Music composer A.R. Rahman's international career which has taken off in a biggish way after 'Slumdog Millionaire' keeps encountering snags, thanks to long-pending assignments back home.

According to sources, Rahman has to keep interrupting his international plans to be home for various pending assignments. The harried composer is now seriously thinking of putting all home-made assignments on hold to concentrate on building his career abroad, or else he feels he would lose the international advantage he obtained after 'Slumdog Millionaire'.

Says a friend of Rahman: 'The Indian assignments after 'Slumdog Millioniare' have been very time-consuming, especially 'Raavan' where Rahman not only had to do two versions of the music in Hindi and Tamil, but director Mani Ratnam also asked him to give three to four tunes for every lyric before one was selected. The music of 'Raavan' took more time than Rahman could afford, with the result that other Indian assignments primarily Abbas Tyrewala's untitled John Abraham-Pakhi starrer got left behind.'

At the moment Rahman is back again in Chennai for mixing the music of Abbas' film. But the background score of the film which releases in October is still be done.

No one is admitting it, but one of the primary reasons why Tyrewala's film got delayed is the music score which Rahman has been serving up piecemeal, for no fault of his, since the composer was committed to be out of the country for half the year for his world concerts.

Says the source: 'Rahman had to continuously keep breaking his international tours and other projects to be home for various reasons, like the music release of 'Raavan' and other things. He has begun to feel that his international career would never take off if he has to keep returning home.'

Abbas Tyrewala, in Chennai with Rahman for the mixing of his film's music, jumps to the composer's defence. 'Yes Rahman has been a little tied up and therefore unable to deliver quickly. But that's because he has to be constantly moving back and forth between India and the US. 'Raavan' took much longer than Rahman thought. I'm not worried about my music. It's almost done. Whatever time Rahman takes is finally worth the while.'

In the meanwhile, Rahman has not signed a single new assignment in Mumbai or Chennai in the last few months.

After completing Abbas Tyrewala's music, Rahman will now focus on consolidating his career abroad.