AR Ameen on father A R Rahman's 'communal remark' controversy: I would prefer to stay away from this topic

At 23, AR Ameen arrives for an interview visibly nervous — a slight edge in his voice, a thoughtful pause before he speaks. His new song Bheegi Bheegi, composed by his father A R Rahman and featuring actors Dulquer Salmaan and Mrunal Thakur, is his first major step into the spotlight as a singer-producer. Ask him how he and he father sat down and got the music together. He recalls, "“My dad showed me this idea and I, like, really liked it. And then we were curating it. Jasleen Royal's voice added a lot of texture and a lot of depth and warmth into the song. And I guess everything worked out really well. And it was really quick. So going back to the process, it’s hard to deconstruct it, I would say. So it was very quick.” On carving his own identity beyond his legendary father’s shadow, Ameen is candid about his ambitions. “I’m paving my own path, as I would say in every other interview. I’m following a completely different path and I want to just explore this space," he says. The topic inevitably turned to the controversy surrounding Rahman’s recent remarks on alleged “communal bias” in Bollywood — a debate that spread across social media and industry circuits. A visibly tensed, Ameen chose to deflect. “I would prefer to stay away from this topic as (pauses)," he says before his team intervenes. Rahman made headlines in January after an interview with the BBC Asian Network, where he reflected on a slowdown in his Bollywood work over the past eight years. What grabbed attention was his suggestion that shifting power dynamics — and possibly what he described as a “communal thing” — might have influenced opportunities for him. He said the change was subtle, not overt, coming to him as “Chinese whispers” about projects contracting him only to see decisions shift to other composers, and added that he preferred to let his music speak for itself. Rahman later clarified that he never intended to hurt anyone’s sentiments, releasing a video message and urging people not to over-interpret his words, stressing that music connects cultures and that those who know him don’t need an explanation.