A.R.RAHMAN

Allah Rakha Rahman was born A.S.Dileep Kumar on the 6th of January in the year 1966, in Madras, to a musically affluent family. His father R.K.Sekhar was an arranger and conductor in Malayalam movies and had worked under the likes of Salil Chowdhary and Devarajan. Dileep started learning the piano at the tender age of four.

At the age of 9, his father passed away following a mysterious illness. The pressure of supporting his family fell on the boy, Dileep. At the age of 11, he joined Illaiyaraja`s troupe as a keyboard player. It was his mother Kareema Begum who encouraged him to follow in his father`s footsteps. But all this had an adverse affect on his education. Infrequent attendance and an unaccommodative management forced him to shift schools from the prestigious Padma Seshadri Bal Bhavan to the Madras Christian College and finally he dropped out of school altogether.

In 1988, one of his sisters fell seriously ill and numerous attempts to cure her failed. Her condition progressively worsened. The family had given up all hope when they came in contact with a Muslim Pir - Sheik Abdul Qadir Jeelani or Pir Qadri as he was popularly known. With his prayers and blessings, Dileep`s sister made a miraculous recovery. Rattled by the bad experience and influenced by the teachings of the Pir, the entire family converted to Islam. Thus A.S.Dileep Kumar became A.R. Rahman.

Rahman played on the orchestra of M.S.Vishwanathan and Ramesh Naidu and accompanied Zakir Hussain and Kunnakudi Vaidyanathan on world tours. All this experience enabled him to earn a scholarship to the famed Trinity College of Music at Oxford University from where he obtained a degree in Western Classical Music. After he returned he continued to be a part of various music troupes. He was also a part of local rock bands like Roots, Magic and Nemesis Avenue where he performed with the likes Ranjit Barot and Sivamani.

Vizi Manuel, the lead keyboard player in Illaiyaraja`s troupe, advised him to try other alternatives like advertising. Fortunately for Rahman he soon got his first break in advertising when he was asked to compose the jingle to promote Allwyn`s new Trendy range of watches, in 1987. The ads were a success and his work in them was appreciated. Rahman moved full time into advertising as offers began to came his way. Thus, began his 5-year saga in advertising where he went on to compose more than 300 jingles. Rahman did a lot of popular ads like those for Parry`s, Leo Coffee, Boost featuring Sachin Tendulkar and Kapil Dev, Titan, Premier Pressure Cooker, Hero Puch and Asian Paints. The jingles that he composed for the Leo Coffee ad starring Aravind Swamy and the Asian Paints ad directed by Rajeev Menon also won him awards and recognition. He also won an award for composing the theme music of the Madras Telugu Academy`s Spirit of Unity Concerts.

In 1989, he started a small studio of his own, called Panchathan Record Inn, attached to his house. This would later develop into one of India`s most well equipped and advanced recording studios. In his established state of the art sound and recording studio he began experimenting in sound engineering, design and production. He also began a collection of sound samples, creating one of the most comprehensive sonic libraries in Asia.

During his stint in advertising, he released his first album, of Muslim devotional songs, titled `Deen Isai Malai`. This was followed by `Set Me Free`, an album of English songs which was the launch album of singer Malgudi Subha, by Magnasound, where Rahman set the songs to tune. Both the albums went unnoticed in the market.

At an advertising awards function he chanced upon a young man receiving the award for the best ad jingle which he had composed for the popular Leo Coffee ad. At the party that followed the awards presentation ceremony Mani Ratnam was introduced to the young composer by his cousin Sharada Trilok of Trish Productions for whose company the young man had worked. Mani requested for a sample of his wares. The composer readily complied and invited the director over to his studio where he played out a tune that he had been pushed into composing by his school friend G.Bharat alias Bala who had been greatly disturbed by the Cauvery river tensions. Mani was hooked instantly. He signed on the composer to score the music for his next film which was to be produced by the veteran Tamil director K.Balachander. That film was "Roja". That tune would become the song "Tamizha Tamizha". Rahman became a household name in Tamil Nadu overnight and the score of `Roja` was the first step in changing the face of Indian film music. `Roja` won every conceivable award in music that year. Rahman also got the Rajat Kamal for best music director at the National Film Awards, the first time ever by a debutante. He left ads and moved into film music full time.

Since "Roja", he has created music for blockbuster Indian films like Pudhiya Mugam, Gentleman, Kizhaku Seemaiyilae, Duet, Kadalan, Bombay, May, Madham, Indian, Muthu, Kadhal Desam , Love Birds and others. His 1995 soundtrack for "Bombay" crossed 5 million units and Rahman had arrived as the "King of Indian Pop" with sales of more than 40 million albums over a period of 3 years. The success continued with films like "Dil Se".. with Mani Rathnam, and "Taal" with Subhash Ghai. After working in many movies of the typical popular genre, several offbeat reputed directors and producers like Govind Nihalani, Shyam Benegal, Deepta Mehta have worked with Rahman in movies like Thakshak, Zubeidaa, Fire, and Earth/1947.

Rahman is well known for introducing several unknown voices into the main stream playback. He has shown an extraordinary flair for experimenting with untrained voices. Singers who have worked with him have repeatedly said that Rahman`s open approach during recording sessions has spurred them on to giving their best. Suresh Peters, Shahul Hameed, Srinivas, Shankar Mahadevan, Harini, Anupama, Dominique, Minmini, Shubha, Febi, Hema Sardesai are some of the singers who have thrived after the advent of Rahman. Singers like Hariharan, Sujatha, Unnimenon have had successful comebacks in the industry after working with Rahman. Unnikrishnan, Bombay Jayshree and Nithyashree Mahadevan who are successful Karnatak classical vocalists have been introduced into film playback by Rahman.

In the movie "Bombay" Rahman formally took to playback singing. Rahman had lent his voice to his compositions earlier too but they had been part of the preludes or interludes like `Yelelo` in `Chinna Chinna Aasai` in `Roja`. But `Hamma Hamma` in `Bombay` was Rahman`s first complete song. His song `Mustafa Mustafa` from `Kadhal Desam` was another hit that made Sony take notice of Rahman and sign him on for the non-film album `Vande Mataram`. While he continued lending his voice to several uncredited songs, his solos such as "Dil Se Re" (from `Dil Se..`) have made his fans crave for more songs from him.

At the age of 32, Rahman has already worked with internationally reputed artistes like Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, Apache Indian, Zakir Hussain, Kunnakudi Vaidyanathan, Dominic Miller, L.Shankar, Kadri Gopalnath, Vikku Vinayakram, Ustad Sultan Khan and Pandit Vishwa Mohan Bhatt among many others. Today he moves from strength to strength and keep the world enthralled with his music.