'India's image taking a beating'

Tue, Aug 17 10 11:08 AM

New Delhi, Aug. 17 -- Oscar-winning music composer AR Rahman said negative publicity about the Commonwealth Games was hurting India's image overseas. "I heard in London and other places that people were talking bad things about the Games and India. I think this is not right. A lot of progress has been made (in the preparations for the Games)," Rahman told reporters in the Capital, a day after his anthem for the Games was in-principle approved by a Group of Ministers. Named "Swagatham" (welcome), the song is a mix of Hindi and English lyrics with "energetic rock" and it is dedicated to Mahatma Gandhi, he said. "I have been working on the song for six months. We will release it 10 days later after some fine tuning." But he clarified that the song was not going to sound like "Waka Waka", the chartbuster theme song of the recently concluded FIFA World Cup sung by Latina singer Shakira. "I don't think I would want to make it sound anything like Waka Waka," Rahman said.

"I will tweak the lyrics a bit and add some sound elements. But the song is about India, about energy, winning and not giving up. We want the crowd to sing along with us at the opening ceremony. It is simple but not simplistic," he said.

Source: Published>