Oscar-winning musician AR Rahman was at Cannes Film Festival for his documentary based in Nagaland. He spoke to Brut about self doubt, viral songs on Instagram and drawing inspiration from Northeast India. Brut is the official media partner for the Cannes Film Festival. #Cannes2024
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00:00We've evolved in so many things, in science and everything, but still we are killing each other, so primal.
00:06I always have this little soft corner for Northeast, I felt like they are not included the way they should be in movies or anything.
00:17Just swiping through all the reels is always fun.
00:30I always have this little soft corner for Northeast, I felt like they are not included the way they should be in movies or anything.
00:40I was invited for the Hornbill Festival at Nagaland, I went there and I got super inspired seeing the whole place, the vibe.
00:49It didn't look like India, the India we normally people see.
00:53I felt like it's a very special, transformative, inspiring place and the world should see that and get inspired.
01:00Also, from a history of violence to peace and music, the world is going through this turmoil now, we are so primal killing each other.
01:08I think this will be a good example for them to see and get inspired.
01:13We've evolved in so many things, in science and everything, but still we are killing each other, so primal.
01:24Always, I think that makes you humble, it makes you work harder on certain things.
01:33Not everything can be taken for granted, even people, people are evolving.
01:37What worked 10 years back might not work now, sometimes what worked 40 years might work again.
01:42I think people have the choice of listening to what they need, but just swiping through all the reels is always fun.
01:57Also, I feel like it doesn't convey the whole picture of a song, the whole story of the song doesn't come.
02:04My only worry is people should not think that that's enough for music.
02:10There should be a bigger story, people used to listen to albums before and albums would have 10 songs, 5 songs, 15 songs and now it's 15 seconds.
02:21I discover through Instagram, I DM them and my assistant will go follow up and then people from Georgia, Iran, North India, villages, strange places.
02:40So they come, take a flight, come to Chennai or Mumbai.
02:43We always look for things which we can't out of our league and sometimes we reach there, sometimes we don't need to and we don't reach.
02:58In my case, I think things take time and what I've learned through that is not to lose hope and be persistent and maintain your integrity and everything will follow.
03:11Become valuable so things follow you.