As the 95th Oscars approaches on March 13, India eagerly anticipates the reception of the movie RRR. Meanwhile, AR Rahman recently shared behind-the-scenes details about his acceptance speeches at the Oscars in 2009, where he won two awards for Best Original Score and Best Original Song for the movie Slumdog Millionaire, bringing India its first-ever Oscars. In the video, Rahman speaks, "I met Danny Elfman who said "You are gonna get it," but was still unsure. And the whole of India was cheering. I felt like a gladiator. When they announced my name for the score, I was like "Is this real or is it a dream?" And because I had to perform next, I was like, "A.R, don't react. Just be like the zen mode. Don't mess up your performance." My speech was not prepared. I said, "I'll go with the flow." Maximum I would say thank you and go off. But when I was sitting there, I was watching Penelope Cruz speaking Spanish. Then I was like, 'Oh, that's cool.' " He further explained the meaning of the famous quote from the speech, "That means, all perfect praise belongs to God alone. It is from a holy book. It's a promise from God. That if you remember in the happy times, I'll remember you in sad times, so. That is the happiest time of my own life and I wanted to remember the God who's common to all of us."
He then told the story of his second award that night. He spoke, "I had said in the speech that the essence of the film is optimism and hope because the world was going through that depression, economic depression, and "Slumdog Millionaire" was done in a way that anybody who sees it would feel high." He then spoke about his speech in which he said that he always chose love over hate, "Some people have misinterpreted that statement over some religion and this and that, which is not true. This is the state of every artist in the world and that's what makes them the artist. They want to give and love is about giving, not taking." Watch the full speech of A.R. Rahman here: