Rahman didn't expect Slumdog music to go so far

Overwhelmed after winning two Oscars for his score in Slumdog Millionaire, music maestro A R Rahman on Monday said that one has to work without expectations and he had never thought that the music would go so far.

"When you have strings attached, you only want to please certain people...I feel it is a corruption in the mind. I believe that you have to work without any expectations. I feel that you have to be true to the film and its emotions," Rahman said through an audio conferencing from Los Angeles.

On the Oscar-winning song Jai Ho, penned by veteran lyricist Gulzar, Rahman said, "Words have the power. Words formed action and intention of life. I often argue with lyricists not to use words that have a negative impact." The idea of Jai Ho came from Subhash Ghai when he was working on the music of his last film Yuvraaj, the music director said.

u00a0"I am very excited and grateful to the good wishes, prayers and love of Indian people and Americans who voted for me," he added.

Responding to a question on whether winning two Oscars for his music would mean bidding goodbye to Bollywood, Rahman said, "I do not know. I have taken advances from my producers in India and I have already spent it. So I am committed to completing all my projects."

On whether Indian talent is being treated on par with Hollywood, Rahman said, "everybody treated me as an equal.. Hollywood stars like Angelina Jolie, Steven Spielberg and Penelope Cruz, who came up to me and congratulated me for wining these awards."

"Only we feel that the Hollywood does not recognise our efforts," Rahman said.

Meanwhile, director Danny Boyle described the film's clean sweep at the Oscars as "absolutely thrilling".

Danny said that he made the film because he loved making it, regardless of what happened to it. "India is a reservoir of talent. Talent is indisputable and it will open its own doors to international opportunities," said Danny replying to a question on whether the film's run at Oscars was a window of opportunities for Indian talent on the global platform.

Danny said he hopes to return to Mumbai to make a thriller. "I am already in talks with a couple of people on this project," he added.