A R Rahman - The Mozart of Madras

A. R. Rahman was born in 1966 as A.S.Dileep Kumar, to R. K. Shekhar Mudaliar, who was a composer and conductor for Malayalam films. R.K.Shekhar, his father, passed away when Rahman was nine. His family had to rent out his father's musical equipments as a source of income.

His family converted to Islam from Hinduism in 1970s. Initially, Rahman played as a keyboard player and an arranger in bands like "Roots" with childhood friend and percussionist Sivamani and others. Rahman then founded the rock group, "Nemesis Avenue". He was trained in keyboard and piano, synthesizer, harmonium and guitar. He had his early training in music under Master Dhanraj. At the age of 11, he joined the troup of Ilaiyaraaja as a keyboard player. Rahman later played in the orchestra of M. S. Viswanathan and Ramesh Naidu, accompanied Zakir Hussain, Kunnakudi Vaidyanathan and L. Shankar on world tours and obtained a scholarship to Trinity College of Music in London, where he graduated with a degree in Western classical music.

He started with composing music jingles for advertisements, Television channels and music scores in documentaries. In 1992, Mani Ratnam assigned him to compose the score and soundtrack of the Tamil film Roja.Rahman received National award for Best Music Director, the first time ever by a first-time film composer. Rahman has since then won the award three more times (for his scores for Minsaara Kanavu (Tamil) in 1997, Lagaan (Hindi) in 2002, Kannathil Muthamittal (Tamil) in 2003. That is the most number of times by any music directors.

Since then, Rahman, in his career spanning a decade, has already sold more than one hundred million records of his musical scores and soundtracks worldwide and have sold over two hundred million cassettes making him one of the world's top 10 all-time top selling recording artists.

Rahman did the music fo the Chinese film, Warriors of Heaven and Earth in 2003 after researching Chinese and Japanese classical music, and co-scored in Shekhar Kapoor's Elizabeth: The Golden Age in 2007. His compositions have been reused in films both within India and in films abroad, like Inside Man, Lord of War and The Accidental Husband.

His latest works includes Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Na, Yuvvraaj, Sakkarakatti, ADA: A Way of Life, Ghajini, and Slumdog Millionaire. He won the London Critics Award for Slumdog Millionaire. We wish him a wonderful Birthday and many many years of successful musical pursuit!