A.R. Rahman, in full?Allah Rakha Rahman, original name?A.S. Dileep Kumar, (born January 6, 1966,?Madras[now Chennai], India), Indian composer whose extensive body of work for?film?and stage earned him the nickname ?the?Mozart?of Madras.?
Rahman?s father, R.K. Sekhar, was a prominent?Tamil?musician who composed scores for the Malayalam film industry, and Rahman began studying?piano?at age four. The boy?s interests lay in?electronics?and?computers, and his father?s serendipitous purchase of a synthesizer allowed him to pursue his passion and to learn to love?musicat the same time. Sekhar died when Rahman was 9 years old, and by age 11 he was playing piano professionally to help support his family. He dropped out of school, but his professional experience led to a scholarship to study at Trinity College,?Oxford, where he received a degree in Western classical music.
ADVERTISEMENT
In 1988 his family converted to?Islamfollowing a sister?s recovery from a serious illness, and he then took the name?Allah Rakha?Rahman. He grew bored with playing in bands and eventually turned his talents toward creating advertising jingles. He wrote more than 300 jingles and would later say that the experience taught him?discipline?because jingle writing required delivery of a powerful message or mood in a short time. In 1991, while at a ceremony to receive an award for his work on a coffee advertisement, Rahman met?Bollywood?film director?Mani Ratnam, who persuaded him to write music for motion pictures. Their first project was?Roja?(1992), which resulted in Rahman?s first film soundtrack hit. More than 100 movie scores followed, including the music for?Lagaan?(2001), the first Bollywood film nominated for an?Academy Award. Rahman?s albums sold more than 100 million copies.
ADVERTISEMENT
British composer?Andrew Lloyd Webber?heard some of Rahman?s soundtracks and asked the composer if he would be interested in writing a stage?musical. Working with lyricist Don Black, Rahman composed the score for?Bombay Dreams, a colourful satire of Bollywood films, and the show opened in London?s?West End?in 2002 without much fanfare. Rahman was already well known among London?s large Indian population, however, and ticket sales were strong, which prompted the launch of the Broadway version of the show in 2004. Rahman?s next stage project, a musical version of?The Lord of the Rings, premiered in Toronto in 2006. Budgeted at $25 million, the production teamed Rahman with the Finnish folk ensemble V?rttin? to compose a musical score that captured the otherworldliness of?J.R.R. Tolkien?s creations. While the play met with harsh reviews in both Toronto and London (where it opened in 2007), it proved to be a moderate success with audiences.
?
