Overwhelmed by love of audience, kept wanting to give more: AR Rahman on Pune concert incident

PTI, May 2, 2023, 8:52 PM IST

Image source: PTI

Chennai: A day after police stopped his concert in Pune for overshooting the 10 pm deadline, celebrated composer AR Rahman said he had a “Rockstar moment” after he performed for the audience in the city.

In a tweet posted on Monday night, the double Oscar winner said he and his band were “overwhelmed” by the concertgoers’ love and wanted to “give more” to them.

“Did we all just have the ‘Rockstar’ moment on stage yesterday? I think we did! We were overwhelmed by the love of the audience and kept wanting to give more.. Pune, thank you once again for such a memorable evening,” Rahman said.

The 56-year-old singer-musician also shared a video from the live concert, held at Raja Bahadur Mills in Pune on Sunday evening.

“Here’s a little snippet of our roller coaster ride,” wrote Rahman alongside a wink emoji.

On Tuesday, a hashtag ‘#DisRespectOfARRahman’ started trending on Twitter.

“We are with you Thalaivaa @arrahman #DisRespectOfARRahman,” a fan said.

“Shame on you MH government #DisRespectOfARRahman,” said another user.

“What they done to ARR is not good at all ,Stopping a concert in mid song is highly insulting. Kudos to A R Rahman for being so respectful #DisRespectOfARRahman @PuneCityPolice @cppunecity @Dev_Fadnavis @CMOMaharas (sic)” a fan wrote on the microblogging site.

After Sunday’s concert, a video went viral on social media platforms in which a police officer was seen walking on the stage and asking Rahman, other artistes, and organisers to stop the music show as it was already past 10 o’clock.

In his previous Twitter post, Rahman thanked Pune for “all the love and euphoria” during “a roller coaster concert” but did not address the incident.

“Pune! Thank you for all the love and euphoria last night! Was such a roller coaster concert! No wonder Pune is home to so much classical music! We shall be back soon to sing with you all again!” the Oscar winner had said.

An aide close to Rahman, however, on Monday said the police could have talked to the organisers instead of pointing fingers at Rahman, a Padma Bhushan awardee known world over for his music.

“10pm was the curfew time but they’ve said it’s the last song and only a minute left. The police official went to the stage and asked ARR (Rahman) directly to stop, pointing finger at him. Police should have talked to the organisers or other control booths,” the aide said.

Event organiser Dr Heramb Shelke said stopping the show in this manner was disrespectful to Rahman, a composer admired and appreciated the world over, and it could have been done in a “decent manner”.

“At the last moment, this should not have happened as the entire programme was well organised,” he said.