A.R.Rahman

Allah Rakha Rahman was born A.S. Dileep Kumar on January 6, 1966, in Chennai,India, to a musically affluent family. Dileep started learning the piano at the age of 4, and at the age of 9, his father passed away. Since the pressure of supporting his family fell on him, he joined Ilayaraja's troupe as a keyboard player at the age of 11. He dropped out of school as a result of this and traveled all around the world with various orchestras.

He accompanied the great tabla maestro Zakir Hussain on a few world tours and also won a scholarship at the Trinity College of Music at Oxford University, where he studied Western classical music and obtained a degree in music. Due to some personal crisis, Dileep Kumar embraced Islam and came to be known as A.R. Rahman. In 1987, he moved to advertising, where he composed more than 300 jingles over 5 years. In 1989, he started a small studio called Panchathan Record Inn, which later developed into one of the most well-equipped and advanced sound recording studios in India.

At an advertising awards function, Rahman met one of India's most famous directors, Mani Ratnam. Rahman played him a few of his music samples. Mani loved them so much that he asked Rahman to compose the music for his next film, Roja (1992). The rest, as they say, is history. He went on to compose several great hits for Tamil-language films before composing the score and songs for his first Hindi-language film, Rangeela (1995). The enormous success of his first Hindi venture was followed by the chart-topping soundtrack albums of films such as Bumbai (1995) , Dil Se.. (1998), Taal (1999), Zubeidaa (2001), and Lagaan: Once Upon a Time in India (2001), which was nominated for best foreign-language film at the 2002 Academy Awards.

The honorary awards received by him are listed as follows.

1995 - Kalaimamani Award, Maurititous National Award, Malaysian Award.
2000 - Padmashri Award.
2004 - National Lata Mangeshkar Award
2005 - Mahavir-Mahatma Award
2006 - Swaralaya Yesudas Award , Honorary Award from Stanford University.
2008 - Rotary Club of Madras LifeTime Acheivement Award.
2009 - Honorary Doctorate from Anna University, Aligarh University and Middlesex University.
2010 - Padma Bhushan.

International Awards Received by him are listed as follows.

Academy Awards (Oscars) (United States)
Golden Globe Awards (United States)
British Academy Film Awards (BAFTA) (United Kingdom)
Broadcast Film Critics Association Awards (United States)
Black Reel AwardsLos Angeles Film Critics Association Awards (United States)
New York Film Critics Online Awards (United States)
Phoenix Film Critics Society Awards
San Diego Film Critics Society Awards (United States)
Satellite Awards (United States)