A.R. Rahman, the Grammy winning music composer, chose to pay tribute to his singers in the form of a coffee table book, Reflections , which features photographs of singers who have worked with the composer.
Dwelling on the crucial role played by playback singers in Indian cinema, Rahman noted, “Unlike foreign films, the actors in India don’t sing the songs themselves. The playback singers play a bigger role in our films.”
The music composer also said that musician turned photographer, Selvakumar, who shot the pictures for the book, has made the singers look like superstars.
Unveiling the book in the presence of a number of popular singers including the likes of P. Susheela, who, he said, has been his biggest inspiration, Rahman further added, “Looking back at my career, many songs have been made memorable by these singers. This coffee table book is a humble tribute to them.”
Photographer Selvakumar, who started out as a musician and took to photography at a later stage in his life, revealed that his first assignment was a photo shoot with A.R. Rahman for a UK-based magazine. “Rahman was my first model. But, I still don’t know if he liked it,” he said.
What was the idea behind this book? “He felt it would be nice to see the photographs of all the singers who have worked with him, in a book. The idea is to keep it as a memorabilia,” he said.
The singers who gathered at Art Houz, where the photographs are on display, seemed happy with the attention. Many prominent singers such as Unnikrishnan, Sujatha and also a few such as Shakthisree Gopalan and Shweta Mohan from the younger lot were present at the launch.
