A R Rahman was not sure about doing 'Partition: 1947': Chadha

Mumbai: Director Gurinder Chadha today said music maestro A R Rahman was initially "quite reticent" about taking up "Partition: 1947" as a composer. "Given the subject matter of the film and the fact that it is a western and Indian film, I had one choice for the music and that was A R Rahman.

I approached him but he was quite reticent and was not sure about doing a film on Partition," Gurinder told reporters at the music launch of the film here today. "I kept persuading him and he said, 'I will see, I will see'. Then I met him in LA and showed him the rough cut of the film. After that, he was extremely happy to come on board as he felt the message of the film is good."

The "Bend It Like Beckham" director even went to Chennai to meet Rahman. "When I went to Chennai he saw the whole cut and at the end he got up from his seat and started to play a tune on his piano. It was a beautiful moment and I filmed that. "He said he was struggling to find the main tune and I told him why don't you use the tune that you played on the piano. He couldn't remember the tune and luckily I had filmed that moment so I emailed it to him," she recalled.

When asked Rahman about his hesitation in doing the film, the composer said, "I felt there is something special that we don't know anything about and that could be one of the factors that changed people's perception of Partition because the younger generation is full of judgemental ideas about Partition." The film features Huma Qureshi, Om Puri, Manish Dayal and Neeraj Kabi in lead roles and is set to release in India on August 18.