Bombay Dreamz........

 A R Rahman, the Madras music man who has Bombay in his thrall, will now take on Broadway. Andrew Lloyd Webber, writer of musical plays like Cats and Phantom of the Opera, has chosen A R Rahman for a new musical, Bombay Dreams. The man who introduced Rahman to Webber is Shekhar Kapur of Elizabeth fame.

Kapur, who began his career as an actor in films like Mausam, is now an internationally sought after director. If Bandit Queen brought him controversy, the more recent Elizabeth has brought him worldwide acclaim. Incidentally, Kapur is making the film version of Webber's play Phantom of the Opera.

Kapur showed a song clip from a Mani Ratnam movie, Dil Se, to Webber, who was at once impressed by Rahman's tune and the way he had handled rhythm. Webber feels the time has arrived for Asian music to make a strong mark on Broadway and West End, and for India to take the lead. He is convinced Rahman can bring a "different flavour" to the proceedings there, and wants to leave all the musicmaking for Bombay Dreams to him.

Webber's earlier collaboration with Kapur's wife Suchitra Krishnamurthy, on a song called Zindagi, only resulted in a pale number. That single was put in an album of the same name with tunes even more insipid.

On the domestic front, Rahman is happy he can do different kinds of music for different kinds of films. He's now doing a Aamir Khan's Lagaan, Deepa Mehta's Water and Shyam Bengal's Zubeida.