.R. Rahman To Compose For "Lord Of The Rings"
Chitra
10/21/2003

Our own AR Rahman is all set to write original music for the $8m musical Lord Of the Rings, which will open in the spring of 2005.

AR Rahman, who wrote the music for Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Bombay Dreams is expected to collaborate with the Finnish Folk group Varttine for the show. BBC reports that Rahman will write some of the songs and Vartinna some and the rest will be co-written by both composers.

Tolkien is supposed to have used the Kalevala, Finland's national epic of mythological songs, poems and stories, as inspiration for his books and the Elvish language he invented.

Tolkien's books which were written 50 years ago have gained immense popularity since the two films The Fellowship of the Ring and The Two Towers were released by New Zealand director Peter Jackson.

"This will be like nothing the West End has ever seen before," said producer Kevin Wallace adding that "We are recreating Middle Earth and we needed the music that goes with it to be unique. AR Rahman writes brilliant melodies with an exotic quality and we know he will write something which audiences will adore.".

BBC reports that the third film, The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King is due to be released around the world on 17 December. 

Warriors of Heaven and Earth
Directed by	He Ping
Produced by	Bai Song Chen Kuo-fu
Written by	He Ping Zhang Rui
Starring	Jiang Wen Kiichi Nakai Wang Xueqi Zhao Wei Bagen Hasi
Music by	A. R. Rahman
Release date(s)	2003
Running time	114 mins
Language	Mandarin
IMDb profile

Warriors of Heaven and Earth The Original Motion Picture Soundtrack
Soundtrack by A. R. Rahman
Released	May 4, 2004
Genre	Soundtrack
Length	36:32
Label	Sony Music
Producer	A. R. Rahman

Bombay Dreams is a Bollywood-themed musical. The music for Bombay Dreams was created by A. R. Rahman, lyrics by Don Black. The plot was written by Meera Syal and it was produced by Andrew Lloyd Webber. The London production opened in 2002. The musical also ran on Broadway from April 29, 2004 to January 1, 2005 (284 performances) at The Broadway Theatre.

Bombay Dreams
2002 Original London Cast Recording
Music	A. R. Rahman
Lyrics	Don Black
Book	Meera Syal
Productions	2002 West End 2004 Broadway

Among the few Indians who are taking Indian music to an international level is A R Rahman. On Sunday, Rahman performed at the Hollywood Bowl, one of the largest natural amphitheaters in the world, with a current seating capacity of just under 18,000. Generally, Indian artistes attract NRI audiences or people other from Asia countries, but this time Rahman pulled in many Americans too. In fact, it was the Americans who formed majority of the audiences for the show.The show titled ‘Bollywood Night with AR Rahman’ had doses of Bollywood movie clips, with guest artistes and of course dances. The song which rocked the evening was ‘Chaiyya Chaiyya’ performed by Sukhwinder Singh. Other performers at the show were Hariharan, Sadhana Sargam and Madhushree.

Reportedly, people from Warner Bros., Fox, and Universal Studios were also present at the concert and were highly impressed. It is even said that they are thinking of adding a Bollywood touch to Oscars next year.