Ramayana Rahman-Zimmer collab: How exactly is music composed for films?
Indian Express - Explained · Published 6 November 2026 · Last updated
The Rahman-Zimmer collaboration on Ramayana highlights the intersection of Indian narrative song traditions and Western orchestral film scoring, demonstrating how cross-cultural cinematic composition functions as a medium of global cultural diplomacy.
Key points
- Indian composer AR Rahman and Hollywood composer Hans Zimmer have collaborated on the musical score for director Nitesh Tiwari's two-part cinematic adaptation of Ramayana, produced by Namit Malhotra.
- Film scoring begins with a spotting session, where the director and composer watch the footage to identify precise entry and exit points for music, contrast music with silence, and define emotional cues.
- Composers construct a film's sonic palette through historical research, cultural instrumentation, and conceptual exploration, exemplified by Zimmer referencing Roger Penrose for *Inception* and the Fibonacci sequence for *The Da Vinci Code*.
- The compositional framework relies on leitmotifs, which are distinct, recurring musical themes assigned to specific characters, motifs, or narrative ideas to maintain thematic continuity across a production.
- Technical production progresses from digital sketches and mock-ups on digital audio workstations (DAWs) to formal orchestration, live scoring sessions, and final multi-track mixing with dialogue and sound effects.
- Hindi cinema's musical tradition since Alam Ara (1931) has centred on narrative song sequences recorded by playback singers, functioning as stand-alone albums that drive pre-release film marketing.
- Ethnomusicologist Gregory D. Booth documented that Mumbai film studios historically operated through collective production networks involving music directors, arrangers, lyricists, and session instrumentalists.
- Hollywood film production traditionally prioritises the background score to accompany screen action through dedicated divisions of orchestrators, music editors, and sound designers, frequently licensing external commercial songs.
- Contemporary Indian cinema, especially content designed for over-the-top (OTT) streaming platforms, increasingly adopts Western scoring conventions, reducing song counts, deploying montages, and engaging multiple specialized composers.
- Rahman stated that bringing Zimmer into the Indian mythological epic expands Western reach across Europe and New Zealand, internationalising indigenous cultural narratives while navigating critical reception like that seen with the release of Mangal Rang.
Background
- 1931: The release of Alam Ara, India's first sound film (talkie), establishes songs as an indispensable storytelling vehicle in Indian mainstream cinema.
- Mid-to-Late 20th Century: The Hindi film industry formalises the playback singing system, creating a distinct creative economy where music directors and uncredited arrangers collaboratively shape the commercial acoustic landscape.
- 2000s: Academic work by ethnomusicologist Gregory D. Booth documents the studio arrangements and collaborative networks of Bombay's film musicians, contrasting them with Western orchestral scoring structures.
- 2010s: Global digital streaming platforms alter Indian film structure, driving an industry-wide transition toward concise scores, background scoring over lip-synced songs, and multi-composer models.
- November 2026: Nitesh Tiwari's multi-part cinematic adaptation of the Ramayana enters public discourse following the high-profile score collaboration between AR Rahman and Hans Zimmer.
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Original report: Indian Express - Explained