Indian composer and singer AR Rahman returned to Bengaluru after an eight-year gap, giving audiences a memorable evening of music at the city’s KTPO Grounds in Whitefield on Saturday night. Performing for nearly three hours as part of his ‘The Wonderment Tour’, Rahman was greeted by an enthusiastic crowd from the opening moments of the concert.
Organised by Laughing Water Entertainment and Noise and Grains, the event marked the opening leg of Rahman’s 2026 India tour. For many in the audience, the concert was an opportunity to see the celebrated musician perform live after a long wait. The show began at the scheduled time, setting the tone for an evening that quickly gathered momentum.
The setlist drew from Rahman’s extensive body of work in both Tamil and Hindi cinema. One of the evening’s notable moments came when a popular song from Roja was performed in Kannada, offering a special connection with the Bengaluru audience. The concert also featured jugalbandi-style performances among members of Rahman’s ensemble, adding variety to the programme.
Rahman was joined on stage by singers including Vijay Prakash, Jonita Gandhi, Rakshita Suresh, AR Ameen, Aditya RK, Hiral, Nitesh Aher and Raghav Kaushik, among others. The instrumental ensemble included Ranjit Barot, Ashwin Srinivasan, Evelyn Soto, Neelanjana Ghosh, Rangapriya Shankaranarayanan, Haritha Raj and Aleif Hamdan.
From the outset, the atmosphere at the venue was energetic. A powerful sound system, large-scale visuals and Rahman’s stage presence helped sustain the momentum throughout the performance. When familiar songs began, thousands of fans sang along. Many also raised the lights of their mobile phones and swayed to the music, creating a striking visual across the venue.
The performance was not without its imperfections. A report on the concert noted that there were moments when the pitch or rhythm appeared slightly uneven. The use of pre-recorded tracks was also noticed during some portions of the show. A few relatively less familiar songs received a more muted response compared with Rahman’s best-known hits. Yet the audience’s enthusiasm for the composer remained strong enough to carry the evening through those shortcomings.
At one point, Rahman reflected on his long association with Bengaluru. Addressing the audience in Kannada, he recalled visiting the city for the first time in 1987. He also spoke about the response to the music of the 1995 film Rangeela, which left a lasting impression on him.
Rahman recalled that there had been doubts at the time about whether Rangeela’s music would achieve the expected success. Hearing its songs being played in different parts of Bengaluru, however, gave him an early indication that the music had connected with listeners and was likely to succeed.
The concert featured several of Rahman’s widely recognised songs, including ‘Fanaa’, ‘Muqabla Muqabla’, ‘Roobaroo’, ‘Roja’, ‘Munbe Vaa’, ‘Hosanna’, ‘Ae Ajnabi’, ‘Chinna Chinna Aasai’, ‘Khwaja Mere Khwaja’ and ‘Vande Mataram’. Their familiarity prompted some of the strongest audience participation of the night, with fans joining the singers almost line by line.
For Bengaluru’s music lovers, Rahman’s return was therefore more than a routine concert stop. It brought together songs associated with different periods of his career, performers from across the contemporary Indian music scene and an audience eager to relive some of his most enduring melodies.
After eight years away, Rahman’s return to Bengaluru ultimately became an evening shaped by nostalgia, live performance and a strong connection between artist and audience. The sustained response from the crowd made clear that his music continues to hold a distinctive place in the city’s cultural memory.
