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The initial premiere of ‘Le Musk’ took place at the Cannes Xr program for the 75th Cannes Film Festival where it astonished all that saw it. Directed and scored by A.R. Rahman, it is a cinematic experience accentuated by smell, motion, and music. ‘Le Musk’ feels groundbreaking for the emergence of cultures and Cinema. A thirty-six-minute film that takes you between the past and the future. Nora Arnezeder, known for ‘Army of the Dead’, plays Juliet, a musician that was orphaned nearly twenty years prior. Currently living in Rome, she seeks revenge for her family that was murdered. The confluence of scent and memory holds tight as Juliet attempts to find the three men she remembers from childhood. Other international stars make their appearance like Guy Burnet from ‘Oppenheimer’ and Munirih Grace from ‘Pure.’ Things to do: Subscribe to The Hollywood Insider’s YouTube Channel, by clicking here. Limited Time...

The initial premiere of ‘Le Musk’ took place at the Cannes Xr program for the 75th Cannes Film Festival where it astonished all that saw it. Directed and scored by A.R. Rahman, it is a cinematic experience accentuated by smell, motion, and music. ‘Le Musk’ feels groundbreaking for the emergence of cultures and Cinema. A thirty-six-minute film that takes you between the past and the future. Nora Arnezeder, known for ‘Army of the Dead’, plays Juliet, a musician that was orphaned nearly twenty years prior. Currently living in Rome, she seeks revenge for her family that was murdered. The confluence of scent and memory holds tight as Juliet attempts to find the three men she remembers from childhood. Other international stars make their appearance like Guy Burnet from ‘Oppenheimer’ and Munirih Grace from ‘Pure.’ Things to do: Subscribe to The Hollywood Insider’s YouTube Channel, by clicking here. Limited Time...

The 34th Producers Guild of America Awards took place on Saturday, February 25 at the Beverly Hilton Hotel. The biggest award of the night, the Darryl F. Zanuck Award for Outstanding Producer of Theatrical Motion Pictures, has historically been considered a strong prognosticator for the Best Picture Oscar each year. It’s the only major precursor that uses a ranked choice voting system like the Academy Awards. Scroll down for the 2023 PGA Awards winners list in three film and 10 TV categories.

The guild and the academy have only disagreed 10 times over the past three decades, with last year’s champ “Coda” claiming both prizes. This year, seven of the guild’s nominees also reaped Oscar bids: “Avatar: The Way of Water,” “The Banshees of Inisherin,” “Elvis,” “Everything Everywhere All At Once,” “The Fabelmans,” “Tár,” and “Top Gun: Maverick.” The other two PGA nominees, “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever,” “Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery...

The Producers Guild of America have announced the nominees for the PGA Innovation Award ahead of the 34th Annual PGA Awards, set to take place on Feb. 25. The PGA Innovation Award recognizes the production of a noteworthy, impactful new media program that significantly elevates the audience’s viewing experience.

The nominees, in alphabetical order, are Dance Monsters (Lime Pictures), Experience Yosemite (CityLights), Ghostbusters VR Academy (Hologate), LeMusk – A Cinematic Sensory Experience (Intel Corporation), Lustration (New Canvas), On the Morning You Wake (To the End of the World) (Astrea), Oxymore by Jean-Michel Jarre (Vrroom), PerfectoVerse (Watch and Play), Stay Alive, My Son (Ume Studios), Stranger Things Immersive Watch Party (Sawhorse Productions) and Verizon Pepsi Halftime Ultra Pass (R/Ga).

The PGA will honor the winning program as a whole, rather than the individual producers. As such, the producers of these programs are not required to go through the awards eligibility determination process.

Nayla Al Khaja, the first female filmmaker in the United Arab Emirates, and Oscar-, BAFTA- and Grammy- winning Indian composer A.R. Rahman (“Slumdog Millionaire”) are looking forward to their upcoming collaboration on “Baab.”

Written by Al Khaja and Masoud Amralla Al Ali, the film follows Wahida, who is unable to make sense of her twin sister’s mysterious death and is plagued by a haunting rhythm in her ears.

Rahman and Khaja were present at the Cannes Film Market to promote “Baab.” The composer’s directorial debut, the VR “Le Musk” also had its world premiere at the market’s Cannes Xr strand.

“It’s about the four stages of grief, but we don’t say it so black and white,” Al Khaja told Variety about the film. “She creates a fantasy world to justify her sister’s death, because she’s young. They’re identical. They spend their whole life together.

Immersive project marks the Oscar-winning composer’s directorial debut.

Smells and interactive seating will be used as part of the release of immersive film Le Musk, which marks the directorial debut of Oscar-winning composer A.R. Rahman.

“It’s a combination of music, scents and stories, done in a very subtle and surreal way,” Rahman told Screen of the film, which stars Nora Arnezeder, Guy Burnet, Munirih Grace and Mariam Zohrabyan.

Los Angeles-based VR motion chair company Positron has come on board as ‘immersive cinema exhibition partner’ for the title, which received its premiere in the Cannes Xr programme of this year’s film market.

Immersive project marks the Oscar-winning composer’s directorial debut.

Smells and interactive seating will be used as part of the release of immersive film Le Musk, which marks the directorial debut of Oscar-winning composer A.R. Rahman.

“It’s a combination of music, scents and stories, done in a very subtle and surreal way,” Rahman told Screen of the film, which stars Nora Arnezeder, Guy Burnet, Munirih Grace and Mariam Zohrabyan.

Los Angeles-based VR motion chair company Positron has come on board as ‘immersive cinema exhibition partner’ for the title, which received its premiere in the Cannes Xr programme of this year’s film market.

Information and Broadcasting, and Youth Affairs and Sports Minister Anurag Thakur experienced the next generation of filmmaking on Thursday when he donned VR headsets to watch the music maestro A R Rahman’s multi-sensory virtual reality film, ‘Le Musk’, sitting in an immersive VR chair designed by the Los Angeles-based company Positron at Cannes Xr. The […]...

As the 75th Cannes Film Festival has commenced, Oscar winning-composer A R Rahman shared a picture posing with superstar Kamal Haasan, who is also attending the festivities at the French riviera. Rahman, whose directorial debut movie ‘Le Musk’ premiered at the grand festival, took to Instagram and shared a selfie with Haasan, who is launching […]...

India is the country of honor at the Cannes Film Market and consequently a massive contingent from the country is descending upon the Croisette. Variety understands that some 400 attendees are winging their way from India, and that French embassies across the country were working at capacity to issue visas.

That stands in contrast with the attendance from other parts of Asia, further East. Attendance of participants from Hong Kong and China is massively down compared with pre-covid times. Korean companies are back in respectable numbers, with some attending a physical market outside their home country for the first time in over two years. The solid attendance of Korean executives also reflects the selection of Korean films across multiple sections of the festival.

“I’m very excited to be back in Cannes, it has been three years for us,” said Danny Lee, senior manager at Contents Panda, part of the Next Entertainment World studio.

“Le Musk,” the directorial debut of Oscar, BAFTA and Grammy winning Indian composer A.R. Rahman (“Slumdog Millionaire”), will have its world premiere at the Cannes Film Market’s Cannes Xr program.

The 36-minute film is billed as a cinematic sensory experience incorporating virtual reality, with motion, music and scent integrated into the narrative. It follows heiress and musician Juliet Merdinian, who, 20 years since she was orphaned, seeks out the men who changed her destiny with one powerful memory — that of their scent.

Rahman developed the story from an original idea by his wife Saira. They share a love for perfume and wished to employ scent as a narrative device in immersive cinema. Rahman directed from a screenplay by Gurachi Phoenix, besides composing the score.

“ ‘Le Musk’ has been several years in the making with collaborators worldwide; we’ve aimed to create an unprecedented, subtle sensory cinematic surrealism. Creating a feature-length...

BooksTNM catches up with Krishna Trilok, the man behind Ar Rahman’s official biography. Prathibha Parameswaran rahman_biography_03_650.jpgYoung and upcoming writer Krishna Trilok will pen the first official biography on the Chennai-based musical maestro Ar Rahman. The 24-year-old writer, who had previously come out with a fantasy novel- Sharikrida, has been working on the book tentatively titled ‘Ar Rahman: The man in the music’ that will hit the stores early next year. Krishna is the son of renowned ad filmmakers Sharada and Trilok Nair, who had earlier collaborated with Rahman for several popular commercials and also introduced him to Mani Ratnam. The Rahman biography will explore the lesser known facets of the award-winning composer’s personality, his daily life and views on relevant issues. While Rahman has been busy composing music for films like Rajeev Menon’s Sarvam Thaala Mayam starring Gv Prakash, Shankar’s 2.0 with Rajinikanth and Majid Majidi’s Beyond The Clouds, he has also been recently exploring newer territories. He’s turned writer and producer for the musical 99 Songs and has also ventured into direction with a virtual reality film, Le Musk. What prompted you to work on this biography? Two other biographies have already been written on Rahman-Nasreen Munni Kabir’s ‘The Spirit Of Music’ and Kamini Mathai’s ‘Ar Rahman-The Musical Storm.’ What fresher insights do you hope to provide for his fans and music lovers? The earlier books written on him were either compilations of brief conversations with Rahman or collections of journalistic pieces, with the authors spending very little time with the person himself- if at all. Both the books chronicled the sides his life and career that many people were, up an extent, already aware of. With this biography, I have strived to get to the heart of the person behind the music, awards and films. He’s a man whose personality has not been explored—someone who’s very humorous, great and a gentle human being. It’s of course impossible to write about him without talking about his music and other works, but the aim has been to bring his personality to the fore. The book will feature some nice anecdotes from all the people that he’s worked with in his earlier years—Bharat Bala, Mani Ratnam, Sharda and Trilok Nair, who introduced him, Vijay Modi—who ran Audio Vision where he recorded his earlier jingles, Rajeev Menon, Rahman’s sisters Raihana and Fathima, Jyoti Nair Belliappa from Km Music conservatory, a few film directors, R Samidurai, his man Friday right from the 70s, his audio engineers, his business manager-Karan Grover and Vijay Iyer, his personal manager. They have all shared some interesting stories, like what he thought of Mani Ratnam and Tamil films before becoming part of the industry. Krishna Trilok There’s a lot of information on him out there, how do you think a biography will be relevant at this point? He’s pioneered the evolution of film music in India in a lot of ways. He introduced a lot of musicians to the technology and equipment they use in India today. He made film music composing lucrative for many upcoming music directors and with the help of his strong legal team pushed for procuring copyrights for his songs. I think he should be given his due. Right now, he’s becoming a lot more than just a musician and composer. He’s branching out into production and writing with 99 Songs, he’s directing a virtual reality film- Le Musk and he’s also come out with a concert film—One Heart. He’s becoming wider in his scope of activities. He has got the Km Music Conservatory going and he’s also set up a shooting floor and visual effects facility-ym Studios in Red Hills. From being an instrument player during recording sessions to composing jingles; to scoring music in Tamil and Hindi films; to going to Hollywood- he’s always been evolving. I wanted to write a book focusing on the turning points in his life. Your parents were some of the first people to discover his talent and introduced him to Mani Ratnam too. What have your interactions with Rahman been like before the idea of the book came about? What inspired you to write about him? It was a sudden plan. I’ve grown up with his music and I love his work. He was the only Indian artist from the film industry, who seemed intent to make a global impact. He has revolutionised his stage performances- moving from singers just standing with pieces of paper and mikes on stage, he’s brought in dancers and lights and made it a spectacle. He’s incredibly ambitious but also very humble and grounded—I find his persona very paradoxical. There’s a lot of information available on his work, but very little about the man himself and that was definitely intriguing. He’s never lost touch with anyone whom he knew earlier or been friends with. My parents would often talk about him and I would just be a disinterested listener because I never imagined myself becoming a writer one day and drawing on all this information. He would visit us once in a while or my parents would attend his closed-group Qawwali concerts that he conducted along with members from his music school. Unless I went with my parents, he couldn’t have recognised me earlier. There was an element of familiarity and it wasn’t like I met him for the first time when I approached him for the book, but I got to know him a bit during the course of writing this book. Poster of Le Musk, a virtual reality film directed by Rahman How did he react to the idea of a biography? What are the facets of his life and music that the book will be touching upon? He was very enthused by the idea of the book. I got a sense that he wanted someone other than a journalist or someone who would fit into the regular profile of biographer to interview him. He had glimpsed through my first book and he was on board. There’s a lot more to him than being a spiritual person or a composer who works late nights and wins a lot of awards-that’s often been written about. For example, his wife spoke to me about the kind of relationship that they share. He’s an extremely loving husband and father. She told me, “It’s a gift to have a husband like him.” It’s common knowledge that he does a lot of charity work. But you know, he remembers everybody who’s been connected with him in the past and calls them whenever an opportunity arises that could help them in anyway. He has a fantastic sense of humour and his one-liners and on the spot jokes are amazing. He loves technology and his mind is like sponge that can absorb any amount of information. He had to drop out of school early on, but he’s got that childlike curiosity to learn about stuff even other than music. '99 songs', a musical has been co-written and produced by Rahman How have you been finding the time to converse with him amidst his busy schedules and tours? Whenever he’s in the country, even if he’s in Mumbai, I would spend about a week with him following him around from morning to evening. So sometimes we have conversations while travelling in the car or I’d have meals with him in his house with others there. I think that most of the questions that could possibly be posed to him have already been asked and you can find almost anything about him on the internet. I wanted to observe him while he worked, interacted with others, his quirks and habits, the food he liked and his routine. I did that in Mumbai and Chennai. I have spoken to a lot of people connected with him over the years. Besides merely recounting the information gathered, I have tried to interpret them and put it in a larger context. Lot of people say that he arrived in the music scene with Roja in 1992. But we also need to see it in the context of the huge shift that the entertainment industry in India was going through post-liberalisation when western influences were setting in, cassettes were in vogue and the reach was more. His evolution as a composer is also in sync with the evolution of technology and the social sentiment at the time. In 2008, the global socio-political setting seemed just ideal for Rahman to win the Academy Award too. Were you allowed to observe him while he’s at work? He doesn’t let anyone in while he’s actually composing. Nobody is allowed to disturb him—it’s like prayer for him. But he comes back and is willing to share what went on and talk about it. He allowed me in during recording sessions though. He’s very chilled out and jovial for the most part but obviously if you mess up too much he’s going to get angry—just like any other human being. He cracks jokes to put new singers at ease. I think at heart, he’s still that boy who’s jamming with his band. There’s a lot of love and light-heartedness, but also a lot of passion. He always makes his singers feel like they’re part of a team; there’s absolutely no attitude. Was it hard to get him to open up? He was shier earlier on, but now he’s pretty talkative. He would not just answer my questions, but would touch upon various other things and I would often go back with more information than I had hoped to gather. The whole experience was just like two people chatting, so getting information was quite easy. Krishna Trilok’s biography on Rahman is nearing completion and is expected to hit the shelves in early 2018. Enanble Notification: NoTNM Marquee: No...

Here’s some exciting news! Academy Award (Oscar) two-time winner and five-time nominee, Grammy two-time winner, BAFTA, and Golden Globe winner, the legendary Ar Rahman, returns to the Sse Arena Wembley on Saturday 8th July 2017 after seven years with the “Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow” concert.“Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow” will chronicle Ar Rahman’s musical journey from past to present to future celebrating 25 years of creating his incredible music.

Discussing the forthcoming UK show, Ar Rahman says, “From Roja to Rockstar, Kaatru Veliyidai and more, it has been an incredible musical journey over these last 25 years. I’ve been immensely blessed to have the love and support of my fans, music lovers, friends and well-wishers. It continues to inspire and motivate me. Come, join me on the 8th of July at Wembley, London! Accompanying me is an amazingly talented and energetic team of singers and musicians.”

Popularly known as the man who has redefined contemporary Indian music,...

When we first heard that Ar Rahman was going behind the camera we knew that he would be bringing something completely new to the theater. The maestro is certainly doing that with Le Musk .

The film is one of the world’s first Cinematic Virtual Reality Immersive narratives, you will not only see, hear but also be within and even experience the smell of the world that is going on in the film.

“I always try to tell stories through music and with virtual reality the lines blurred…”

See what else the director had to say in this cool behind the scenes video he released on Facebook!

Shot in Rome, the film follows the journey of an orphaned child Juliet, full-time heiress and part-time musician, who grows up to be a Diva on a mission. All through, she has one constant companion – the lingering Muskan scent. However, her life takes...

Academy Award-winning ​composer A R Rahman has added yet another feather to his cap. The celebrated music composer has turned director with Le Musk – one of the world’s first Cinematic Virtual Reality Immersive narratives and unveiled the first poster of his much-awaited Vr movie today.​

Shot in Rome, the film follows the journey of an orphaned child Juliet, full-time heiress and part-time musician, who grows up to be a Diva on a mission. All through, she has one constant companion – the lingering Muskan scent. However, her life takes a dramatic turn when she receives an anonymous message, which brings back ​her mysterious past.

Not only will it have the visuals virtual reality it will also have a sensory experice during the film to get you even more into the world and the story. Feelies – a London based company, headed by Grace Boyle, has developed the​ scents​ that will be...

Academy Award-winning music composer A.R. Rahman has now added another feather to his cap. The music composer-producer-singer-songwriter will be wielding the megaphone for Le Musk, a virtual reality short. The music maestro, who has worked with Hollywood, Bollywood and South industry, has collaborated with Canadian company Ideal Entertainment, which will be partnering on three ofRead More

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