Famous composer endorses Tamil balloon scheme

A ballooning project that will feature a hot air balloon decorated with couplets from the poem Tirukkural has recently attracted the interest of the Indian composer A.R. Rahman. The musician, whose credits include the music for the film “Slum Dog Millionaire”, recently took a hot air balloon flight over Las Vegas with the project’s initiators in order to learn more about it. He eventually gave the scheme his endorsement. A.R. Rahman, who is in North America for his “Intimate” tour, wanted to get a better understanding of the crowd-funded project, which has the goal of promoting Tamil language and culture to a wider audience. Benedict Savio, the project director, added:

“It was wonderful to have composer A.R. Rahman coming forward to experience a hot air balloon flight. We took off on a hot air balloon in Las Vegas and spoke to him about the Kural Balloon and its impending world tour. He was quite excited about the project that would promote Tamil as a language on a global scale.”

The Tirukkural is a long poem in the Tamil language, dating from between the 1st and 3rd centuries BC. Its author is thought to be Thiruvalluvar, the Tamil poet and philosopher. The special balloon will display all 1,330 couplets from the classic poem, with its debut appearance slated for a festival in Pollachi, Tamil Nadu state, in mid-January of next year. Work on the construction of the balloon is expected to be completed by November this year.