, instinct plays a key role.

"I often take quick decisions as sometimes I work with people whom I have worked with before and sometimes it's just out of pure instinct when I come across an exciting project."