New Delhi:

Often touted as one of India’s first rapper Baba Sehgal recently talked about working with top Indian music producer AR Rahman on the Hindi version of the popular track ‘Rukmani Rukmani’. In a latest interview he said that while he took on the song, he did not like the lyrics of the song.

‘Rukmani Rukmani’ was composed by AR Rahman for Mani Ratnam’s 1992 film Roja.

Baba Sehgal speaks on working with AR Rahman

Sehgal said in the interview about the lyrics that, “When I saw the Hindi lyrics, I was like, ‘Kitne vahiyat lyrics hai yaar. Kisne likha hai ye?’ (How cheap are these lyrics? Who wrote this?) The problem is, when we listen to songs in another language, they sound fine. But in our own language, we grasp the meaning. I don’t think Rahman or Ratnam knew what those Hindi lyrics meant”.

Baba Sehgal made these remarks during an interview with Siddharth Kannan where he talked about how during a performance in Chennai he was approached for the Hindi version of the Tamil song. He then came to know about the song when the film’s assistant director played Rukmani Rukmani’s Tamil version. 

At the time, Sehgal said, he did not pay much attention to it and just said ‘yes’ to the proposal. He then went on to relay how AR Rahman with his team came to meet him, requesting him to join in on the song.

He also talked about how this was his only collaboration with AR Rahman, “It was a forced thing. I was not at all convinced with the lyrics. They were very cheap, I feel. Another lady was called to sing the female lines. Later, I told Swetha Shetty to sing those too, and she nailed it. That was my first and last song with Rahman. Language was a problem. We never met after that.” 

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