AR Rahman hits back at Abhijeet Bhattacharya's criticism: "Nice to blame me for everything"

Dubai: After playback singer Abhijeet Bhattacharya accused AR Rahman of pushing traditional musicians out of work by overusing technology in his compositions, the Oscar-winning composer has now responded—firmly but diplomatically.

In an interview with India Today, Rahman brushed off the criticism, saying,

“It’s nice to blame me for everything. I still love Abhijeet and would send cakes to him. It’s his opinion, and there’s nothing wrong with having one."

Addressing Abhijeet’s claim that he was responsible for the decline of live instrumentation in Bollywood, Rahman offered a detailed rebuttal.

“I recently set up an orchestra with 60 women in Dubai. They are being employed every month and are paid insurance, health, and everything. In every movie that I do, be it Chhaava or Ponniyin Selvan, there are close to 200–300 musicians involved, and some songs have more than 100 people working on them. I don’t show off or post photos with them, and thus no one gets to know about it,” Rahman explained.

He went on to explain how technology plays a supportive role in his creative process:

“Computers are used to design extraordinary harmonies, which is essential in a competitive market. I can’t ask musicians to play something and then reject their symphonies,” he added.

Rahman, who recently composed the music for Vicky Kaushal's historical drama Chhaava, is also working on Lahore 1947 (produced by Aamir Khan), Mani Ratnam’s Thug Life, and Aanand L Rai’s Tere Ishq Mein.

Abhijeet’s comments came during an interaction with ANI, where he said:

“Baaki jo filmon mein musicians bajate the, woh ab berozgar hain — mostly thanks to Mr. Rahman. Unhone sabko bataya ki koi zarurat nahin musician ki… sab kuch laptop par ho sakta hai.”(“The musicians who used to play in films are now unemployed—mostly because of Rahman. He told everyone that musicians are not needed anymore… everything can be done on a laptop.”)