AR Rahman: News

Born on January 6, 1967, as AS Dileep Kumar, Indian music composer, record producer, singer, and songwriter Allah Rakha Rahman is one of the finest music producers of the Indian film industry and has several national and international awards and accolades under his best. Hailing from Tamil Nadu, Rahman had to struggle to make the ends meet for his family during his childhood after the demise of his father, RK Shekhar, an Indian music composer who mainly worked in Malayalam films. Known for his unique discography, Rahman has worked in both South Indian films and Hindi movies. After initially giving background scores for advertisements, and documentaries, Rahman got his break after director Mani Ratnam approached him in 1992 to compose music for his Tamil film ‘Roja’ for which Rahman received National Film Awards as the best music director. Rahman has given the background score of several South Indian blockbuster movies including ‘Kadhalan’ (1994), ‘Duet’ (1994), and Ratnam’s politically charged ‘Bombay’ (1995). Notably, at least 15 million copies of the soundtrack for ‘Bombay’ were sold worldwide. Rahman made his Bollywood debut with Ram Gopal Varma's ‘Rangeela’ in 1995. Rahman has produced the background score of several blockbuster Bollywood movies including ‘Dil Se..’ (1998), ‘Taal’ (1999), ‘Lagaan’ (2001), ‘The Legend of Bhagat Singh’ (2002), ‘Swades’ (2004), ‘Rang De Basanti’ (2006), ‘Jodhaa Akbar’ (2008) and ‘Slumdog Millionaire’ (2008). In 1997, on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of India’s independence, Rahman composed ‘Vande Mataram’ which is one of India’s best-selling non-film albums. Rahman was appointed as the global ambassador of the Stop TB Partnership, a WHO project in 2004. He made his directorial debut with the 2017 movie ‘Le Musk.’ He is the recipient of six National Film Awards, two Academy Awards, two Grammy Awards, a BAFTA Award, a Golden Globe Award, 15 Filmfare Awards, and 17 Filmfare Awards South. He is conferred with Padma Bhushan, India’s third-highest civilian award by the Indian government in 2010. He converted to Islam, at the age of 23, in 1989.