Ahead of Oscars 2023, AR Rahman recalls his acceptance speech; says people “misinterpreted” his “love-hate” comment over “religion”

Recently, music maestro AR Rahman recalled his Oscar acceptance speech, which he gave in 2009, and how people misinterpreted it.

By Bollywood Hungama News Network -

March 4, 2023 - 1:34 PM IST

The 95th Academy Awards is around the corner and it has created a lot of buzz. From bagging a couple of nominations to Bollywood actress Deepika Padukone being one of the presenters, India has multiple reasons to rejoice in this year’s Oscars Awards. While many are going to step on this stage for the first time, Indian music maestro AR Rahman has already been there and lifted an award back in 2009. Refreshing our memory, the Academy's official Instagram handle gave a glimpse of Rahman's Oscars acceptance speeches. In the video, Rahman also recalled how people “misinterpreted” his acceptance speech while it has nothing to do with “any religion.”

Ahead of Oscars 2023, AR Rahman recalls his acceptance speech; says people “misinterpreted” his “love-hate” comment over “religion”

It all happened when he spoke about his surreal experience of winning two Oscars for Slumdog Millionaire in 2009. In the video, Rahman asserted, “I went to all these amazing dinners before the Oscars. But still, I was unsure, and the whole of India was cheering. I felt like a gladiator. When they announced my name for the score, I was like, “Is this real? Or is this a dream? And because I had to perform next, I was like “A.R., don’t react. There’s this and more. Don’t mess up your performance.”

As he continued, the 56-year-old musician also talked about his acceptance speech, which he delivered after receiving the second award on the same night for the Best Song award with Gulzar for ‘Jai Ho’. For the unversed, he had said, “All my life, I had a choice of hate and love. I chose love and I’m here. God Bless,” in his speech in 2009.

Commenting on the same, the Grammy Award winner told, “The second time when they announced my name for the best song, I had said in the speech that the essence of the film is optimism and hope, because the world was going through that economic depression, and Slumdog Millionaire was done in a way that anybody who sees it would feel high.”

Explaining his take further, he added, “Some people have misinterpreted that statement over some religion and this and that, which is not true. This is the state of every artist in the world and that’s what makes them the artist. They want to give and love is about giving, not taking.”

A.R. Rahman (@arrahman) reflects on winning the Oscar for Best Original Song and Score for ‘Slumdog Millionaire’ at the 81st #Oscars. pic.twitter.com/Hry5GmTBzK
— The Academy (@TheAcademy) March 2, 2023