00:00We're now getting some more breaking news. Oscar-winning composer A.R. Rahman has addressed
00:04the criticism surrounding his recent comments about alleged communal bias in the Hindi film
00:09industry, clarifying that his words were never meant to offend or hurt sentiments. The controversy
00:15stemmed from Rahman's remarks during an interaction where he spoke about receiving fewer opportunities
00:21in Bollywood in the recent years. Reflecting on the changing dynamics of the industry,
00:27he had said that people who are not creative have the power now to decide things and this
00:33might have been a communal thing also, but not in my face. This is what A.R. Rahman had said and now
00:39he has clarified. Remember, there was a controversy over this remark and now A.R. Rahman has clarified
00:44that his words were never meant to offend or hurt sentiments.
00:48India is my inspiration, my teacher and my home. I understand that intentions can sometimes be
00:59misunderstood. But my purpose has always been to uplift, honor and serve through music. I have never
01:08wished to cause pain and I hope my sincerity is felt. I feel blessed to be Indian, which enables to create
01:17a space, which always allow freedom of expression and celebrates multicultural voices.
01:27And my colleague Sana Farzeen is now joining us with more details on this. Sana, after a big controversy
01:33over the remark that was made by A.R. Rahman about alleged communalism in the Bollywood industry,
01:38now he has clarified that he did not mean to offend or hurt the sentiments. All right, we'll try to
01:45re-establish that connection with my colleague. But that is the latest update. Now A.R. Rahman has
01:51addressed the controversy over his remark in which he alleged that there's a communal bias in Bollywood.
01:58And now he has clarified that his words were never meant to offend or hurt sentiments. He also goes on
02:03to say that he's a proud Indian, he's proud to be an Indian and that he did not mean to hurt the
02:12sentiments of anybody through that statement. My colleague Sana Farzeen is now joining us on the
02:17story. Sana, after a lot of backlash and outrage over the remark that was made by A.R. Rahman of
02:24alleged communalism in the Bollywood industry, now he has released this video saying that he did not
02:31mean to offend or hurt anybody's sentiments and that he's a proud Indian.
02:35Absolutely. And he rightly mentioned that intentions can always be misinterpreted. I think
02:41Javid Akhtar also spoke to us recently and he also mentioned that how he does not believe that A.R. Rahman
02:46can speak something like this. And Rahman in his statement, which of course he talks about how
02:51he's always worked towards uplifting music and he calls India his home and how he's always worked
02:58towards the betterment of the country and uplifting its status in the music industry. He shared clips from
03:04of course, when he won an Oscar for India, how he participated in the waves that happened last year
03:09and definitely his next projects, Ramayana is supposed to be the biggest Indian project and he
03:14is collaborating with Hans Zimmer on this. Hence, Rahman has clearly put his statement out that
03:20see, whatever you feel, India is my home, India is my country and I will keep working towards it. I will
03:26keep working towards uplifting the music industry of India. Of course, his comments that he spoke in a
03:33recent interview has received mixed responses. There have been a section of the music industry
03:38who actually stood by Rahman and said that his comments may have been misinterpreted and maybe
03:45he wanted to mean something else. And this is what he also has stated in the statement that
03:51your intention can sometimes be taken into another way. But his sincerity, he asked people to believe
03:57in his sincerity and his work. We've seen, of course, a lot of filmmakers, musicians coming out in support
04:03of Rahman. But there have been, of course, social media who've accused him of kind of spreading
04:08hatred towards the country. Right. Sana, thank you so much for all those details and for that context.
04:13So there was a lot of backlash and outrage over the statement by AR Rahman, who said that there's
04:18alleged communalism that has led to lesser or no work for him in the past few years, after which he has now
04:24released this video clarifying that he did not intend to hurt anybody's sentiments and that he's a proud
04:30Indian. He also ends this message with Jai Hind, Jai Bharat.
