A R Rahman turned down move to Mumbai due to “underworld mafia culture”; says, “Subhash Ghai asked me to…”

Two-time Oscar winner AR Rahman has revealed that he turned down the opportunity to move to Mumbai in the early 1990s due to the city’s underworld mafia culture. 

In an interview with The Hindu, Rahman said that he was offered a massive house in Banjara Hills, Hyderabad, by a big producer if he moved to Mumbai. However, he declined the offer, saying that he was not comfortable living in the city at the time.

AR Rahman asserted, “I remember in 1994, a big producer from Andhra Pradesh said he’d give me a massive place in Banjara Hills if I moved out from Chennai. I just smiled at him. Later, when I found prominence up North, Subhash Ghai asked me to learn Hindi as people there love me and I should know the language. But that was the time of the underworld mafia culture in Mumbai, so I didn’t even consider it.”

The six-time National Award singer-composer further added, “A few years later, I was working in England, but my wife barely spent three months in the UK before she wanted to run back to India. Then, came the US, and we even bought a house there as everyone loved it. But this time I put my foot down and we all returned home.”

For the unversed, Rahman has never lived in Mumbai, even though he has worked on many Hindi films in the city. He currently lives in Chennai with his wife and three children.

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