AR Rahman slams song remixes, says, ‘You can’t reimagine people’s work without their permission’

Music composer AR Rahman has expressed his strong disapproval of the increasing trend of song remixes and the misuse of artificial intelligence (AI) in music. In a recent interview, Rahman criticised the practice of reimagining classic songs, stating, “You can’t take a song from a movie and use it in another movie six years later, saying you are reimagining it.”

He emphasised that while such remixes might be suitable for social media platforms, they should not be used commercially without proper permission. “You can’t reimagine people’s work without their permission. You could post it on Instagram, but certainly not make it mainstream,” he added.

Rahman’s stance comes in the wake of several of his songs being remixed and reimagined. One notable example is Humma Humma, originally from the 1995 film Bombay, which was remixed for the 2017 film OK Jaanu. Ironically, Rahman himself composed the score for OK Jaanu but was not involved in the remixing process.

The composer also expressed concern about the potential misuse of AI in music. He warned of the ethical implications of using AI to create music without proper attribution or compensation. “An even bigger evil is people misusing AI and not paying the composer even if they are borrowing his style,” he said. “We need to bell this cat because it could lead to major ethical issues. People could lose jobs.”

Despite these concerns, Rahman continues to create groundbreaking music. His recent work includes the scores for the Tamil film Raayan and Imtiaz Ali's Amar Singh Chamkila, both of which have been critically acclaimed. He is currently working on upcoming projects like Chhava and Thug Life.