AR Rahman sang ‘Vande Matram' at 2 am, filmmaker recalls wanting to keep it ‘romantic': ‘I was in tears…vohi recording aaj gaane mein hai'

Indian Express

25-07-2025

AR Rahman's 1997 rendition of 'Vande Matram' remains an iconic track to this day. . In a recent interview, filmmaker Bharat Bala, who directed the music video of the song, revealed that Rahman recorded the track at 2 a.m. He also reminisced about the organic and natural approach they took while filming 'Vande Mataram'.
During a conversation with The Lallantop, Bala shared that he wanted the song to have a 'romantic' vibe, instead of purely patriotic. 'I wanted to make an idea called Vande Matram, not just a music video. Worked on it for six months. Uss zamaane mein vo All India Radio mein aata tha, ek puraana sa scratch tha. There was no feeling as such, I wanted to change that. Even though we took the idea of creating that for India, but we wanted to keep it romantic. It should be like a love song, not patriotic or jingoistic. It's a love song for your country, your mother. That's why it's much deeper and stays like that even today,' he said.
AR Rahman had made a separate studio to record the track. 'He made a separate studio on the second floor for this project. We were trying but nothing was working out till six months. We used to sleep on the floor in his studio. He suddenly woke up at 2 am. He makes everything spiritual. He lit a candle that comes from Ajmer dargah and woke me up. He asked me to call the sound engineer, but there was no one,' he shared.
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Bharat Bala recorded the track with Rahman without anyone else present in the room and that version was used in the OG song. 'He asked me to sit with him and work on the song. I didn't want to take responsibility of the recording in those 15 minutes. But, nobody was there, it was quiet, everything started moving. He went in the recording studio and started singing 'Maa Tujhe Salaam'. That emotion…I was in tears! Merko nahi pata kya hua, he finished singing. That is the very recording jo uss gaane mein hai. We didn't refine it,' he revealed.
The filmmaker continued, 'There wasn't any storyboarding or planning. I was clear about one thing, I will film with real people, there will be flags and people of every village and landscape will be filmed artistically. We identified the location, kahin recce nahi kia tha. It was filmed within 20-25 days, I got the video out in another ten days. Jahan bhi jayenge, ek bada jhanda rakhenge, logon ko ikkattha karenge and we will shoot it. No makeup, no choreography, but it should be epic.'