A. R. Rahman
Allah Rakha Rahman (ⓘ; born A. S. Dileep Kumar; 6 January 1967) is an Indian music composer, record producer, singer, songwriter, musician, multi-instrumentalist and philanthropist,[1] popular for his works in Indian cinema; predominantly in Tamil and Hindi films, with occasional forays in international cinema. He is a winner of six National Film Awards, two Academy Awards, two Grammy Awards, a BAFTA Award, a Golden Globe Award, fifteen Filmfare Awards and seventeen Filmfare Awards South.[2] In 2010, the Indian government conferred him with the Padma Bhushan, the nation's third-highest civilian award.[3]
"AR Rahman" redirects here. For the surah of the Quran, see Ar-Rahman. For other uses, see Al rahman (disambiguation).
A. R. Rahman
Allah Rakha Rahman
Isai Puyal
Mozart of Madras
1992–present
Padma Bhushan (2010)
With his in-house studio Panchathan Record Inn, Rahman's film-scoring career began during the early 1990s with the Tamil film Roja.[4] Following that, he went on to score several songs for Tamil language films, including Mani Ratnam's politically charged Bombay, the urban Kadhalan, Thiruda Thiruda, and S. Shankar's debut film Gentleman. Rahman's score for his first Hollywood film, the comedy Couples Retreat (2009), won the BMI Award for Best Score. His music for Slumdog Millionaire (2008) 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" (musical storm) and "Mozart of Madras".[5]
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.[6] In 2008, he received Lifetime Achievement Award from the Rotary Club of Madras.[7] In 2009, he was included on the Time list of the world's 100 most influential people.[8] In 2013, he introduced 7.1 surround sound technology to South Indian films.[9] In 2014, he was awarded an honorary doctorate from Berklee College of Music. He has also received honorary doctorate from Aligarh Muslim University.[10] In 2017, he made his debut as a director and writer for the film Le Musk.[11]
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.[39] 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.[40][41][42]
AI-generated voice in Indian cinema
Officially for the first time in Indian cinema, Rahman used artificial intelligence to retrieve the voices of dead vocalists Shahul Hameed and Bamba Bakya to be used in the song "Thimiri Yezhuda" penned by Snehan for the film Lal Salaam.[214][215]