A.R. Rahman launches collaborative project to curate and celebrate the sounds of Tamil Nadu

Titled ‘Ta Futures’, Rahman teams up with with filmmaker Bharat Bala and composer Tod Machover for the ambitious idea

Music composer A.R. Rahman’s birthday on Monday saw the announcement of ‘Ta Futures’, a collaborative culture project that would curate and celebrate the sounds of Tamil Nadu.

“While this idea initially started off like a city symphony project where we were looking at capturing the sounds of the city, I wanted to make it more participatory. In children, particularly, I want it to trigger a whole different thought process as this is not about film music or film stars and I want them to create and compose their future,” said Mr. Rahman.

Announcing his collaboration with filmmaker Bharat Bala and Tod Machover, a composer known for innovation in the technology of music, Mr. Rahman said that the focus would be on capturing the culture of Tamil Nadu and bringing it out in the form of a new creative expression. “I’ve travelled to so many places and I find talented people from our State everywhere. We have the blessing of a large population and I want to facilitate nurturing and sharing of knowledge,” he added.

The launch saw several artistes taking to the stage and performing short instrumental pieces. While children from the LEAP Boundary Breakers choir led by Srinivas Krishnan sang, art director Thotta Tharani painted the logo of ‘Ta Futures’ to the music. Mr. Bala said that they would soon launch a website which would detail how the project would be participatory. “We will be capturing and creating sounds as well as inviting people to pitch in. As a curated culture project, we hope to discover so much more about Tamil Nadu and the people,” he said.

Having envisioned the project as something beyond a song or even a concert, the team behind ‘Ta Futures’ said that they have a lot of ideas on what shape it would take. “It can be museums or even art installations. We want ‘Ta Futures’ to instigate and create a kind of energy which will produce something unique and this will revolutionise the way people hear Chennai and Tamil Nadu,” Mr. Rahman said.