It’s said that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. But only if the other person does a better or equally good job in recreating someone’s work. Otherwise, it’s just cringey content that even the original maker wouldn’t approve of. And song and movie remakes in Bollywood are perfect examples of it.
Allah Rakha Rahman (AR Rahman) is one of the most talented musicians in the industry and several people in the past have tried to become like him.
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Many of his songs have also been remade in the past namely ‘Humma Humma’ from the movie ‘Bombay’, ‘Urvasi Urvasi’ from the film ‘Hum Se Hai Muqabala’, and ‘Masakali’ from ‘Delhi-6’, among others.
Hence, when recently, a video of the famous musician, Sting, reacting to someone performing his iconic track in front of him went viral, Rahman shared how he feels about remakes.
In the video that’s going viral, Sting is listening to a Puerto Rican musician, José Montserrate Feliciano sing his song ‘Every Breath You Take’ on the stage at the Polar Music Prize Show in 2017. Looking at Sting’s face, people thought he wasn’t happy with the musician ‘murdering’ his song.
Sting watching his song getting murdered live on stage
😂 pic.twitter.com/pnUXhlwru3— Sven Henrich (@NorthmanTrader) May 8, 2023
Retweeting the video, Rahman wrote, “I’ve been there.”
I’ve been there 😍 https://t.co/MDW4isY82q
— A.R.Rahman (@arrahman) May 10, 2023
People immediately concluded that Rahman was taking a dig at all the musicians and composers who have ‘reimagined’ and come up with reprise versions of his compositions. This is what people said:
Can feel the pain from his face…
— Shan Karuppusamy (@shankaruppusamy) May 10, 2023
Yes we can understand sir.. I salute his patience 🫡🫡
— 7 (@realcid1) May 10, 2023
Haha. Savage.
— Preethi Venkatasubramanian (@Preethi15580) May 10, 2023
Is this a parody account?
— trinizzleswafizzle (@trinizzzzle) May 10, 2023
the emoji 🤣🤣 thalaivARR
— Roöpiì (@RealRoopii) May 10, 2023
We both use 😍 ironically and i love that for me
— Nunchaku Pori (@aprayojakatwam) May 10, 2023
Loving this new expressive rahman.
— Mumbaikar (@mumbaaaikar) May 10, 2023
Great to see you more expressive nowadays sir ♥️😅🤗
— An🎼hul (@anshuljoshi005) May 10, 2023
I saw that on your face during behindwoods show thalaivaa 😅😁😬
— VibewithAish (@thegonemadgirl) May 10, 2023
Some also listed AR Rahman songs that were ‘murdered’ by other artists.
Masakali remix
— Sachin Garg (@GargSachin) May 10, 2023
— Adi (@thesigmadoc) May 10, 2023
In the past as well, Rahman has spoken about the remake culture.
“The more I see, the more it is distorted. The intention of the composer gets distorted. People say, ‘I am reimagining.’ Who are you to re-imagine? I am also very careful of taking someone else’s work. You have to be respectful and I think it is a grey area, we need to sort it out.”
What do you think of the remake culture? Let us know.