Ahead of Ilaiyaraaja's live concert in Hyderabad, watch when Kamal Haasan explained maestro's genius

Ilaiyaraaja's live concert in Hyderabad will be attended by the who's who of the Telugu film industry including Tollywood superstars Chiranjeevi and Nagarjuna.

Here's how Ilaiyaraaja saved Kamal Haasan's Hey Ram

Music maestro Ilaiyaraaja is all set to perform at a live concert in Hyderabad. A massive preparation is underway in the city as more than 18,000 people are expected to attend the musical event. The concert will also see the who's who of the Telugu film industry in attendance. Tollywood superstars Chiranjeevi and Nagarjuna will be among the high-profile guests.

A day before Ilaiyaraaja's live performance, a tribute concert was held on Saturday. Music directors Anup Rubens, Vishal Chandrasekhar, popular singers and Hyderabad's renowned music bands came together to pay tribute to Ilaiyaraaja. It was a token of their admiration and love for the musical genius.

Tamil superstar Kamal Haasan once recalled a time when Ilaiyaraaja saved him from a difficult situation, which demonstrated the maestro's mastery of music and ingenuousness. Kamal recalled an incident when he had a fallout with the original music director of Hey Ram.

Kamal felt that he was working with Ilaiyaraaja too much. As he wanted to shake things up, as an experiment, he worked with a different music director. However, things didn't work out the way Kamal hoped for. Kamal alleged that the music director in question demanded more money during the film's post-production work. And Kamal was not willing to accommodate his unfair demands.

"During the negotiations, the music director took away all the recorded discs of the film's music. I was wondering whether to beg him to give back the music or pay the higher price that he's asking or do what's right and fair. When you are making a film on Gandhi, how can you give up? You must do Satyagraha," Kamal said after the special screening of Hey Ram a few years ago.

Instead of begging the music director, he decided to fire him from the project. But, it was not an easy decision given that the budget of Hey Ram has already gone overboard. When he changed the music director, there was also the risk of reshooting the film to match the new tunes created by the new composer. Kamal was in quite a pickle.

"When I was thinking what do to? I realised that first I need the humility to go and seek the help of the man who I overlooked the first time. I went back to Ilaiyaraaja. But, he didn't ask me why did you leave me. He asked about my problem. I told him that I have already spent too much on the film and I didn't know how to control it now. He said ok if I reduce this expense, what will you give me? I was like you are also bargaining. He asked again what will you give me? I said you tell me. He said I will tell you later. He told me not to reshoot. He saw everything that I had already shot. You won't believe the original tune that I had for Nee Partha Parvaikkoru Nandri. It was a different tune," Kamal recalled.

"In the song where I play the piano, the tune should be in sync with my finger movement. But, the music should not be the same. So what he did is he started playing the reeds close to my fingers. He synced for the image and lip movement. He did a wonderful job on the songs that didn't require him to worry about lip movement," he added.

Ilaiyaraaja's live concert will take place in Gachibowli Stadium Hyderabad.

Share