Shankar Mahadevan RESPONDS to AR Rahman's 'people in power' comment; says, 'I look at it differently'

AR Rahman's recent interview landed him in trouble after he stated that his work in the Hindi film industry slowed down due to "communal" issues. He even expressed that less work happened in Bollywood because people who are not creative enough are in power. His remarks sparked discussions online, with reactions coming from the Hindi film industry as well. And now, singer Shankar Mahadevan has responded to AR Rahman's comments.

Shankar Mahedavan reacts to AR Rahman's communal remark row

In conversation with NDTV, Shankar Mahadevan shared that he has a different perspective to look at AR Rahman's comments. He shared, "See, I've always been saying this; I look at it differently."


Mahadevan further added, "The person who creates the music is one. The person who decides what's going to happen to this music is a totally another team. This is a musical team; this is a non-musical team. So, what happens is the destiny of your musical product lies with a non-musical person. So, it finds its own destiny."

The 'Breathless' singer neither endorsed nor denied AR Rahman's remark while highlighting the differences between creators and the people who control it.

More about AR Rahman's remarks

In an interview with BBC Network, AR Rahman shared that the Hindi film industry started to offer him less work in the last 8 years. He said that this happened because of "shifting power dynamics," adding that it can be "a communal thing." He further shared, "It comes to me as Chinese whispers."

In the same interview, the music maestro expressed, "People who are not creative have the power now to decide things, and this might have been a communal thing also, but not in my face."

Soon, celebs like Javed Akhtar, Shobhaa De, Laxman Utekar, Paresh Rawal, Hariharan, Anup Jalota, Leslie Lewis, Manoj Tiwari, Shaan, Kangana Ranaut, and more reacted to the communal remark.Get the latest entertainment updates from the Times of India, along with the latest Hindi movies, upcoming Hindi movies in 2026 , and Telugu movies.”