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large metropolitan areas, Channel [V], a popular music television channel,
announced that votes for “best music director of the year” could be submit-
11
ted via the Internet. Gopal Srinivasan, a Rahman fan based in Bangalore,
spent the next few months surfing websites and discussion forums, gather-
ing email addresses, and coordinating an online campaign that would ensure
that Rahman won the music award. Srinivasan came into contact with a
large number of Rahman fans around the world, mostly students and young
expatriate Indians in countries such as the United States, U.K., and Singa-
pore who were participating in popular newsgroups, including rec.arts.mov-
ies.local.indian and rec.music.indian.misc, and in some cases had developed
websites of their own. Having developed a database of close to a hundred
fans, he decided to launch a group focused on Rahman and his music. Many
of the fans Srinivasan contacted in 1998–99 continue to participate in the
group, and several have gone on to develop contacts with Rahman and his
team in Chennai. Arrahmanfans.com now involves nearly 12,000 members
from twenty-six different countries, and is a space that brings together, for
instance, Tamil Malaysians, second-generation Indian Americans, Indians
settled in Gulf countries like Dubai, youth in urban India, and a growing
number of non-Indian fans. 12
Arrahmanfans.com, like most online fan groups that cohere around films
and film music, consists of a filmography, a member directory, a folder for
creative works where fans post various clips of music they create, a music
library where mp3 clips are stored, and a list of FAQs for new members. The
group also maintains a large collection of photographs of Rahman from vari-
ous occasions, and has recently developed a collection of Rahman-related
videos hosted using YouTube. The “links” section contains URLs to a range
of Rahman-related resources such as fan sites and blogs, newspaper and
magazine articles, interviews, and websites about others in the film industry
who work with Rahman. Within the group, there is an emphasis on the need
for all members to participate, and an acknowledgment of different compe-
tencies—knowledge of Tamil and Hindi, for instance, in order to translate
complex lyrics, or knowledge of the technicalities of music that might be
helpful in discussions. Rahman fans also monitor print publications, radio
and television shows, and different websites for news and trivia about their
star and, like other fan communities, perceive themselves as guardians of
Rahman’s image and attempt to control the circulation of negative coverage
of Rahman’s music or personal life. The community also includes people who
work with Rahman on a professional basis, and these members have played a
key role in getting this group recognized as Rahman’s official fan group. Over
the last few years, fans based in different cities around the world have also