A video of music composer AR Rahman asking his wife Saira to speak in Tamil instead of Hindi at an award function has widely been shared on social media where it garnered mixed reactions.
Rahman was honoured at the recent Vikatan Cinema Awards in Chennai and he invited his wife, Saira Banu, on stage to deliver a speech and accept the trophy together with him.
However, some of the comments that were found on social media criticised AR Rahman for forcing her to speak in Tamil, were linked to his abhorrence of Hindi despite having received all the honours from the Bollywood film industry.
In fact, in the video, it can be seen Rahman is in a joking mood while asking her to speak in Tamil, whose mother tongue is Urdu as she belongs to Katchi memon community and always speaks Hindi.
While standing next to her, Rahman made a joke in Tamil about how Saira loves to watch his interviews repeatedly just to hear his voice. "I don’t like to watch my interviews again. She keeps playing again and again and watching because she loves my voice,” he said.
The anchor then requested Saira to address the audience, but before she could begin, Rahman asked her to speak in Tamil instead of Hindi. Saira smiled and expressed her happiness at the event, stating that she couldn't speak Tamil fluently.
With an awe expression of “Oh God’, Saira continued "Good evening everyone. Sorry, I can't speak fluently in Tamil. So, please excuse me. I am super, super happy and excited because his voice is my favourite. I fell in love with his voice. That's all I can say."
She also spoke about how she fell in love with Rahman's voice. Rahman and Saira got married in 1995 and have three children together - Khatija, Raheema and Ameen.
Rahman often talks about his family and recently praised his daughter Khatija for her song Sagavasi, which received millions of views on YouTube. As a proud father, he described her as a unique daughter with her own personality, who has faced tough situations on social media with kindness and strength.