Rahman: I initially kept my involvement with Danny Bolyle a secret

Indian composer AR Rahman tried to keep his involvement with the Slumdog Millionaire team a secret. "I thought that maybe if Danny didn't like my stuff, it would only be between him and me. I did no publicity until I knew everything was working," confesses the Golden Globe winner Rahman in an interview with the US weekly magazine, The Time.

The Time says: He's been a Bollywood icon for years, this man behind some of the most stunning movie soundtracks ever composed (chief among them the innovative score to Roja). But it's his music for this year's Oscar darling, Slumdog Millionaire that has made A.R. Rahman an instant hit with western audiences. Not only are sales of the soundtrack soaring as the film opens wide in Britain and the United States, but Rahman has been nominated for three Oscars — for best original score, as well as for the songs "O ... Saya" and "Jai Ho."

"The way that [Director] Danny [Boyle] uses music in his films is completely different from even other directors in the West. He uses songs as scores, and uses each moment of music as a highlight, which is very exciting. So I knew he was going to mix the music very high, which normally is not the case in most films, where the music is mixed underneath the action and gets drowned out," says Rahman in an interview with S. James Snyder of The Time.

Read the full interview: The Time Interview with AR Rahman