Oscar winner A R Rahman is considered one of the best Indian musicians. His work has garnered global acclaim. So when he says he lost out on work in India due to communal bias, people are bound to notice.

In a recent BBC interview, when asked if he faced any prejudice in the Indian industry when he started out in the 1990s, Rahman indicated that he has felt communal undercurrents lately. However, his industry colleagues have rejected Rahman’s doubts. HTC

Javed Akhtar told IANS, “I have never felt this way. I meet people here in Mumbai. They have great respect for him. Rahman is such a big man. Even a small producer is afraid to go to him. But I don’t there is any communal element in this. Why don’t you see him? He will definitely come.”

Singer Anup Jalota has also dismissed Rahman’s remarks that the latter is getting less work because of communal bias against him. “This is absolutely not true,” Jalota said adding that the amount of work that Rahman has done in 5 years is what others do in 25 years. “What more can be said… He has done a lot of work and delivered excellent projects,” said Jalota.

Shaan told IANS, “I have been singing for many years and am not getting much work, but I don’t dwell on it. I don’t think there’s any communal angle. In music, what matters is doing good work and making good music, not worrying about such things.”

“Maybe I never knew, or it was concealed by God, but I didn’t feel it. In the past eight years, maybe, because the power shift has happened… 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. It comes to me as Chinese whispers that they booked you, but the music company went ahead and hired their five composers. I said, ‘Oh, that’s great, rest for me, I can chill out with my family.”