Singer Chithra recalls her earliest memories of AR Rahman

Recounting her first meeting with musical maestro AR Rahman, noted playback inger KS Chithra said that they didn't talk to each other then. She recalled that she saw Rahman for the first time in 1986 during the recording of the Tamil song ‘Ethetho ennam valarthen’ composed by Ilaiyaraaja. Rahman was known as Dilip Shekhar Kumar then.

In an interview to a Tamil media, the award-winning singer said, “Raja sir usually conducts a rehearsal prior to the actual recording with the full orchestra. I have then heard him directing one Dileep to play keyboard. I had no idea who this Dileep was. Every day after the rehearsal I used to see a boy walk silently, with his hands in pockets, towards a car and leave in it. I used to wonder who that was. The people there told me that he was the son of (yesrteryear musician) RK Sekhar, and he was the one who played the keyboard. I was surprised to learn that a boy was playing the keyboard so well. It was much later that he changed his name to AR Rahman.”

Chithra said that though she had seen Rahman play keyboard for some other composers, they didn’t bother talking to each other there too. The singer added that the maestro too doesn't talk a lot. “Both of us are generally silent and introverts. I often speak to only those who came to me and spoke. So we never went to each other to talk. Later when I saw him during the recording of the songs in 'Roja', I was pleasantly surprised to see the ‘young boy’ who played key board,” Chithra narrated.

Chithra, who has high opinion of the Oscar-winning music composer, also noted that Rahman treats his colleagues with regard.