A. R. Rahman
Allah Rakha Rahman, also known by the initialism ARR, is an Indian music composer, record producer, singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and philanthropist known for his works in Indian cinema; predominantly in Tamil and Hindi films, with occasional forays in international cinema. He is a recipient of six National Film Awards, two Academy Awards, two Grammy Awards, a BAFTA Award, a Golden Globe Award, six Tamil Nadu State Film Awards, fifteen Filmfare Awards, and eighteen Filmfare Awards South. In 2010, the Government of India conferred him with the Padma Bhushan, the nation's third-highest civilian award.
With his in-house studio Panchathan Record Inn, Rahman's film-scoring career began during the early 1990s with the Tamil film Roja. Following that, he went on to score several songs for Tamil language films, including Mani Ratnam's politically charged Bombay, the urban Kaadhalan, Thiruda Thiruda, and S. Shankar's debut film Gentleman. Rahman's score for his first Hollywood film, the comedy Couples Retreat, won the BMI Award for Best Score. His music for Slumdog Millionaire earned him Best Original Score and Best Original Song at the 81st Academy Awards. He was also awarded Best Compilation Soundtrack Album and Best Song Written for Visual Media at the 2010 Grammy Awards. He is nicknamed "Isai Puyal" and "Mozart of Madras".
Rahman has also become a humanitarian and philanthropist, donating and raising money for a number of causes and charities. In 2006, he was honoured by Stanford University for his contributions to global music. In 2008, he received Lifetime Achievement Award from the Rotary Club of Madras. In 2009, he was included on the Time list of the world's 100 most influential people. In 2014, he was awarded an honorary doctorate from Berklee College of Music. He has also received honorary doctorate from Aligarh Muslim University. In 2017, he made his debut as a director and writer for the film Le Musk. In 2024, Rahman was named Honorary President of Trinity Laban.
Early life
Allah Rakha Rahman was born as Dileep Kumar Rajagopala in Madras, Tamil Nadu, on 6 January 1967. His father, R. K. Shekhar from a Vellalar family, was a film score composer and conductor for Malayalam films. Rahman began studying piano at age four. He assisted his father in the studio, playing the keyboard.After his father's death when Rahman was nine years old, the rental of his father's musical equipment provided his family's income. Raised by his mother, Kareema, Rahman, who was studying in Padma Seshadri Bala Bhavan had to work to support his family, which led to him to routinely miss classes and fail exams. In an interview in 2012, Rahman said that his mother was summoned and was told to take him to the streets of Kodambakkam to beg and not to send him to the school any more.
Rahman attended another school called MCN for a year, and later joined the Madras Christian College Higher Secondary School, where he was admitted for his musical talent and formed a band with his high school classmates. However, after discussing it with his mother, he later dropped out of school to pursue a career as a full-time musician.
Rahman was a keyboard player and arranger for bands such as Roots and founded the Chennai-based rock group Nemesis Avenue. He mastered the keyboard, piano, synthesizer, harmonium and guitar, and was particularly interested in the synthesizer because it was the "ideal combination of music and technology".
Rahman began his early musical training under Master Dhanraj, and at age 11 began playing in the orchestra of a Malayalam composer M. K. Arjunan. He soon began working with other composers, such as M. S. Viswanathan, Vijaya Bhaskar, Ilaiyaraaja, Ramesh Naidu, Vijay Anand, Hamsalekha and Raj–Koti, accompanied Zakir Hussain, Kunnakudi Vaidyanathan and L. Shankar on world tours and obtained a scholarship from Trinity College London to the Trinity College of Music. During his early career, Rahman had assisted many music directors to play keyboard and synthesizer. One of the notable works includes a Malayalam film, Ramji Rao Speaking released in 1989 where Rahman and Sivamani programmed a song called "Kalikalam" for the music director S. Balakrishnan.
Conversion to Islam and name change
Studying in Madras, Rahman graduated with a diploma in Western classical music from the school. Rahman was introduced to Qadiri tariqa when his younger sister was seriously ill in 1984. His mother was a practising Hindu. At the age of 23, he converted to Islam with the members of his family in 1989.Rahman also changed his name during this period. In an interview with Karan Thapar, he revealed that he never liked his birth name as it did not resonate with his self-image. According to his biography AR Rahman: The Spirit of Music by Nasreen Munni Kabir, a Hindu astrologer suggested the names "Abdul Rahman" and "Abdul Rahim," and Rahman instantly connected with the former. His mother later added "Allah Rakha" to his name after it came to her in a dream.
Career
Soundtracks
Rahman initially composed scores for different documentaries and jingles for advertisements and Indian television channels. In 1987 Rahman, then still known as Dileep, composed jingles for a line of watches introduced by Allwyn. He also arranged the jingles for some advertisements that went on to become very popular, including the popular jingle for Titan Watches, in which he used the theme from Mozart's Symphony no.25. In 1992, he was approached by director Mani Ratnam to compose the score and soundtrack for his Tamil film, Roja.Rahman's film career began in 1992 when he started Panchathan Record Inn, a recording and mixing studio in his backyard. It would become the most-advanced recording studio in India, and arguably one of Asia's most sophisticated and high-tech studios. Cinematographer Santosh Sivan signed Rahman for his second film Yoddha, a Malayalam film starring Mohanlal and directed by Sivan's brother Sangeeth Sivan that released in September 1992.
The following year, Rahman received the National Film Awards award for Best Music Director at the 40th National Film Awards for Roja. The films' score was critically and commercially successful in its original and dubbed versions, led by the innovative theme "Chinna Chinna Aasai". Rahman followed this with successful scores and songs for Tamil–language films for the Chennai film industry, including Ratnam's politically charged Bombay, Thiruda Thiruda and S. Shankar's debut film Gentleman, the urban Kaadhalan. Rahman collaborated with director Bharathiraaja on Kizhakku Cheemayile and Karuththamma, producing successful Tamil rural folk-inspired film songs; he also composed for K. Balachander's Duet, which had some memorable Saxophone themes. The 1995 film Indira and romantic comedies Mr. Romeo and Love Birds also drew attention.
Rahman attracted a Japanese audience with Muthus success there. His soundtracks are known in the Tamil Nadu film industry and abroad for his versatility in combining Western classical music, Carnatic and Tamil traditional and folk-music traditions, jazz, reggae and rock music. The soundtrack for Bombay sold 15 million copies worldwide, and "Bombay Theme" would later reappear in his soundtrack for Deepa Mehta's Fire and a number of compilations and other media. It was featured in the 2002 Palestinian film Divine Intervention and the 2005 Nicolas Cage film, Lord of War. Rangeela, directed by Ram Gopal Varma, was Rahman's Bollywood debut. Successful scores and songs for Dil Se.. and the percussive Taal followed. Sufi mysticism inspired "Chaiyya Chaiyya" from the former film and "Zikr" from his soundtrack album for Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose: The Forgotten Hero.
Rahman's soundtrack album for the Chennai production Minsara Kanavu won him his second National Film Award for Best Music Direction and a South FilmFare Award for Best Music Direction in a Tamil film in 1997, the latter setting a record of six consecutive wins; he later went on to win the award three consecutive additional times. The musical cues in the soundtrack albums for Sangamam and Iruvar used Carnatic vocals, the veena, rock guitar and jazz. During the 2000s, Rahman composed scores and popular songs for Rajiv Menon's Kandukondain Kandukondain, Alai Payuthey, Ashutosh Gowariker's Swades, ' 'Yuva' ' Rang De Basanti and songs with Hindustani motifs for 2005's Water. Rahman has worked with Indian poets and lyricists such as Javed Akhtar, Gulzar, Vairamuthu and Vaali, and has produced commercially successful soundtracks with directors Mani Ratnam and S. Shankar.
In 2005 Rahman expanded his Panchathan Record Inn studio by establishing AM Studios in Kodambakkam, Chennai, creating the most cutting-edge studio in Asia. The following year he launched his own music label, KM Music, with his score for Sillunu Oru Kaadhal. Rahman scored the Mandarin-language film Warriors of Heaven and Earth in 2003 after researching and using Chinese and Japanese classical music, and won the Just Plain Folks Music Organization|Just Plain Folks Music Award For Best Music Album for his score for 2006's Varalaru . He co-scored Shekhar Kapur's second British film, Elizabeth: The Golden Age, in 2007 and received a Best Composer Asian Film Award nomination at the Hong Kong International Film Festival for his Jodhaa Akbar score. Rahman's music has been sampled for other scores in India, appearing in Inside Man, Lord of War, Divine Intervention and The Accidental Husband.
His score for his first Hollywood film, the 2009 comedy Couples Retreat, won the BMI London Award for Best Score. Rahman's music for 2008's Slumdog Millionaire won a Golden Globe and two Academy Awards, and the songs "Jai Ho" and "O... Saya" from its soundtrack were internationally successful. His music on 2008's Bollywood Jaane Tu... Ya Jaane Na was popular with Indian youth; that year, his score and songs for Jodhaa Akbar won critical acclaim, a Best Composer Asian Film Award nomination and IIFA awards for best music direction and score.
In 2010, Rahman composed the original score and songs for the romantic Vinnaithaandi Varuvaayaa, the sci-fi romance Enthiran and Danny Boyle's 127 Hours, composing for the Imtiaz Ali musical Rockstar; the latter's soundtrack was a critical and commercial success. In 2012 Rahman composed for Ekk Deewana Tha and the American drama People Like Us, and collaborated with director Yash Chopra on Jab Tak Hai Jaan. all were positively received. By the end of the year his music for Mani Ratnam's Kadal topped the iTunes India chart for December. In 2013, Rahman had two releases: Raanjhanaa and Maryan. Both were successful, with the former nominated for a number of awards and the latter the iTunes India Tamil Album of 2013.
The year 2014 was one of the busiest years for Rahman, with him claiming to have worked in 12 films in various languages. While his first release for the year was the Imtiaz Ali's road movie Highway which garnered positive reviews, his very next release was the performance captured animation film Kochadaiiyaan, a Rajinikanth starrer directed by Soundarya Rajinikanth. The film's soundtrack was long-listed at the forthcoming Academy Awards. His next were the scores for the two back to back Hollywood films, Million Dollar Arm and The Hundred Foot Journey, both of which got into the contended list for the original score category nomination at the Oscars.
Then he composed for the period drama Kaaviya Thalaivan teaming up with director Vasanthabalan for the first time. His next release was Shankar's thriller I and K. S. Ravikumar's period action film Lingaa.