Music maestro AR Rahman, who was born as AS Dileep Kumar, embraced Islam in the 1980s and changed his name. A video has been doing the rounds on social media in which the music legend is seen participating in kirtan along with a few Iskcon devotees. According to media reports, AR Rahman organised a program of Hare Krishna Kirtan at his home in Dubai.
Many devotees were present at his home and a now-viral video shows them singing "Hare Krishna Hare Rama" bhajan and playing various musical instruments.
The video also shows the singer-music composer immersed in devotion during the event. He is also spotted recording a video in his phone. Not just that, a religious thread is also seen tied in his right hand. Take a look at the videos here:
Soon after the videos surfaced on social media platforms, some users lauded him for participating in bhajan. However, he also received hate from a section of social media users.
A user commented, "He is probably just there to devise some music projects based on the popularity of this particular singer on whose song the version of that Orriya singer 'har har Sambhu, Shambu' became blockbuster ! ?Thanks."
Another wrote, "Or a PR move to recover from the concert disaster and his #antihindu attitude which has recently been exposed."
"Koi ghar wapsi he'll use the singer in some song.... its juss act for camera," read another comment.
Another user commented, "Just a ploy to attract gullible audience ...these tactics are used by entire copywood these days."
Why did AR Rahman adopt different faith?
In one of his interviews earlier, AR Rahman opened up about what led him to embrace Islam. "There was a Sufi who was treating him (his father) towards the end days before he died. We later met him after 7-8 years and that’s when we led another spiritual path which gave us peace," he reportedly said.
"My mother was a practising Hindu. She had always been spiritually inclined. We had Hindu religious images on the walls of the Habibullah Road house where we grew up. There was also an image of Mother Mary holding Jesus in her arms and a photograph of the sacred sites of Mecca and Medina," the composer said.
