AR Rahman, himself a recipient of an Oscar Award, is proud of 'Naatu Naatu' bagging an Oscar nom for Best Original Song this year. He said that it is no mean achievement for an Indian song to go that far, given the rampant prejudice and underlying racism in the West.

Speaking to a media house, Rahman opined that we don't talk about racism but it very much exists. The legendary composer added that if we don't push our culture with a sense of pride, the world will have a condescending way of looking at Indian culture.

He made an interesting reference to MM Keeravani's decision in the recent past to stop composing songs and quit the industry once and for all. "Keeravani is a great composer. He was and is underrated. He wanted to quit in 2015. But that's exactly when his graph started to soar. This is a great example that I keep telling others," Rahman said.

Keeravani, on the day of the pre-release event of 'Baahubali 2' in 2017, teased everyone by tweeting that that film could be his last outing. Many were shocked. The same evening, he came back and tweeted that he would not be calling it quits.