AR Rehman

TIME magazine has referred to him as the ‘Mozart of Madras’ while several Tamil commentators called him by the industry nickname, ‘Isai Puyal’, which means Music Storm. Allah Rakha Rehman is a film composer, record producer, musician and singer from India. He began his film scoring career in the early 1990s. Working in India’s various film industries, international cinema and theatre, by 2004 Rehman had sold more than 150 million records of his film scores and soundtracks in a career spanning over a decade! Born in Chennai to a musically affluent Chennai family, he lost his father at a young age. This forced his family to rent out musical instruments to keep the kitchen stove running. He was raised by his mother Kareema, who has played an important influence in his life.

Having been introduced to music as a child, Rehman always had a sound ear for music and was also the founder of the Chennai based rock group, ‘Nemesis Avenue’. At the age of 11, he joined the group if Ilaiyaraaja as a keyboardist. Rehman later assisted many reknowned musicians like Zakir Hussain and L. Shankar on world tours and got a scholarship for the Trinity College of Music, graduating in the degree of Western classical music.

Rehman has worked with various well-known Indian poets and lyricists such as Javed Akhtar, Gulzaar and Mehboob, to name a few. In 2008, he scored the Slumdog Millionaire soundtrack, for which he won a Golden Globe and two Academy Awards, becoming the first Indian citizen to achieve such a feat. His songs were record breakers and topped the charts of several music billboards. A four-time national award winner, he has also been hounoured with the Padma Shree by the Government of India. Rehman was also awarded the Padma Bhushan, India’s third highest civilian honor, in 2010. He is the world’s all-time top selling recording artists and has don India proud time and again.