A.R.Rahman Bought Oscar Awards: Is Ismail Darbar Jealous?

Ismail Darbar accuses A.R.Rahman of bribing and buying Oscar awards. . He even went on to say that Rahman steals credits. At a recent press conference, the Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam music director said Rahman bribed Oscar Academy officials. Read Bollywood Trends take on this issue. Readers can comment and let us know what they think. Meanwhile; here is the rest of the byte.

Ismail said, "Rahman is a very good businessman, he knows how to handle his public relations. I will yet again say that he has bought the Oscar. Also, I would like to add that the songs, that he claims to have composed, are not even his! He is just a fantastic salesperson. I have proof that Jai Ho is not his. It has been done by someone else. All the big film-makers like Subhash Ghai, Mani Rathnam know about it.”

Rahman received two Oscars in 2008 Best Original Score and Best Original Song for his music in Slumdog Millionaire. He adds, “None of them have the guts to come out and speak up, because Rahman is a big name. If he has guts, let him come out and prove me wrong. I have proofs of him having stolen credit from someone else. I can show those proofs if need be.Even when Devdas and Saathiya were up for National Awards for music, Saathiya, the music for which is composed by Rahman, won.

First of all, a dubbed movie is never given National Awards. Then, how did Saathiya get it? It is not that I am talking now. I have wanted to talk about this forever. It is just that no one ever asked me about it."

Bollywood Trends views on A.R Rahman-Ismail Darbar controversy

Looks like someone is jealous as Khatta Nimbooda!! One can sense that the insecurity of Ismail Darbar goes back to the Taal vs Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam days and later, Saathiya vs Devdas days. In both the occasions, A.R.Rahman had walked away with Filmfare awards, something that Ismail felt hard to digest.

1. This Ismail Darbar surely looks insecure. Since when did Saathiya become a dubbed movie? It was a remake, the original Tamil version Alaipayuthey had R. Madhavan and Shalini.  The Hindi version had Vivek Oberoi and Rani Mukherjee.
2. If A.R.Rahman bought Oscar, then how did he get nominated for 127 hours?
3.. Surely Rahman is good with his contacts, if Ismail isn’t any good, that is not Rahman’s problem..is it?
4. Ismail Darbar copied Nimbooda song from the original composition of Gazi Khan, a folk musician rom Rajasthan, without giving him credit…Now what do you say to that?
5. Ismail should know to first compose himself and then compose music. We already saw how moody and insecure he was in Bigg Boss.  He had threatened Tanaaz Currim and abused Bakhtiyaar Irani in a few episodes, which just exposed his frustration and sorry ego.
6. Ismail Darbar probably does not know that Rahman won Grammy Awards too. Or he would have said that even that was bought..
7. Check out Ismail Darbar's 2005 interview, we know that he has been having problem with Rahman since a long time:

"Rahman did not have time to compose the music and Subhashji wanted to start his film. So he approached me. Subhashji had spoken to Rahman earlier about the joint music direction as we did not want any misunderstanding.
I do not usually do movies where there are two music directors. But Kisna was special.
People have told me my work was better than Rahman's in Kisna. No one has told me otherwise. It could be because I have made eight songs while Rahman has created only two.
But my work has always been better than his. Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam was better than Taal. Even Devdas was better than Saathiya.

But it is destiny that he got international fame. Angrezo ne uska haath pakad liya hai toh logo ko lagta hai ke yeh kuch zyada hi hai (Foreigners encouraged him so people think he is very good).
I am not saying this because of jealousy. This is the bitter truth.
Whenever my work is good and he takes the awards, I feel bad.
I wonder why people run after name and fame, and not good work. Kyunki hamare yahan bahut kum akal ke log hai (we have very few intelligent people here). We see some foreigners holding someone's hand, and he becomes a big man.


But the foreigners have also praised my work in Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam and Devdas.
Rahman (below, right) and I have not worked together on any of the Kisna songs. His two songs were recorded even before I started work on the film. I didn't even speak to him for any of the tunes and nor did I listen to his songs before I composed mine.

I was told that Kisna is set in the 1940s. So I started visualising the songs in that period. If there were a qawwali in the nawab's haveli, how would it be? Besides, it should also appeal to the new generation. I am happy I have done justice to the film.