The 1992 film Roja, which was directed by Mani Ratnam, marked the beginning of the legendary composer AR Rahman’s musical career in the Indian cinema business. The movie was a box office and critical triumph, and its soundtrack in particular garnered high praise and became the standard for Indian film music for many years to come. Rahman’s distinctive sound, a combination of western and Indian classical music, became a defining characteristic of his music, and he went on to compose some of the most recognisable film scores in the annals of Indian cinema. However, when he first heard the Roja music, AR Rahman was “heartbroken.”
The aforementioned revelation was delivered by the renowned artist himself during an interview with ETimes. The album had to be mastered multiple times, according to Rahman, but they eventually had to make some concessions because the release date was drawing near.
The portal quoted him saying, “I remember, in the very beginning, I was so heartbroken when I heard my Roja soundtrack when it came from the master. It was so badly mastered and then it had to go back 3-4 times but by the time the date came and we had to compromise and say okay.”
This is not the first time AR Rahman has discussed the score for Roja. Rahman has explained the rationale for sacrificing sound quality in a previous album during an Ask Me Anything (AMA) session on Rediff. He added that the compromise was made since most of the audience at the time had access to lower-quality music systems, therefore the sound quality had to be appropriate for their equipment.
For those who are unfamiliar, Arvind Swami and Madhoo played the main characters in Roja, which was released in 1992.