Mumbai: Music maestro AR Rahman has said he was lucky enough to have some of the best mentors in his career. Now he wants to extend the same help to budding talents from India as the ambassador of BAFTA’s ‘Breakthrough Initiative’. AR Rahman has always had this motive of helping talented youngsters.
The British Academy of Film and Television Arts’ (BAFTA) Monday announced Rahman as its ambassador in India. It has been done with the aim to help recognise talent across the breadth of the Indian entertainment industry. The initiative is supported by Netflix. It aims to identify, celebrate, and support up to five talents working in film, games, or TV in India.
Rahman is a double Oscar-winner. He said he would not just help BAFTA navigate the diverse creative landscape of India, but also educate people about the organisation and its work.
“My role is to curate and along with the (other) judges, find those amazing and original voices from India. We nurture them for a year. There is networking opportunity, mentorship, screenings and workshops. When these talents interact with the BAFTA breakthrough mentors, a lot of things change. They get nudged,” Rahman said Tuesday.
The musician hoped his experience across south and north film industries will help him find amazing talents from India. Rahman has been working as a producer and composer in the past 20 years,
Rahman was asked about his early years as a budding musician and the questions he faced. Rahman said in his experience, the best guidance comes from one’s own self.
“You need to have instinct, be conscious that I need to push myself. I need to find my own voice and be original. When you have all these questions, opportunities will find you,” informed Rahman.
The music maestro recalled his breakthrough as an artist with Mani Ratnam’s 1992 film Roja in India. He also talked about his international acclaim after Andrew Lloyd Webber’s musical Bombay Dreams.
“It was a gradual process for me,” Rahman said. “These are the things that I learnt through collaborations… I was lucky enough to get best mentors,” he added.
Rahman said even though Indian music went international long ago, the country needs to come together to keep up the good work.
“We have reached the stage of making Indian music popular globally long back. (Still) we have to put our act together; we have to be united. The whole India has to come together and we have to be one to achieve greatness,” asserted Rahman.