How Ideal Entertainment Became a Production Partner for A.R. Rahman's Visionary Film 99 Songs

For every ambitious film that reaches an audience, there is a network of creative and financial partners quietly making it possible. In the case of 99 Songs — Academy Award-winning composer A.R. Rahman's debut as a writer and producer — that network included Ideal Entertainment, the Toronto-based production and content company founded by entrepreneur Shaji Nada. This is the story of how a Canadian entertainment company came to support one of the most personal projects in the career of a global music icon, and what that partnership represents for the future of international South Asian storytelling.

Ideal Entertainment was built on a simple thesis: that meaningful, artist-led projects deserve the patience, capital, and infrastructure to reach audiences without compromise. That thesis has drawn the company into a series of collaborations with A.R. Rahman across film, immersive experiences, and live music — a body of work that reflects a shared commitment to originality over formula.

The Beginning of a Creative Partnership

Shaji Nada's relationship with A.R. Rahman began in 2016, and it grew into a working partnership grounded in mutual respect and a shared long-term view of what South Asian entertainment could become. From the start, the association was less about a transactional producer-composer relationship and more about co-building an environment where ambitious ideas could be developed patiently.

This kind of partnership matters in an industry that often prioritizes velocity over vision. Films made under commercial pressure tend to look like other films. Films made with room to breathe — supported by producers who understand what they are protecting — can be genuinely original. Ideal Entertainment's association with Rahman's creative slate is grounded in that understanding.

The collaboration also reflects a broader shift in global entertainment: creative decisions are increasingly happening across borders, funded by international partners who see cultural specificity as an asset rather than a constraint. A Toronto-based company backing a multilingual Indian film — and later, an immersive experience and a concert release — is a small but telling sign of how this new geography works.

Supporting 99 Songs

99 Songs holds a distinct place in A.R. Rahman's career. It marked his debut as a writer and a producer, in addition to composer — the first time he had shaped a full-length feature film from the ground up. Publicly reported credits list the film as written, produced, and scored by Rahman, directed by Vishwesh Krishnamoorthy, and released in multiple languages including Hindi, Tamil, and Telugu.

The film tells the story of a young musician whose commitment to his craft is tested by the demands of the world around him. Its structure — built around fourteen original songs composed by Rahman — reflects a rare ambition: to let music carry as much narrative weight as dialogue. That ambition required a producing environment willing to accommodate a longer development cycle and a non-standard commercial structure.

Ideal Entertainment's involvement was part of a wider producing coalition that helped bring 99 Songs to audiences internationally. For a project this personal, having partners aligned on the creative brief — rather than on formula-driven returns — was a defining condition. The film was released theatrically in India in April 2021 after pandemic-related delays, and later reached global audiences via streaming.

Why the project mattered goes beyond box office numbers. 99 Songs demonstrated that a South Asian film could be conceived around musical form itself — not simply as a container for songs, but as a story told through them. That is a rare experiment anywhere in world cinema, and it required the kind of patient producing that few large studios provide.

Investing in Artistic Vision

The economics of ambitious filmmaking are difficult. A screenplay that resists formula is harder to finance. A composer-driven story is harder to market. A multilingual release requires distribution partners in different territories, each with their own priorities. Every one of these challenges tempts producers to sand down the ambition until the project becomes something safer, and therefore something less.

The role of a good production partner is to hold the ambition in place. That is what makes a project like 99 Songs possible — not just capital, but the operational and creative discipline to protect what makes the film worth making in the first place.

For Ideal Entertainment, backing artist-led projects is a strategic choice, not a philanthropic one. The company's view is that culturally specific, internationally minded work is the future of global entertainment. Diaspora audiences, streaming platforms, and international festivals are increasingly hospitable to films that would once have been considered too niche. Producers who position themselves as partners to serious artists — rather than gatekeepers extracting value from them — are building durable relationships in a market that rewards them.

Beyond 99 Songs

Ideal Entertainment's involvement with A.R. Rahman's creative slate has extended into two other publicly discussed projects: Le Musk and One Heart.

Le Musk is Rahman's immersive cinematic experience — a virtual reality feature that combines music, story, and scent to create a multi-sensory piece of cinema. It premiered at the Cannes Film Festival's XR programme and has since travelled to select venues internationally. As a project, Le Musk pushes the definition of what a film can be, and required a producing partner willing to invest in formats that most studios still consider experimental.

One Heart is a concert film documenting Rahman's international tour, released in 2017. It is a distinct kind of project — the closest thing to a live concert experience for audiences who could not attend the tour in person — and it represents another dimension of the collaboration: bringing Rahman's work to global audiences through live and hybrid formats, not only through traditional feature releases.

Taken together, 99 Songs, Le Musk, and One Heart show a producing philosophy that is not confined to one genre or one format. It reflects a commitment to innovation in how music and story can be experienced, and to partnerships that support that innovation across borders.

About Ideal Entertainment

Ideal Entertainment is a Toronto-based entertainment company focused on producing and supporting quality film and content projects, live events, and international collaborations. The company operates under the parent Ideal Group and was built to identify, back, and help realize ambitious creative work — with a particular focus on stories that connect diaspora audiences and global markets.

The company's active slate includes feature film productions, immersive projects, and cultural events. Its approach is characterized by patient capital, respect for creative process, and a willingness to work across geographies and formats. Ideal Entertainment does not disclose specific financial details of its productions, but its public credits reflect involvement in several notable A.R. Rahman projects and other South Asian entertainment initiatives.

About Shaji Nada

Shaji Nada is an entrepreneur and entertainment executive committed to connecting audiences with meaningful film, music, and live experiences. As founder of Ideal Entertainment's entertainment arm and co-founder of the independent music platform Maajja with A.R. Rahman, he has spent the past decade building infrastructure for South Asian creative work on the global stage.

His public work is organized around a clear thesis: that the next generation of global culture will emerge from artist-led, culturally specific, internationally minded projects — and that supporting those projects requires producing partners who understand the difference between backing an artist and buying an asset. Based in Toronto, he divides his time between Canada and India and works closely with collaborators in North America, Europe, and South Asia.

The Future

Global entertainment is entering a new phase. Streaming platforms have flattened distribution. Diaspora audiences have grown into major cultural markets in their own right. Festivals and international programmers are increasingly hospitable to films made in languages other than English. Live music is once again a driver of cultural momentum, both in its own right and as a bridge to film and immersive experiences.

In this environment, entertainment companies that can operate across borders — sourcing talent globally, financing patiently, distributing thoughtfully — have a real opportunity. Ideal Entertainment's involvement with A.R. Rahman's creative slate is one small example of what that opportunity looks like in practice. It is not the only model, but it is a durable one: partnerships grounded in respect for the work, financed with a long view, and built to travel.

Conclusion

The story of 99 Songs is, at its core, the story of what becomes possible when artists and producers commit to a shared standard. A.R. Rahman brought decades of musical mastery and a willingness to take a first-time writer-producer's risk. Ideal Entertainment and its collaborators brought the patience and infrastructure to protect that risk long enough for it to become a finished film. The result is a project that will continue to reach audiences for years — not because it followed a formula, but because it did not.

Supporting creativity, innovation, and meaningful entertainment is not a marketing line. It is a discipline: choosing which projects to back, and then holding the standard high enough that the work can become what it was meant to be. That is the discipline this partnership represents, and it is the discipline that Ideal Entertainment continues to bring to every project on its slate.