Moments with the maestro | A.R. Rahman
* Rahman works in the night. A typical recording evening would begin at 7 p.m. The actual recording, after our discussions, would begin at 1 a.m. and end at 3 or 4 a.m.
* His discovery of a song is a process sometimes. He may start with the bone of a song and decide to flesh it out with the singer. The decisions are all his, of course.
* He identifies the strength of a singer quickly, and accentuates it. He encourages singers to do research and bring their unique flavour to their songs.
* After some songs are composed, he takes a minute or two by himself. He comes back with changes, and suddenly, as a singer, you are amazed at how different and better the songs sound. It is at such moments you are awed by his genius.
* His knowledge of classical music is exhaustive. Sometimes, he would mention a rare raga and ask me to sing a little-known variation of it. Even for a trained classical singer like me, it would sometimes take a minute to recognise what he was referring to