Award-winning composer A.R. Rahman says an artist is always inspired by human beings and what they go through, which set the premise of his 19-minute music piece titled The Flying Lotus.
The piece is based on Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government’s move to demonetise high value currency notes one year ago.
In a Twitter question and answer session, Rahman was asked whether artists should react or stay away from reacting to issues around them.
The Grammy and Oscar winner responded via a video: “As an artist, it will be insensitive to really say that I am immune to everything, and I don’t see everything. I could be on a separate universe but what inspires an artist are human beings, people like you and to reflect that it’s very inevitable.
“You can’t just ignore anything, but at the same time if everybody reflects that, then [there will be] only chaos, and artists should have their own zone. So it’s always challenging... You know even from the past, painters, composers and artistes have always taken something which is raw and made it beautiful and that is my humble attempt in The Flying Lotus.”
Rahman said his idea behind the piece was to bring out a musical expression inspired by the “extraordinary praises” and the “inconvenience” that followed the demonetisation move.
