After AR Rahman, Raghu Dixit claims: 'Ridiculous rumours were spread about me'

Shortly after AR Rahman said that there is a group spreading false rumours in Bollywood and stopping him from getting work in the industry, Kannada music director and singer Raghu Dixit has shared that he too faced a similar situation. Raghu has composed music for films such as Psycho, Sudeep-starrer Just Maath Maathalli, and most recently Krishna's Love Mocktail.

In an Instagram post, Raghu wrote, "It happened even to the amazing maestro ARR! This interview kind of explains why it's not just important to do good work but also keep one's ears to the ground in this horrible industry. The same happened to me after giving two blockbusters — Psycho and Just Maatmaathalli. Ridiculous rumours were spread about me and career damaging news articles were written and I didn't get any films between 2009 to 2015. Best part - I didn't even know about these rumours. Worst part - I never wanted to know why I was not getting any work and therefore did not do anything about it. To all those who did enormous amounts of hard work to stop me - you can try all you want, but you can never ever keep a good man down forever. See me rise like a phoenix from now on. I promise everyone a glorious sunrise."

The music director told Cinema Express that he has been voicing this issue for a long time in all his interviews. "The issues surrounding my career and what I've gone through in the industry has come to the forefront again with Sushant Singh Rajput's death," he says.

Even though the music director is confident that he will come back big time in the Kannada industry, he is still upset that he lost the prime time of his life. "After two blockbuster albums in Psycho and Just Maatmaathalli,  the price and the kind of opportunities I would have got in other languages might have helped me migrate but all that was drastically cut. It was a loss and something irrecoverable," Raghu shares.

When asked about the reason behind this, Raghu mentions, "Obviously, competition. There are no two ways about this. Professional rivalry is the only reason. Some of the rumours that were spread about me were that I didn't know Kannada, I often fly off to London, I'm very difficult to work with, and that I dictate to directors without giving many options."

He reveals that these rumours were spread by agents and certain production managers, who recommend filmmakers to a producer, director or an actor, and get a commission from the music directors or whoever is benefitted. "Back then, I was just approached for a movie and thought why do I even need a booking agent and rejected it. Now I realise all music composers work in a pattern," he mentions.

Raghu says that he has a lot to contribute to the Kannada industry and he had to rebuild from scratch with Love Mocktail. "Eventually, if I get opportunities in other industries, I will migrate. Now, it has become a matter of survival," says the music director, who now has seven movies in the pipeline.

"I am waiting for the lockdown to get over and the entertainment industry to resume work. I want to regain the momentum and the respect I had in 2008-09. However, the regret of losing time is always there. If Rahman sir has to regret that he has lost his prime time, you can imagine a small fry like me," says Raghu, adding, "The new wave of filmmakers in Kannada want to work with me, which is great because their ideas are fresh and my music fits right into that."