New Delhi, India – Allah Rakha Rahman popularly known as AR Rahman is undoubtedly the most famous music composer in India. He has won some of the world’s most prestigious music awards, including the Oscar, Grammy and Golden Globe. His song Jai Ho (May You Win), which won him an Oscar, became a famous national anthem. The 59-year-old “Mozart of Madras” has been awarded the Padma Vibhushan, India’s third highest civilian award for his contribution to music.
But last week, when Rahman, a man of few words, shared in a TV interview that he had potentially lost work because of the “casteist” bias in Bollywood, India’s Hindi film industry, he drew massive online backlash from Hindu right-wing voices.
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“People who are not creative now have the power to decide things and it might be a communal thing but not in my face,” Rahman told the BBC Asian Network in an interview that aired on Friday.
“I have Chinese whispers that they booked you, but the music company went ahead and hired five of their musicians. I said, ‘Oh, that’s great, give me a break. I can relax with my family,'” he said in the 90-minute interview.
Right-wing commentators and activists questioned Rahman’s patriotism and talent and accused him of playing the “victim card”.
Vinod Bansal of the far-right Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) demanded an apology from Rahman for defaming the country.
“We are proud of him and what he has done for the country. But for someone who has made his living from Indian industry, the way he is trying to defame the country is highly offensive,” he told Al Jazeera.
Barring a few outspoken voices, industry insiders have not offered solidarity and distanced themselves from comments.
Within a day, a constant stream of social media trolling forced the musician to explain. In a video posted on his Instagram account, Rahman said: “I understand that sometimes intentions can be misunderstood, but my aim has always been to uplift, honor and serve through music.”
He stressed that he is grateful to the country and noted that he has thanked Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi for supporting India’s entertainment industry and young creatives, and is working with German composer Hans Zimmer on the background of his upcoming film Ramayana, based on the Hindu epic.
Religious intolerance is on the rise in India
But the backlash on social media continued day after day, bringing to the fore the struggle of being a Muslim amid growing religious intolerance in India.
Indian journalist Fatima Khan posted on X, “It’s unbelievable to see Rahman move from good Muslim to bad Muslim category overnight.
“Almost every Muslim public figure in India has had or will have a penny drop moment. No matter how many patriotic songs, movies or tweets there are. They will all live through the brutality.”
According to Debashish Roy Chowdhury, co-author of To Kill a Democracy: India’s Passage to Despotism, online trolling helps create majoritarian consensus.
They argue that when enough noise is generated on social media, it enters mainstream coverage and begins to appear as a dominant social mood.
“The loudest voice then ends tolerance and reason until hatred is heard and falsely claimed to be representative of society,” said Roy Chaudhary, who has written about the use of Bollywood as a propaganda tool.
Influence of Hindu Rights on Art and Cinema
Rahman is not known to be outspoken about politics or his Muslim identity. He has worked on nationalist films including Roja, released in 1992 and celebrated for its portrayal of the armed insurgency in Indian-administered Kashmir in the 1990s and its patriotic themes.
Rahman’s song Maa Tujhe Salaam (Salute to You, Mother) from his 1997 album Vande Mataram was seen as uniting a diverse nation of 1.4 billion people.
The composer started his career in the southern Tamil film industry. He lives in Chennai, the capital of Tamil Nadu state.
The Oscar winner’s comments last week raised questions about the impact of Hindu rights on India’s arts and cinema, particularly in Bollywood.
The Hindi film industry has been called out for producing films that echo Hindu supremacist narratives, vilify Muslim and secular leaders or glorify Hindu extremists.
Some argue that this is due to the enduring culture war on Bollywood, pressured to abandon its pluralistic, liberal ethos and push towards Hindu majority narratives, aligning cinema more closely with the ruling party’s ideology.
Kashmir Files (2022) fueled anti-Muslim hatred across India while Kerala Story (2023) was accused of spreading Islamophobia by portraying Muslims as potential “terrorists”.
More recently, Rahman composed music for the film Chhawa, which was accused of demonizing Muslims. The film portrays the Mughal ruler Aurangzeb as a cruel and violent ruler. Rahman admitted in a BBC interview that the film was “divisive”.
‘Insulting Muslims’
Raja Sen, a screenwriter and film critic, said: “We are witnessing a kind of humiliation of Muslims on our screens.”
“Earlier, it was like an anti-Pakistan narrative. Now it’s a different kind of narrative,” he told Al Jazeera.
Hindi cinema has traditionally cast Pakistan as an enemy, focusing on themes of war, ”terror” and espionage, shaped by decades of rivalry. The two neighboring countries have fought several wars over the disputed Kashmir region. Indian-administered Kashmir was embroiled in a four-day war in May after gunmen killed 26 tourists.
Films that once focused on the foreign enemy are now elevating Indian Muslims to internal threats.
Sen claimed that a major film producer had changed the name of the upcoming film’s Muslim hero to a Hindu name for fear of controversy.
“They may have thought, why make a hero, a good, heroic man, a Muslim. This is probably how stereotyping was done, similar to what happened in post-9/11 America,” Sen added.
The once largely secular ethos of Bollywood presented Muslim characters as positive, albeit stereotypical. He was a devoted friend, brother or benefactor poet and singer in films like Amar Akbar Anthony (1977) and Coolie (1983).
In recent years, however, Muslims have increasingly appeared as denigrated (Animals), regressive (Haq), “terrorists” (A Wednesday) or violent (The Stigma), mirroring post-9/11 Hollywood films when Muslim identity became shorthand for menace or moral deficiency.
Muslim Stars Target
Muslim actors, filmmakers and other artists have played a central role in shaping Hindi cinema from its earliest days to the present day.
The prominence of stars such as Shah Rukh Khan, Aamir Khan, Salman Khan and Saif Ali Khan has often been cited as evidence of Bollywood’s secularism and broad appeal.
Yet in recent years, the country’s biggest Muslim stars have found themselves increasingly targeted. This is not only because of his films but also because of his publicly expressed views on religious intolerance.
Aamir Khan’s films have faced frequent boycott calls from right-wing Hindu groups, including his 2014 film PK for criticizing Hinduism and organized religion, including Islam, and 2022’s Lal Singh Chadha for his past remarks on intolerance.
Aamir Khan had to convince people that he “really loves our country”. He has also been accused of promoting love jihad, a conspiracy theory alleging that Muslim men marry Hindu women to convert them, a charge fueled by a television interview with news anchor Rajat Sharma, who questioned him about marrying Hindu women.
Shah Rukh Khan has been targeted many times for his comments and professional choices. In 2015, he was branded a “traitor” for mentioning intolerance. In 2021, his son Aryan Khan faced a campaign questioning his patriotism when he was arrested in a drug case.
More recently, he was branded a traitor by a member of the ruling party after his Indian Premier League cricket team signed a Bangladeshi player. Kolkata Knight Riders, co-owned by Shah Rukh Khan, dropped the Bangladeshi player amid tensions between the two countries.
In recent years, rights groups and independent monitors have documented what they describe as a systematic campaign of hatred and discrimination against India’s Muslims, who make up about 14 percent of the country’s 1.4 billion people.
According to the India Hate Lab Report 2025, there has been a sharp increase in anti-minority hate speech – from 668 incidents reported in 2023 to over 1,300 in 2025 – much of it voiced at political rallies, processions and public events that later expanded into mainstream discourse online.
Human rights groups such as Amnesty International have documented the targeting and demolition of Muslim-owned businesses and homes in several states.
Beyond the study, survivor accounts and news coverage point to systematic exclusion from daily life, from difficulties finding rental housing to religious observance and being killed for allegedly transporting a cow, considered sacred by some Hindus.
‘a chilling effect’
Such reactions have a cooling effect. Actors say that creative freedom in Hindi cinema has diminished significantly in recent years, largely in anticipation of a backlash. Some feel that silence and self-censorship have become vital to the survival of the film industry today.
“Since 2014, there is a group in the film industry that works under the influence of the government and benefits from it, which boldly and aggressively highlights and creates many of these controversies,” said filmmaker Avinash Das.
Das revealed that on several occasions, producers refused to work with him after learning about his criticism of the government.
He pointed out that the 1983 satirical film, Jaane Bhi Do Yaaro, which depicted a Hindu religious performance, could no longer be made.
According to him, cinema is not just an art form but a business built on risk, which makes filmmakers and producers wary of anything that seems controversial. The same applies to speakers.
Indian celebrities seem bound by the same code of silence, which explains why so few, whether Hindu or Muslim, speak publicly about the country’s current direction.
Roy Choudhary said Bollywood is in stark contrast to Hollywood, where open opposition from celebrities, even disparaging remarks about US President Donald Trump, is commonplace.
“But for Muslim celebrities in India, the restrictions are even tighter because Muslims are not heard in the new India,” Roy Chaudhary told Al Jazeera. “They’re supposed to be voiceless and faceless. They’re supposed to hide on the fringes and not take the spotlight.”