1996 English movie Fire directed by Deepa Mehta and starring acclaimed Indian actresses Shabana Azmi and Nandita Das, explored a same-sex relationship between two sisters-in-law within an orthodox Hindu household. The movie, highly controversial at that time in India had music by AR Rahman, who eventually went on to gain international recognition via his Grammies, Oscars and the like. 

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Today, Fire is considered to be one of the movies in the path-breaking genre of India cinema that opened up an important topic for the masses in the country. The Indo-Candaian erotic drama is back in discussion because of a recent statement by film's composer AR Rahman during an interview with Galatta. 

A Hindu protestor's sign against the 1996 release of Fire in India

AR Rahman was promoting his upcoming release Ponniyin Selvan: Part 2, alongside film's director Mani Ratnam with whom he collaborates quite frequently. Interviewer Bharadwaj Rangan at one point asked Rahman how he separates his personal ideology of 'positivity' and 'spreading love and peace', from his work that involves negative emotions. Since the interview was alongside Mani Ratnam, Rangan brought up Kaatru Veliyidai (2017) which dealt with the subject of abusive relationship. 

To this Rahman replied, "Yeah (I am able to separate personal feelings from the film). I have seen everything. My concrete house was next to a slum. Next to my house was dance master Thankappan, who Kamal Haasan was an assistant to. The conscious decisions I take while I am speaking or what I stand for… It’s not like I am Buddha...I have watched all kind of films, so I know as a professional I have to deal with that stuff. As a personal choice, what I stand for is different."

Rahman then brought up his work on Fire movie and compared it to Ponniyin Selvan 2 and said, "Even when I did Fire, it was a lesbian movie - those are not my values or what I stand for but I feel like I can stand for humanity. When somebody is pushed to a core (the subject represented in the film), I felt like I needed to do the movie because she (Deepa Mehta) is trying to say something important. Similarly, there’s killing and all that stuff (in Ponniyin Selvan 2) but that’s history, you can’t change history,”

I'm little hesitant to say this lest I be branded islamophobic: I think his outlook is coloured by his religion. Kinda disappointed in ARR.

— Ramprashanth Venkatakrishnan (@RamprashanthVe1) April 24, 2023

It also depends on what topic someone speaks I think. Tamil society and even the most progressive Tamil media is much more homophobic than the North. Kollywood won't do a SMZS/ Badhai Do/ Maja ma in ages.

— Karthik Raghavan (@Kartrag4991) April 24, 2023

We too have had attempts like "Thittam Irandu" - though it is a convoluted attempt to talk about this subject.

— Sanjeev (@worldofsanjeev) April 24, 2023