Enjoy Enjaami controversy: AR Rahman says he was only mentor to Maajja team, received no financial benefit

Music maestro AR Rahman on Tuesday said his involvement with Maajja—a music platform launched in 2021—and its global music festival, YAALL, was limited to mentorship and he received no financial benefit from it.

The Academy Award-winning musician said he agreed to take the role of a mentor because the platform aimed to take Tamil music global and cater to international audiences.

The clarification came after fellow music composer Santhosh Narayanan put out posts on Instagram and X (formerly Twitter), saying he and other collaborators made zero money from the song Enjoy Enjaami, which had more than a billion streams collectively across platforms. Narayan put out these posts on the third anniversary of the song's launch. 

Enjoy Enjaami, a Tamil song composed by Narayanan, and performed by singer Dhee, featuring rapper Arivu, became a sensational hit after it was launched under the Maajja music label. 

“I just mentored the YAALL festival and the idea, as it is Tamil music catered to international audiences,” said Rahman. “The idea was great.”

He said that the YAALL team disconnected from him after he did some promos and produced a song for the platform. He also clarified that the team did not keep him in the loop on what was promised to other artistes or the kind of agreements signed with them.   

“I don’t have any financial benefit or shareholding in the company,” Rahman clarified. “[I] just did this out of goodwill … All the videos of me mentoring were pulled out long ago.”

(The story has been updated to fix a typo.)