A.R Rahman (Allah Rakha Rahman) is an Indian music composer, songwriter, producer and musician and highly recognized for his works in Indian Cinema (Kollywood). A.R Rahman works on films and produces music in various languages for movies around the world.  He is known for his versatility in combining Western Classical music, carnatic and Tamil traditional and folk-music traditions, jazz, reggae and rock music.

EARLY LIFE

Allah Rakha Rahman was born as A.S Dileep Kumar in Tamil Nadu. His father R.K Shekhar was also a film music composer. So at an early age he would assist his father in the recording studio playing the keyboard (he started to learn the keyboard at the age of 4). Unfortunately, his father passed away when Rahman was only nine years old. He was brought up by his mother and was working to help support his family, which led him to miss many classes. Later on in an interview in 2012 Rahman said that his mother was told to take him to the streets to beg and not to send him to school.  Fortunately he attended another school for a year and here he finally could show his talent in music and was recognized for it by his school. He also formed a band with his high school classmates, but later on he dropped out of the band to pursue a career as a full-time musician. Rahman mastered many instruments like the keyboard, piano, synthesizer and guitar.  During his early musical training he trained under Master Dhanraj who was a famous and highly recognized music teacher in Chennai. At an early age of 11 he began playing in an orchestra of Malayalam composer M.K Arjunan (who was also a very close friend of his father). He also started working with many of South India's great composers by assisting them by playing the keyboard and synthesizer. 

DEBUT IN TAMIL CINEMA

In 1992 Rahman composed a soundtrack for a Tamil film called Roja, after he released it this film became a turning point in his career. In 1993 at the 40th National Film Awards, Rahman received the National Film Awards (Silver Lotus) award for the Best music director for Roja. After this movie, he made many successful songs for films in Tamil cinema. Many of his songs like the soundtrack for the movie Bombay (15 million copies of this soundtrack were bought worldwide). “The Bombay Theme” was featured in his other soundtrack for Deepa Mehta fire and in films abroad. It also featured Palestinian film Divine Intervention in 2002 and in a Nicolas Cage film, Lord of War. 

LATER SUCCESSES

  Rahman expanded his Panchahan record in studio by establishing AM studios in Kodambakkam, Chennai. This became one of the most high-tech recording studios not just in India but in Asia. The next year he launched his own music label called KM music.  During this time he also won many awards for composing for many countries around Asia. He composed songs for a Mandarin film, Warriors of Heaven and Earth by using Chinese and Japanese classical music and won an award for Best Music Album presented by Just Plain Folks Music Organization. He also has a big hit for his first Hollywood film Couple's retreat and won the BMI London Award for Best score.  He also won a Golden Globe and two Academy Awards for his music for 2008’s Slumdog Millionaire. The songs Jai HO and O…Saaya from the slumdog millionaire soundtrack were internationally successful. 

Fun facts

- At the age of 23 Rahman converted from Hindu to Islam in 1989 changing his name from A.S Dileep Kumar to A.R Rahman
- A.R Rahmam started India's biggest recording studio, Panchathan Record Inn in 1992 in his backyard!
- He has won countless amount of awards, including 2 Oscar awards

SOURCES

Information source - Wikipedia
Image credits - Dani Charles Silverscreen Media Inc. (https://silverscreen.in)