AR Rahman recalls his long association with Rajkumar Santoshi and what brings him back to working with the filmmaker

From their first outing with the National award-winning film Pukar to the latest released Gandhi Godse Ek Yudh, AR Rahman and Rajkumar Santoshi have a long journey as collaborators. The songs of Pukar need no introduction and the same goes for their latest project. 

Rahman who has given music for Santoshi's latest film, opened up on the long creative journey. He said, “I started working with him from the film Pukar and understood that he has a great sense of music, how he picked up some tunes and how he stood by it, he gained my respect on that one.” 

The music composer-singer also explained what brings him back to working with a filmmaker like Rajkumar Santoshi. “Also, it is about his storytelling, when he tells a story, even a boring story comes across as engaging. He also worked during The Legend of Bhagat Singh. That was the first time I used different orchestras and went abroad and recorded songs and the whole experience also elevated my knowledge. He was (Santoshi) really invested in music. After we were supposed to do another movie but that never happened and finally we are working again on this film. This is a special collaboration,” he explains. 

Pukar released in 2000. It won two National Film Awards. Santoshi won Nargis Dutt Award for Best Feature Film on National Integration and Anil Kapoor won the Best actor award. 

The Legend of Bhagat Singh was released in 2002. Starring Ajay Devgn, the movie also won the National film Awards. 

In the latest film Gandhi Godse Ek Yudh, Rahman composed two songs, Raghupati Raghav Raja Ram (sung by Shreya Ghoshal) and Vaishnav Jan To. The story of the film revolves around the ideological differences between Mahatma Gandhi and the Hindu Mahasabha member and political face Nathuram Godse who killed Gandhi from point-blank range. 

The story of the film set a conversation between Godse and Gandhi in an imaginary situation though the material of the core story is based on historical facts and evidence, claimed by Santoshi. Starring Chinmay Mandlekar and Deepak Antani as protagonists, Gandhi Godse Ek Yudh has released in theatres.