'Chaiyya Chaiyya Was Sukhwinder Singh's Idea, It's Common Practice': Ram Gopal Verma Defends 'Jai Ho' Comment

Although singer Sukhwinder Singh has denied Ram Gopal Varma’s claim that the Oscar-winning song Jai Ho, from Danny Boyle's Slumdog Millionaire, was ghost-composed by him and not AR Rahman, Ram Gopal Varma stands by his statement.

"Of course what I said is true. It was Sukhwinder who did the tune initially.

Even Chaiyya Chaiyya in the Shah Rukh Khan-starrer Dil Se was originally Sukhwinder’s idea. I will tell you the exact chronology of what happened. When Rahman gave the tune (Jai Ho) to Subhash Ghai (for the film Yuvraj) Ghai rejected it angrily saying he doesn’t pay Rahman in crores for such tunes. To this, Rahman replied that Ghai pays for Rahman’s name, and not his output. It is true that celebrated composers give their signature stamp and their names to a tune for it to become famous. If it were not for the master’s stamp no one would notice a product. A song or for that matter, a film, has many creative people behind it. In my film Satya

there was Anurag Kashyap’s contribution. I can’t pinpoint and say this or that is his contribution," says Ram Gopal Verma in an exclusive interview with us.

ALSO READ: Amid Ram Gopal Varma's Controversial Jai Ho Statement, Looking At Song's Origin

Coming back to the song Jai ho, RGV says, "Rahman was on the way to the studio for the song recording. He was late, so he asked Sukhwinder to start warming up. When Rahman reached the studio, he heard Sukhwinder fooling around on the mike. Rahman liked what he heard and incorporated it into Jai Ho

. As simple as that. There is no duplicity in this, no creative infringement, nothing of the sort. Like I said, it is common practice for composers’ teams to provide inputs, sometimes the whole song is by some assistant, or a singer or the lyricst. A finished product is not about who did it first, but who packaged it and whose name finally goes out on the product into the market."

ALSO READ: Not AR Rahman, Sukhwinder Singh Composed Oscar Winning Song Jai Ho, Says Ram Gopal Varma