Pachani Chilukalu, Telephone Dhvanila, Theppalelli Poyaka, Adireti Dress, and Maya Machindra – each song in the audio album composed by AR Rahman for Kamal Haasan and Shankar’s Indian (Bharateeyudu in Telugu) was a huge chartbuster. Released in 1996, the album continues to enjoy cult status even after almost 3 decades of its release.

Naturally, fans of the ARR-Shankar combo were highly disappointed when the director chose Anirudh Ravichander over Rahman for the film’s sequel, Indian 2. During a media interaction in Chennai earlier today, Shankar revealed the reason behind choosing Anirudh instead of Rahman.

“AR Rahman was neck-deep in the background score and sound post production work for 2.0 when I planned to commence Indian 2. Kamal Sir had already given his dates, and we were all set to kick-start the shooting. It would have been impossible for Rahman sir to compose songs for Indian 2 while he was working on a heavily complex and challenging movie like 2.0. I personally like Anirudh’s work, so I chose him for Indian 2,” said the maverick director.

Shankar went on to say that he admires the works of star music composers such as Yuvan Shankar Raja, Harris Jayaraj, and Santhosh Narayanan and expressed his wish to collaborate with them in the future. Indian 2 is gearing up for its world theatrical release in multiple languages on July 12 amid high expectations.