After several who attended the AR Rahman concert at Wembley Stadium, London, took umbrage at the fact that the composer performed more Tamil songs than Hindi, celebrities have come out in support of the artist, criticising the Hindi imposition that the attendees subscribed to.
Singer Chinmayi Sripada took to Twitter to explain why Rahman had the freedom to perform whatever song he liked.
When Rahman sir wins 2 Oscars and creates history, he is “An Indian”, but 7-8 Tamil gaane kya gaa liye aap naraaz hote ho. What yaar?
— Chinmayi Sripaada (@Chinmayi) July 14, 2017
The show was called ‘Netru Indru Naalai’, had 65% Hindi songs (Set List is out there). Music knows no boundaries / language.
— Chinmayi Sripaada (@Chinmayi) July 14, 2017
Chase the American dream, your kids can Spanish; Live in the UK that once colonised India – but cry foul when a when you hear Tamil songs
— Chinmayi Sripaada (@Chinmayi) July 14, 2017
And finally, pic.twitter.com/pLUL7w2Hmg
— Chinmayi Sripaada (@Chinmayi) July 14, 2017
Actor Silambarasan, aka STR, also expressed his views on the matter.
Music has no language, and that’s the reason music unites people, and so does the genius legend @arrahman End of story dot. #Peace
— STR (@iam_str) July 15, 2017
Filmmaker CS Amudhan said:
From Metallica to Linkin Park with diehard fans, concert song lists always cause sum heartburn. Just saying u can understand some grumbling
— C.S.Amudhan (@csamudhan) July 13, 2017
On the other hand i used to be very upset when Udit Narayan sang Tamil songs in concerts.
— C.S.Amudhan (@csamudhan) July 14, 2017
Singer Shakthisree Gopalan voiced sentiments similar to Chinmayi’s.
@arrahman sir has been a messenger of peace&love.Dear #walkoutclan #NetruIndruNaalai concert-may music heal ur hearts & minds!??#spreadpeace pic.twitter.com/AWlWqtykb6
— Shakthisree Gopalan (@ShakthisreeG) July 15, 2017
Many other celebrities tweeted their views on the #WalkOutClan: the attendees disappointed with Rahman’s selection of songs.
If @arrahman chooses to play more Tamil songs than Hindi at his concert in London that’s his business. Don’t like it? Go home. Stop whining.
— Pritish Nandy (@PritishNandy) July 14, 2017
Today:
“How dare this @arrahman sing *some* songs in Tamil?”Yesterday:
“Yaar, what are the lyrics to this awesome Despatico song?”— Sorabh Pant (@hankypanty) July 14, 2017
If AR Rahman won his oscars today, I’m pretty sure some people would have wanted him to say – “Sab Pugalll Bhagwan ke liye”.
— SA (@Aravind_SA) July 13, 2017
Incidentally, Rahman gave an encore performance of the Tamil version of ‘Urvasi Urvasi‘ at the IIFA Rocks concert in New Jersey recently. The audience joined in, as an ensemble of singers including Hariharan, Kailash Kher, Jonita Gandhi, Benny Dayal, Mika Singh and Neeti Mohan jammed it up with the music maestro on stage.
