A. R. Rahman on Facing Fear and Finding the Divine

When A. R. Rahman ’14H first faced a concert audience in the early ’90s, it felt “like death.” Though already an accomplished composer and producer, he dreaded stepping into the spotlight.

With time, though, the stage became less a place of fear than of focus. “The most courageous thing is to hold on and relax when there’s chaos in your head,” he said in an interview with Berklee President Jim Lucchese, recorded at the college's Boston campus this summer as Rahman closed out his Wonderment Tour. “The pause of it is the courage,” he added, miming a single note hanging in the air. “And that’s when you learn: in the midst of chaos, can you be courageous enough to be calm?”

That evolution, from uncertainty to openness, was one of several themes Rahman explored in his conversation with Lucchese. The visit marked another chapter in the Grammy and Oscar winner's enduring relationship with Berklee, highlighted by an epic Symphony Hall concert with the Berklee Indian Ensemble that has captivated tens of millions of viewers on YouTube.

Rahman also spoke about how his creative curiosity has led him beyond composing into filmmaking and visual storytelling. “When Andrew Lloyd Webber called me to compose Bombay Dreams, he suddenly asked, ‘Do you have a story?’ That one question opened my mind,” he recalled, implying that he’d started to hear narrative and sound as part of the same language.

He went on to discuss Secret Mountain, his new project with OpenAI’s Sam Altman, which blends AI-powered virtual avatars with music and immersive storytelling. "AI has been feared by musicians,” he said, “but it should be used as a tool,” urging artists to be the driver, not the passenger, as technology becomes ever more entwined with creativity.

As the conversation wound down, Rahman’s focus turned from technology back to what drives it all. “Music is about emotion. It can move somebody, make them cry, feel, empathize, or be compassionate,” he said. “I think this is it: finding the divine within you.”

Watch the full conversation below: