Which was news enough though not unprecedented, since Rajnikanth has crooned for his Tamil films earlier.
On Saturday history was created in London when Rahman recorded Rajnikanth’s first Hindi song for the Hindi version of Kochadaiyaan. Rahman also accompanied Rajnikanth vocally in the song, so it was double-history with two icons joined at the lip for first time.
Says an eyewitness, “The song written by Irshaad Kaamil of Love Aaj Kal and Rockstar fame ,was suffused with complicated imagery on life and mortality and difficult Urdu words that both Rajni Sir and Rahman found difficult to understand, let alone pronounce. Rahman., however had recently worked on Irshaad’s words for Rockstar. So he got a hang of the lyrics. Rajniji was not sure he could pull it off.”
However the film’s joint producers Dr Murli Manohar and Eros International were keen that Rajnikant sing in Hindi, as he had already done the same for the Tamil version of Kochadaiyaan.
We hear it took all of daughter Soundarya’s persuasive powers to convince her Appa to go for it.
The recording, we hear, was manna to the ears.
When we contacted producer Dr Murli Manohar in London he confirmed the historic confluence of the two ‘R’s in the song. “Yes ,Rajniji and Rahman did come together to render Rahman’s composition. In Hindi. Rajniji had earlier sung the theme song for the Tamil version of Kochadaiyaan. But that was a completely different song and treatment. You must understand the Hindi version of Kochadaiyaan is totally independent of the Tamil version. And so are the songs.”
The 15-day schedule in London started on 19 March and ended with the recording of the historic Rajni-Rahman Hindi song.
The film’s leading lady Deepika Padukone, we hear, was nowhere in the schedule. She is yet to work out her dates for the shooting with Rajnikanth. We hear Rajnikanth would have to return to London at a later date to shoot the portions with Deepika.
In the meanwhile the producer Dr Murli is very happy with the progress so far. “We shot at the Pinewood Studios in London with the same technicians who helmed James Cameron’s Avatar and Steven Spielberg’s Tin Tin. And they were very impressed by the Indian crew.We in fact finished two days’ ahead of schedule and that’s how we got the time to record the Hindi song with Rajniji and Rahman.”
Kochadaiyaan is to release for Diwali.
