A.R. Rahman is an incredible composer who would never take away another artist’s credit, filmmaker Ram Gopal Varma said on Wednesday, adding that he has been misquoted after a clip from one of his old interviews recently surfaced online.

“To all concerned...I am being misquoted and misread out of context in the matter of the Jai Ho song...in my view @arrahman is the greatest composer and the nicest human being I ever met and he’s the last person to take away anybody’s credit...I hope this puts an end to the negativism surrounding the issue,” Varma wrote on X.

In the viral clip, the Satya director appears to suggest that Rahman did not compose the Slumdog Millionaire track Jai Ho, and that singer Sukhwinder Singh was responsible for the music in addition to lending his voice to the track.

Rahman went on to win the Academy Award for best song for Jai Ho, sharing it with veteran lyricist Gulzar. He also bagged the Oscar for best original score for his work on the Danny Boyle-directed film.

Recently, Rahman courted controversy following his remarks on an interview with BBC Asian Network, where he spoke about not getting much work in Bollywood due to alleged ‘communal’ bias. The remarks triggered strong backlash, prompting the musician to issue a clarification. In a video statement posted on Instagram on Sunday, Rahman reaffirmed his connection to the country, saying, “India is my inspiration, my teacher and my home”.

Rahman is currently working on the soundtrack of Nitesh Tiwari’s Ramayana with German composer Hans Zimmer.