Mumbai: Mani Ratnam and AR Rahman's much awaited music for Raavan was unveiled in Mumbai last night amid spirited performances by Abhishek Bachchan and AR Rahman among others.
The highlight of the event was Aishwarya Rai-Bachchan, draped in a cream colour saree with red embroidery, as the host to introduce the film.

One of the songs of the film 'Beera Beera'launched last week as a teaser has already created a buzz. Lyricist Gulzar and director Mani Ratnam also attended the music launch.

Recalling her experiences working on the film, Aishwarya said Mani Ratnam had given her a fair idea of his Raavan concept while shooting for Guru three years ago.

"For the song 'Nanna re', I was dancing in full abundance in the rain. Little did I know that Mani was in the process of
making a decision, that I will be his new character Ragini for Raavan," she said.

Aishwarya said as Mani narrated Raavan to her, she was hooked on. "What is unique about Mani is that he draws you in his world through the narration," she said adding that Ragini is a unique woman and a strong character which she personally can relate to.

"This is the most challenging role of my career," Aishwarya said. Aishwarya said Mani Ratnam was as real as he could get in Raavan and her look in the film was not that of a typical heroine.

"We shot with snakes, rabbits, leeches moving around us. This has been the best adventure experience", she said.

Speaking about shooting in two different languages back to back, the former Miss World felt dealing with languages is a challenging task and keeps one's faculties charged up.

Tamil star Vikram, who makes his debut in Bollywood with Raavan, said playing Dev in Hindi Raavan and the title roleof Raavan in the tamil version was challenging and tricky.

Clearing all speculations that all was not well between him and Abhishek during the making of the film, Vikram said Abhishek was the most witty, charming and co-operative co-star he has ever worked with. "AB is a live wire," he said.

Abhishek said Mani Ratnam had given a boost to his career whenever it was on a down slide. "As an actor, Mani helps me
to behave badly and get away with it," he said.

The actor made it clear that Raavan was not inspired or based on the epic Ramayan. "Raavan is a contemporary film. Every film of ours always has little bit of history and mythology and it is wrong to say that the film is inspired or based on them," he said.

Abhishek said the theme "dus sir wale" in the film was to highlight the ten different personalities and facets of his character Beera. "He is wild and unpredictable," he said.

News 2

THE MUSIC of much awaited movie Ravana by ace Director Mani Ratnam is all set to be released today, on 24 April. Ravana starring Abhishek Bachchan and Aishwariya Rai has got its music composed by none other than Oscar Award winner music director AR Rahman.

The music release ceromony will be held on Saturday in Mimbai, where Rahman will perform live. As per sources, legendary actor and father of Abhishek Bachchan, Amitabh Bachchan will attend the ceremony, his wife Jaya Bachchan will also accompany him.
Rahman is expected to create wonders with his new release, both in Hindi as well as Tamil. He has also got a song sung by Asha Bhosle in the Tamil version.

'Ravana' is modern presentation of epic Ramayana. Mani Ratnam's portrayal of Ramayana characters is going to create buzz, there is no doubt about that. Abhishek is playing the role of Ravana with Ashiwarya as Sita and the role of Ram is played by star of south, Vikram.

Industry sources say that sony music has bagged the audio rights of the Tamil and Telugu version for an undisclosed huge sum.

The tracklist of seven songs is out and the song titled Veera Veera is sung by A R Rahman and Kailash Kher. Kata Kata, which is already creating buzz for its one of the biggest cast with 500 characters, is sung by Ila Arun, Malgudi Subha and Sonu Nigam. Shreya Ghosal has given voice for the song Kaadhale.

Other songs in the list are Madhuvanam sung by Asha Bhosle and Chitra Sivaraman. Moozhgi Vidya by Karthik and Chakaa Chakka by Naresh Iyer.