Some Lesser Known Facts About Saira Banu

  • Saira Banu is the wife of the ace Indian singer, music composer, and songwriter A. R. Rahman.
  • She was born in an upper-middle-class family.
  • In 1995, she got married to A. R. Rahman in an arranged marriage. When A. R. decided to get married, he asked his mother that he would marry a girl who has three qualities, he said she must be beautiful, educated, and full of humility. Later, A. R.’s mother saw a girl named Meher in a mosque and liked her (Meher is the younger sister of Saira). Rahman’s mother and sisters went to Meher’s house to meet her father and ask them for marriage, but when Rahman’s mother saw Saira there, she instantly liked her and decided that she would become her daughter-in-law.

    Saira Banu’s wedding picture

  • Saira was a fan of A. R. Rahman’s songs before getting married to him, and one of her favourite songs of A. R. was “Urvasi Urvasi” from the Tamil film ‘Kadhalan’ (1994).
  • In an interview, A. R. talked about getting married to Saira. He said,

We had a conversation before marriage, otherwise, we would have separated long back. That was my orientation to her. I had told her, if we have planned dinner and a song comes up, we will have to ditch the dinner. She’s a bubbly person and loves peppy music. Whenever I drift towards spiritual music she pulls me back saying there’s enough time for that kind of music.”

  • During an interview, Saira shared that she asked only two questions before getting married to Rahman, first was whether he could speak English, and the second was if he could drive a car?
  • Saira loves going on midnight motorcycle rides with her husband.
  • According to some media sources, in a talk show, A. R. Rahman stopped Saira from dancing on a public platform.
  • In an interview, Rahman shared that it was his wife Saira’s idea of making a virtual reality film ‘Le Musk’ (2017). He further said,

One day I was chatting with my wife (Saira Banu) and she is fond of perfumes. So, she said, ‘Why don’t you make a movie on perfumes?’ It was actually her initiative. That time I wanted to create a theatre with projections all over and have scent added to it — just as an experiment. But, in three months, somebody gave me a headset and then my wife said don’t create a theatre and rather do it with VR, which is evolving. It was a kind of an experiment and I loved doing it. So now I will look at doing more of it.”

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