Biography

A R Rahman lives in his joint family. The family consists of himself, his wife Saira Banu, his 3 sisters (Raihana, Talath and Israth), his mother (Kareema Begum), his two daughters (Kadhija and Raheema) and a son ( Khwaja Mohammad Roo mi Rahman ). His sisters Raihana, Talath and Israth are professionally trained musicians. They often sing for him, and appear on stage performances as well. Sister Raihana’s son, GV Prakash is a born talent, and he’s into music. He has sung songs for Rahman and now is an emerging music director.

Rahman’s mother and wife do play the most important part in his music - they are his critics. Rahman got married at the age of 27. And unlike in the Indian movies, it wasn’t love at first sight. Rahman had told his mother what his bride needed to have: some education, some beauty and loads of humility! His mother frequented the same Sufi temple as Saira and her family. His mother first noticed her there. She cried Eureka when she saw this young girl praying in that Sufi temple. The girl’s parents also were looking for a bridegroom for their elder daughter, 21-year-old Saira. Her father is a Madras-based businessman, who belongs to Kutch , Gujarat originally.Saira is sister-in-law of the Tamil actor who’s also called Rahman, and being a Rahman fan herself, she couldn’t let him down.Rahman remembers, “My first meeting with Saira was rather amusing. Back then, she only spoke Kutchi. I asked her whether she was interested in marrying me. I’d also told her what kind of life was going to be offered to her. She was very quiet then, but now I know she is anything but quiet! I had to smile throughout our three-hour meeting and, by the end of it, it was almost a pain.Rahman’s mother chose genuinely friendly Saira Banu to be his wife. Theirs was an arranged marriage. Saira and Rahman got married on Wednesday, March the 12th, 1995 in Chennai. It was a gala event.

About his personal life, Rahman once said “I’m very passionate about music and have very little place in my life for anything else. But whatever time I have after my recordings, I try and spend with my family, especially with my younger daughter. She listens to most of my songs and even has her favorites. It’s so wonderful to see your child growing up. I don’t want to miss out these little pleasures in life.” Saira and Rahman are blessed with two daughters and one son.When asked ‘How much time do you spend with your family?’ he answers, “I have realized that I must spend more time with my family if I want them to listen to me.” He takes his children on small trips and picnics. His elder daughter Kadhija doesn’t like the autograph hunters running after him, so she restricts him from coming to her school. His younger daughter Raheema has interest in music. His son is too young, who shares the birthday with his father. He was born on 6th Jan 2002 and Rahman on 6th Jan 1966.

ARR GURUS

Many people contributed to making Rahman what he is today.Though he completed his schooling from the prestigious Padma Seshadri Bal Bhavan in Chennai, and then shifted to the Madras Christian College , Chennai.there are many others who contributed to his success - as gurus and teachers.

Music Teachers

Dileep’s initiation in music happened in the early years. He obviously took the first music lessons from his father, RK Sekhar.According to a story behind his music baptism, once a music director and colleague of Sekhar, Sudarshanam Master found the four year old playing a tune on the harmonium. Master covered the keys with a cloth. It made no difference. Dileep replayed the tune effortlessly. This impressed the music director who suggested that he be trained in music.

Dileep started taking his first music lessons on a piano and a pedal organ when only four. He also began to formally learn Indian classical music, carnatic from Dakshinamoorthy and N. Gopalakrishnan and Hindustani from Krishnan Nair. He took classes in film music from Nithyanandham and Western Classical from Jacob John. All this learning experience enabled him to earn a scholarship to the famed Trinity College of Music at Oxford University London, from where he obtained a degree in Western Classical Music.

Once back in India , he continued to be a part of various music troupes called Roots, Magic, Memosis, Aristocrats, and Nemesis Avenue etc . He also learnt the Sufi Qawwali style from Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, in 1997, when he visited Lahore and met the great Pakistani Sufi singer.There is one more in the list - his favorite singer Hariharan - who teaches him Ghazals in relation to Hindustani classical music. In late 1998, he formally learnt the ‘Hindustani Khayaal Gayaki’ from siblings Ghulam Kader Murtaza Khan and Ghulam Kader Mustafa Khan.

In 1998, while composing for Subhash Ghai’s ‘Taal’, he thought learning Hindi and Urdu would help him compose music for the North Indian style, and got in touch with Anand Bakshi, the famous lyricist.

Spiritual Teachers

When his sister was ill, he came across Pir Quadri. This was well before Rahman was ‘born’.and Dileep was still ‘alive’. Pir advised him frequently and taught him the purpose of life.For Dileep, the meeting with Pir was an inner awakening and cleansing. Pir taught him a different perspective of life. Soon he and his family accepted Islam. Thus Dileep became Abdul Rahman.

It was Pir Quadri, who gave him the first lessons of Islam. After the demise of Pir Quadri, he came in contact with Mehboob Aalam and Mohammad Yusuf Bhai, who now continue to be his spiritual guide, mentor, adviser, and guru.
For Rahman, learning is divine process. He says: “You’ve to learn from the inside out. No one can teach you, none can make you spiritual. There is only teacher, and that is your soul.”

THE RELIGION

After his father passed away, the burden of earning the bread and butter for his family fell on Dileep’s shoulders at the very young age of 11, and because of that, he had been struggling extremely hard for some years.His family went through a rough patch following his father’s death, which literally shook their world. He even had to work in amateur Kannada plays at the age of 13, to earn money for his family.
Because of these hardships, sometime afterwards he stopped believing in the God. He believed that there was no God. There was a feeling of restlessness within him. But later when he stabilized himself, he found that the concept of God in Islam was very appealing to him.

He learnt that there can be no life without a force governing, without God. And then he found what he was looking for - in Islam. It all happened around 1988, when one of his sisters fell seriously ill, with similar inexplicable conditions as their father. Numerous attempts to cure her failed. Her condition progressively worsened. The family tried everything from medicine to religious methods like havanas and prayers in the church.

The family had given up all hope; when they came in contact with a Muslim Pir called as Pir Karimulla Shah Qadri or Sheik Abdul Qadir Jeelani Sahib or Pir Qadri.
The family had earlier gone to the Pir when Dileep’s father had similar troubles, but were too late to save him. With Pir’s prayers and blessings, Dileep’s sister made a miraculous recovery. Pir Quadri advised the family frequently. It was Pir who taught them the purpose of life, and also led Dileep and his family members to accept Islam.Rattled by the bad experiences earlier in the case of his father and now his sister, and influenced by the teachings of the Pir and the succor that they found in him, the entire family converted to Islam. So great was the influence of the Pir on the family, that Dileep started using the place which he had blessed first as his music room, and later, when he started becoming successful, a studio. When the family shifted to their current house, they resolved to stick to the devotion. So he and his family - excluding one of his sisters - converted to Islam. But it was not an instantaneous decision - it took them whole 10 years to come to that decision.

The meeting with Pir was, for Dileep, an inner awakening and cleansing. He started feeling, that it is not about being Hindu or being Muslim or anything, but there is this one feeling and that is God - The Almighty.

Both his father and mother were strong believers in Astrology. His mother took him along once to an astrologer called Ulaganathan, in Chennai, to get the horoscope for her second daughter Bala.

She asked the astrologer to suggest an Islamic name for Dileep. The astrologer immediately suggested ‘Abdul Rahman’ and also asked him to shorten it to AR Rahman. When his mother asked the astrologer why the other initial ‘R’, the astrologer replied “Give him a name with those two initials and mark my words, he will grow up to be a great man”. His mother did accordingly.This happened around when the production of the cassettes of ‘Roja’ was going on. The producers had decided to credit the composer as Dileep on the inlay cards of cassettes of the film. Dileep’s mother immediately approached director Manirathnam, and placed this unusual condition - to credit Dileep with a Muslim name. The new name of the 25-year old composer was: A R Rahman! And the rest, as they say, is history!

The initials A and R later became ‘Allah Rakha’ on the suggestion of renowned Hindi music composer Naushad Ali. Thus A Sekhar Dileep Kumar became Allah Rakha Rahman. This was around 1988.

He says, “Family problems and the need for peace of mind made us change the faith. Sufism has given me peace. As Dileep I had an inferiority complex. As AR Rahman I feel like I have been born again.”

Rahman adds:

“I am whatever because of my parent’s prayers to God. I am whatever I am - because the prayers I pray conscientiously, sincerely and with full faith. I will be whatever I am - only because of Him, I know it. He has given me everything. He can take everything away and I accept His decision without any questions, without a murmur. He is everything to me. I am just an infinitesimal creation of His. He has created me for a specific mission. I will be committing a sin if I don’t fulfill that mission. That’s my only belief. That’s the only thing that matters to me. I don’t care for all the other temptations of the world. I am born for music. I live for music. I will live for music till the very end. My life and death are in His hands. I will live only till He wants me to live. I will die only when He wants me to die. It’s all God’s will… Insha Allah.!”Religion is a very personal affair for this sober young man from Chennai. He prays five times a day, carrying his prayer mat with him on his tours, and retiring to the prayer room he has had built next to his studio during recording. He says, “It’s like a meditation. Each time I pray, I die, my soul departs, and then I am like born again.”

THE ENTRY

Dileep was quite happy in his world of advertisements. He had no intention of joining the film industry as a music composer.Around 1991, ace Tamil movie director Manirathnam was on the lookout for a new music composer for his films. His long-standing, fruitful association with the doyen of Tamil film music Ilaiyaraja had come to an end when the latter reportedly made some disdainful comments during the making of Manirathnam’s ‘Dhalapathi’.

One day, at an awards function for excellence in the field of advertising, Manirathnam chanced upon Dileep, who received the award for the best ad jingle, which he had composed for the popular Leo Coffee ad.

At the celebrations party that followed the awards presentation ceremony, Manirathnam was introduced to the young composer by his cousin Sharada Trilok of Trish Productions. Rahman had produced some outstanding work for Trish Productions.
She (Sharada Trilok) had words of praise for the young composer. Manirathnam got curious and requested him for a sample of his wares. The composer readily complied and invited the director over to his studio.
Manirathnam turned up at the studio only after 3 months, where the 24-year-old lad played out a tune that he had been pushed into composing by his school friend G. Bharat Bala alias Bala when they both had been greatly disturbed by the socio-political tensions in South India over the Cauvery river waters issue.Listening to the tune that was played, Manirathnam was hooked instantly. Dileep effortlessly ‘qualified’ in Manirathnam’s eyes as ‘deserving’, and thus, when the appropriate opportunity came along, he decided to give him a ‘break’.

Without a second thought he signed on the composer to score the music for his next venture, produced by the veteran Tamil director K Balachander for his respected ‘Kavithalayaa’ banner. The film was ‘Roja’. That tune took the avatar of the song ‘Thamizha Thamizha’ in ‘Roja’.

Rahman’s D-Day arrived when ‘Roja’ was released on Saturday, August 15th, 1992 . It was awaited with curiosity since it was Manirathnam’s first film without Ilaiyaraja. Skeptics doubted the ability of a 25-year old debutant. The entire film world and filmgoers were in for a pleasant surprise. Rahman delivered the goods and how? To call the music just a ‘Super Hit’ would be an understatement. The music of the film became a phenomenal success and revolutionized modern day Indian film music.

Rahman became a household name in Tamil Nadu overnight. ‘Roja’ won every conceivable award in music that year. Rahman even got the ‘Rajat Kamal’ for best Music Director at the National Film Awards, the first time ever by a debutante. Every producer was trying to impress upon Rahman to work for his/her projects. Because of all this, Rahman decided to leave the jingles world and concentrate on film music.Throughout India , Rahman’s other work were also received wholeheartedly by music lovers. However, it was a Ram Gopal Varma’s ‘Rangeela’ - Rahman’s first original Hindi score - which truly established him as one of the prominent music composers of Bollywood. In North India too, Rahman became a ’star’ overnight, and as is the tradition in Bollywood, suddenly all kinds of producers were seen queuing outside his house.
Rahman however, wisely chose to stay selective and took on only projects that interested him. He also made it a point to work entirely on his own terms and conditions. He still works only from Chennai where he lives; has his own studio in his house from where he works; likes to work only at nights.

Since ‘Roja’, he has created music for mega blockbuster films including ‘Pudhiya Mugam’, ‘Gentleman’, ‘Kizhakku Cheemaiyilae’, ‘Duet’, ‘Kadhalan’, ‘Bombay’, ‘May Madham’, ‘Indian’, ‘Muthu’, ‘Kadhal Desam’, ‘Love Birds’, ‘Sapney’, ‘Jeans’, ‘Dil Se..’, ‘Kadhalar Dhinam’, ‘Sangamam’, ‘En Swasa Katrae’ and many others.
His 1995 soundtrack for ‘ Bombay ‘ crossed 5 million units and Rahman had arrived as the ‘King of Indian Music’ with sales of more than 50 million albums over a period of 3 years. The success continued with films like ‘Dil Se…’ with Manirathnam, 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, Deepa Mehta have worked with Rahman in movies like ‘Thakshak’, ‘Zubeidaa’, ‘Fire’, and ‘1947 Earth’.


AS A SINGER

Playback Singer

When the final re-recording of the song ‘Chinna Chinna Aasai’ of ‘Roja’ was being done in Rahman’s studio, director Manirathnam was present. When he heard a boatman humming ‘Yelelo Yelelo..’ in the second interlude of the song, he asked for the person who sang it. Rahman told him that it was his voice. Manirathnam noticed that the voice had the zeal and passion, which was very different.

After the huge success of ‘Roja’, when Manirathnam signed on the composer for their second combination ‘ Bombay ‘, he insisted that Rahman sing at least one song. Thus was born Rahman the playback singer.

He sang ‘Andha Arabic Kadaloram’ aka ‘Humma Humma’ song in it. Same story repeated for director Shankar, who also had liked the ‘Yelelo’ part in ‘Roja’ song. Shankar too insisted that Rahman should sing at least one song for his film. Rahman did that job for their next combination, ‘Kadhalan’. The song was ‘Oorvasi Oorvasi’, which instantly became a huge hit throughout the world.

Rahman had lent his voice to his compositions earlier too but they had been part of the chorus or bit pieces like ‘Oleywo Oleywola’ in ‘Mukkala Muqabala’ in ‘Kadhalan’ or background pieces in the film, and of course, the interludes like ‘Yelelo’ in ‘Roja’. But ‘Humma Humma’ in ‘ Bombay ‘ was Rahman’s first complete and full-fledged song. With ‘Humma Humma’, Rahman came to be regarded as much a playback singer as a composer. His song ‘Musthafa Musthafa’ from ‘Kadhal Desam’ was another hit that made Sony take notice of Rahman and ask him to sing the songs for it’s non-film album ‘Vande Mataram’.

Rahman says, “I have always been forced to sing. It is extra tiring to sing and get the words right. I sing only when forced to, because singing is very different line of work. You need a lot of Riyaaz and other things to be a good singer.”While he continued lending his voice to several un-credited songs, his solos such as ‘Dil Se Re’ from ‘Dil Se..’ have made his fans crave for more songs from him. It has become an amusing and common sight at various award functions to see the compeers trying to cajole Rahman into singing on stage and Rahman coming up with hilarious excuses to avoid the same.

Later it became quite a regular thing to have Rahman’s voice in his own songs. For most of those Rahman was not credited in the film or the audio release. Mainly he has sung songs in Tamil, Telugu, Hindi, English and Urdu. With his soft soothing and to a certain extent guttural vocals, he has created magic. It is noticed that when there is lots of passion or pain or patriotism in his songs, the singer is Rahman himself!

A PATRIOTIC MUSIC MAKER

It was 1996. Rahman was looking to come out of the monotony that had set in after working on films, 4 years continuously without a break. When he had started out as a composer in 1992, he hadn’t thought of limiting himself to India alone but he also wanted to find a foothold in the international market.While working on movies, he had to do things according to the producers’ wishes. This limited the creativity of the composer, and it was even harmful for the composer’s independence growth.
Rahman has always liked doing film music, but at the same time he felt composing for films would be very restrictive, and that he should get out of the rut of film music. For long he had thought films were enough but now he was waiting for the right occasion to do a non-film private album.

In the same year, Rahman was in Mumbai attending the Screen awards ceremony. In Mumbai, when he was in his hotel room, he called up his childhood friend G Bharat alias Bharat Bala. Bala was Rahman’s school friend, and had produced more than 100 jingles for which Rahman had composed music five years earlier. Bala met him and discussed music. Suddenly an idea struck and they decided to come up with an album with the theme of commemorating 50 years of the Indian Independence in 1997.
Ever since composing music for the patriotic movie called ‘Roja’, Rahman had had been thinking of working on music that would evoke patriotic instincts in Indian minds. The idea eventually took off.

At the same time, in 1996, the International music giant Sony Music wanted to enter in the Indian market in a big way. The first person to be signed up by Sony Music from the Indian sub-continent was Rahman. Vijay Singh, the managing director of Sony - India , approached Rahman who in turn suggested this idea. The plan was immediately accepted and the project got started.Rahman composed, arranged and sang all the songs on the album. Musically speaking, it was hard job for the composer, because it had to be done in such a way that it should appeal to the young generation.Eventually, it started off as three songs on the three colours of the Indian flag. ‘Maa Tujhe Salaam’ was for Saffron, ‘Revival - Vande Mataram’ was for White, and ‘Gurus of Peace’ for Green. Later it ended up with some more songs. Interestingly enough, Rahman got the chance to work with the legendary Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, on the song ‘Gurus Of Peace’. Bala had asked Rahman to approach Nusrat saab. They got kids from London , and the Peace song was recorded overnight in Lahore .

With ‘Vande Mataram’, Rahman became the first Indian artiste of popular music to go international when it was released simultaneously in 28 countries across the world under the prestigious Columbia Label of Sony Music on August 15th, 1997 . The album was a mega success and sold over 1.5 million copies in India alone, and did extremely well internationally too, becoming the largest selling Indian non-film album internationally.

With ‘Vande Mataram’ Rahman left all his contemporaries far behind and moved into a new dimension. The song has become a cult with the whole nation. Also, the World got to see the other side of Rahman — the actor posing in front of the camera. The album came out with a video-audio version. This was first time Rahman himself appeared in front of camera. It was a surprise to see him in a music video with a new hairdo, singing and acting. Earlier, he had preferred to keep a low profile. It was a different experience for Rahman too.Initially, he was nervous and refused to go before the camera. Bala told him that it would be like writing a letter and not signing it if Rahman won’t do that. Rahman had to go ahead. The songs of the album were in Hindi, Sanskrit, Urdu, English and Tamil.

From being the No.1 music director, Rahman also became a top pop star, though he didn’t appreciate ‘Vande Mataram’ being branded as a pop album.
In five years of his film career, by doing a non-filmy song like ‘Vande Mataram’, Rahman reached out to the Indian heart, irrespective of religious differences. The team worked very hard on the music and concept, and their efforts paid off. They got a great response, and phenomenal success. Rahman was happy because he got to do something that was different.
All this success has not been without its fallouts for Rahman. Some spread canards in early 1998 that Rahman was funding Muslim fundamentalists in Tamil Nadu. Later in the year he began receiving threatening calls from the fundamentalist groups for singing ‘Vande Mataram’ and was accorded armed protection by the Government. He received threats from the Hindus and from the Muslim fundamentalists too, from the Hindus for ‘defiling a Hindu song’ and from the Muslims for ’singing an anti-Islamic song’. Many absurd stories were heard about Pakistani terrorists threatening Rahman for appearing on the ‘Vande Mataram’ music video and dissuading him from doing a follow up.

But, Rahman -a true patriot - dismissed all these controversies saying that his religion with patriotism is very important to him.He said, “Being religious without being patriotic takes you nowhere. Patriotism for country should
no way be inferior.” This was the first time ever that Rahman displayed his patriotism in front of the people. He expressed his views regarding all issues saying, “God, religion and patriotism are very personal things. Now it has become politics. I think it all should be left to an individual. ‘Vande Mataram’ is about a mother and the message is peace be upon you. Mother is the country and when you say peace be upon you, it should go beyond politics. When one makes something, there is always the good and the bad. You have to choose what to take. With ‘Vande Mataram’, we wanted to give something to the youth. We felt there was nothing, no song that this MTV generation could relate to, something they could identify with.”
“No Hindu, Muslim or Christian can impose the ‘Vande Mataram’, it should be a natural thing. It should neither be imposed nor rejected. It should be left to the individual.”

He added:

“We get our basic recognition from this country and it is a part of you, whether you are Hindu or Muslim or anything else.” He said, “‘Vande Mataram’ only means ‘Mother, I salute you’. Perhaps because the words are in Sanskrit, people don’t understand this. We have taken the essence of the song, and it doesn’t disturb any religion. After all, the Koran says, ‘at the feet of the mother lies the Jannat’. And the Prophet says, “Whichever country you are in, you have to respect the laws of the land, because it is the land above all, which gives you life.”
Incidentally, a devout Muslim called Mehboob composed the lyrics of the popular version. Despite all these controversies, the song was on top of the charts for almost a year, and bagged many awards. Three years after the successful ‘Vande Mataram’ Bharat Bala and Rahman worked together in another historic album called ‘Jana Gana Mana’. This was a project in which several top artistes of the nation came together to sing or play the National Anthem ‘Jana Gana Mana’.The project had started as ‘Desh Ka Salaam’ which was telecast in Indian TV channels and on the web on August 15, 1999 , in which several greats of Indian music, from the classical to the contemporary, came together to give a soulful and modern rendition of the National Anthem.

The ‘Jana Gana Mana’ was released on January 26th 2000 to mark the 50 th -year of the Indian Republic . Rahman - a genuine patriotic- later took many films that had hardcore patriotism or feel of patriotism. Like ‘The Legend Of Bhagat Singh’, ‘1947 Earth’, ‘Lagaan’, ‘Swades’, ‘Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose - The Forgotten Hero’, ‘Mudhalvan’, ‘Nayak the real hero’ etc…

HIS EXPERIMENT WITH UNTRAINED VOICES

One very interesting aspect of Rahman is his preference for untrained voices. Rahman says “a defect in the singing adds a human touch.”Rahman uses many different voices in a film, irrespective of whether they suit the character or not just for variety. He thinks otherwise things would get monotonous. He says, “There was a time when the album of an Indian film would have only two voices. Today different singers sing for the same character. The times have changed. The attention span of the average listener has decreased and his geographical purview has broadened. The listeners no longer think in terms of perfect or imperfect. They want different voices, standards be damned.”

Rahman is well known for experimenting in the music. He introduced several new, relatively unknown and professionally untrained voices into the mainstream 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, Nabron Ghosh, Shahul Hameed, GV Prakash, Noel James, Yugendran, Blaaze, Aslam Musthafa, Sukhwindara Singh, Srinivas, Shankar Mahadevan, Soorjo Bhattacharya, Devan, Harini, Anupama, Sunitha Sarathy, Madhushree, Sujatha Trivedi, Reena Bharadwaj, Mahalakshmi Iyer, Richa Sharma, Poonam Bhatia, Shoma Banarjee, Dominique, Minmini, Shubha, Febi, Hema Sardesai are just few of the singers who have thrived after the advent of Rahman.

Singers like Hariharan, Asha Bhonsle, Sujatha, Unnimenon have had successful comebacks in the industry after working with Rahman. Unnikrishnan, Bombay Jayshree and Nithyashree Mahadevan who are successful Carnatic classical vocalists also have been introduced into film playback by Rahman.Another attention-grabbing characteristic of Rahman is his wide use of singers from different languages. He used singers like Udit Narayan, Sukhwindara Singh, Madhushree and many other North Indian singers in Tamil; and in addition to this, he also used Tamil singers in Hindi. This was done on experimental basis, and greatly appreciated by his fans too.
He experiments not only with his singer’s voices, but also with different kinds of sounds in music. His songs expose very different kinds of sound, which makes one easily identify his songs among other music director’s songs. His experiments with untried and unusual sounds are noticed since his very first venture, ‘Roja’. The music of his film ‘Kadhalan’ was totally experimental, which had very exceptional, outstanding and brilliant compositions like ‘Mukkala Muqabala’, ‘Oorvasi Oorvasi’, ‘Gopala Gopala’, ‘Ennavalae Ennavalae’, and ‘Pettai Rap’. All these songs had something fresh and innovative in them. This album was appreciated worldwide by even non-Tamilians.

Speaking about experiments with sounds, Rahman tells, “Experimenting with different sounds in music is a real joy. Yes, people accept experiments, but musicians should know the limits of experimenting too. Even experimenting has its boundaries. People cannot take in experimentation in every other composition. So as a musician, I think that it is good enough to wait until people are ready to digest new kind of compositions, and when they are, then take the compositions out from bag.”

HIS INSPIRATIONS

Rahman’s life story is somewhat similar to a Bollywood movie. It is clear that not every person can face life’s tragedies like him. He says it is mainly because of music, that he is alive today. Since childhood he has been into music. It was his mother, who inspired him by telling stories of his father. Thus when composing for the first time, his first inspiration was his father.As a child he had noticed many musicians around drink and smoke to get inspired. But for the child, it was Ilaiyaraja, who proved one can make good music without indulging in bad habits. Ilaiyaraja is a very religious person, who made good music without taking alcohol or smoking.Since Ilaiyaraja had worked for Rahman’s father in the past, he regarded Rahman as his own son.
Speaking about his inspirations, Rahman states, “Personally, I would say that a sense of spirituality helps a great deal. And it is important that you study life as well. Both these things will make a better human being, and therefore, a better composer out of you. Life teaches you what real pain and happiness are, and these things help in creating better compositions. It works like this: if the film demands happy music the composer only has to tap into the wellspring of happy experiences from his own life to create the right ambience for that tune. I think this is more important than learning all the technical gymnastics of music.”

When he composes music, his mind needs to be in vacuum state. Perhaps that is why he prefers to compose at night. He prays, and then composes. He says music comes to him directly from God. He believes that God has helped him a lot in stabilizing himself, and has given him everything. Never one to boast or brag about his accomplishments, he credits all his inspiration and success to God.

Explaining why he does so, Rahman says, “The problem is, you can create only as long as you have the gift, only as long as the Almighty wishes. After that, even if you stand upside down.you are not likely to compose. If God wills it may happen to me too. I can take that. I believe that every individual, even an atom, can move only with the will of God. I don’t want to take the credit for doing all this. If I do, then I would fall flat. And talking about myself, the destiny has been the biggest influence in my existence. Without the will of God, how would I have reached where I am today? That’s why I believe I am like a boat in a river without a sail and a firm destination”. The skillful prodigy credits all his inspiration and success to the Almighty.The man behind the music is still much of an enigma. “If a music artiste wants to blossom into a full-fledged person, it’s not enough if he knows only classical music; nor is it enough if he’s well-versed only in Raagas and techniques. Instead, he should be a knowledgeable person interested in life and philosophy. In his personal life there should be, at least in some corner of his heart, a tinge of lingering sorrow,” he says.

“Music is God’s gift and every note should be blessed. Otherwise music becomes noise if it is not blessed. I am influenced by Sufism, which is also connected with music. Before composing I pray and beg to God to give me something. I believe every song should have a pure soul in it to reach people.” He states.

At the age of 39, when many others are just starting out, Rahman has garnered achievements that many others cannot in a lifetime. He started out as a film music composer in 1992, and in this short span of 13 years, has changed the very face of film music in India and with touching heights that no music director ever had previously. He has built up a repertoire of scintillating scores that anybody would kill for. He has become a national icon. He is also arguably the most well known Indian composer of popular music internationally. He has successfully taken popular Indian music international. He has fans not just among expatriate Indians but also among natives of places like Brazil , Sweden and Australia . He took Tamil music global and established the universal appeal of his music, whatever the language the lyrics are in. He set the standards by which music came to be rated in India . The benchmarks set by him were what others aimed to achieve. The soundtracks of his unsuccessful scores sold more than the successful soundtracks of the other composers. Every director of repute yearns to work with him and every actor hopes to dance to his tunes, literally.For Rahman, who eats music, thinks music, breathes music and lives music, the bottom-line is that his music should reach out to the soul of humankind. A very low profile in public life, credits all his success to the Almighty, and apart from the Almighty, to his mother- who encouraged him to take up music when his interest lay in electronics.

His maxim is that only total dedication and concentration to one’s profession can help in producing good work. Rahman is certain that this dedication must increase with fame. All this success has not uprooted him from his roots. Amidst all this heady success, Rahman still remains unchanged. He is as humble, modest, shy, silent, low profile, unassuming, self-effacing, devout and down-to-earth as he was at the beginning of his career.A man of few words he believes in letting his work do all the talking. He prefers to save his energies for his work instead of fighting out numerous controversies. His personality is summed up in his favorite prayer which goes thus “O God, if I worship thee for fear of hell, burn me in hell, and if I worship thee in hope of Paradise , exclude me from Paradise , but if I worship thee for thy own sake, grudge me not thy everlasting beauty.”

The man has given immense pleasure to millions of music lovers worldwide with his compositions, music that brings a cheer to one’s face and helps in forgetting one’s troubles. It is probably these very divine qualities that made him the great man he is today and the same will hopefully help him touch greater heights tomorrow.


HIS COLLABORATIONS

Rahman is still at his prime and yet has already worked with internationally reputed artistes.Rahman has collaborated with artists such as L. Shankar, Zakir Hussain, David Byrne, Talvin Singh and Apache Indian - both in recording and on tour.
On a trip to India , acclaimed prodigy David Byrne met Rahman. So impressed was he with Rahman and his work, that he went on to record some sessions with Rahman for his own project, on which he was working that time, but sadly, this project has not seen the light of the day yet.

Rahman was an invited member of the jury of the prestigious music festival ‘Voice of Asia’ competition held annually at Almaty, Kazhakstan. The jury comprises of top musicians of the world. He was also invited to be the judge for channel [V]’s nation-wide talent hunt program called ‘Samsung Super Singer.’ There he assisted Adnan Sami.

In October 1999, Rahman performed a song ‘Ekam Satyam’ in a charity oriented live concert in München (referred as Munich in English) city of Germany with Michael Jackson called ‘MJ and friends’. Bharat Bala and Hindujas arranged the meeting between Rahman and Michael Jackson. Rahman and his troupe performed with Michael Jackson in the concert. The song was partially in English and partially in Sanskrit. Jackson sang the English part and Rahman sang the Sanskrit part. Lyricist AR Parthasarathy from India penned the Sanskrit part. Melodious strains of ‘Sathyameva Jayathey’ by Rahman provided the closing to the concert by pop king MJ.
Music ArtistsRahman has collaborated with almost all big names, though he doesn’t like to it to be mentioned.

His first chance of collaborating with an international artist was offered by Sony Music in 1996, when he was working on ‘Vande Mataram’. Sony had asked him to choose from any of its international stars to work with and supposedly even suggested the name of Celine Dion. But Rahman settled, very appropriately, for the Pakistani Sufi music star Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan and Dominic Miller.

Explaining his choice, he said, “I don’t want to collaborate with just a name. I must feel something for the person and relate with his work. I’ve seen several famous names collaborating on songs and albums, but they remain just two names. There’s no chemistry. It’s like oil and water. They can’t come together.”
This perspective of Rahman has shown magic. The people he chooses - don’t know where he finds them - do their life’s best with Rahman. To date he has worked with almost every Indian legend.

Just to name a few of them: KJ Yesudas, SP Balasubrahmaniam, Lata Mangeshkar, Asha Bhonsle, sivamani, Pt. Vishwamohan Bhatt, Zakir Hussain, Kunnakudi Vaidyanathan, L. Shankar, Kadri Gopalnath, Vikku Vinayakram, Ustad Sultan Khan among many others.
Internationally, he has been associated with Nusrath Fateh Ali Khan, Yak Bondy, Jolin Tsai, Michael Jackson, Apache Indian, Dominic Miller, Andrew Lloyd Webber for one or more works.

DirectorsMany talented directors from the film industry - both well settled and new comers - have worked with Rahman. Many directors restrict themselves to work with Rahman only. Also, as observed, many directors convince their producers to work only with Rahman.

The directors with whom Rahman has worked are:
Hindi: Ramgopal Varma, Deepa Mehta, Priyadarshan, Farookh Siddiqui, Subhash Ghai, Govind Nihalani, Raj Kumar Santoshi, Khaled Mohammed, Shyam Benegal, Shashilal Nair, Shekhar Kapoor, Kailash Surendranath, Ashutosh Gowariker, Shaad Ali, Ahmed Khan, MF Hussain, Atul Agnihotri.

Tamil and Telugu:

Manirathnam, Shankar, Suhasini Manirathnam, P Vasu, K Balachander, Sangeeth Sivan, Kadhir, K Muralimohan Rao, Rajeev Menon, KS Ravikumar, Bharatiraaja, Suresh Menon, Balu, K Subhash, Vikraman, Manoj Kumar, B Gopal, Pravinkanth, Suresh Krishna, Vasanth, Saran, Azhagam Perumal, Arjun, AM Jyoti Krishna, SJ Surya.
Chinese: He Ping.

ARR QUOTATIONS

Music is language itself. It should not have any barriers of caste, creed, language or anything. Music is one, only cultures are different. Music is the language of languages. It is the ultimate mother of languages- Film music in India is like pop music in the West. Movies are the channels for this music. But music stays on long after the films. - If a music artiste wants to blossom into a full-fledged person, it’s not enough if he knows only classical music; nor is it enough if he’s well-versed only in Raagas and techniques. Instead, he should be a knowledgeable person interested in life and philosophy. In his personal life there should be, at least in some corner of his heart, a tinge of lingering sorrow.

- Music is a gift from God and every note should be blessed. Otherwise music becomes noise if it is not blessed. I am influenced by Sufism, which is also connected with music. Before composing I pray and beg to God to give me something. I believe every song should have a pure soul in it to reach people.

His Prayer to GodO God, if I worship thee for fear of hell, burn me in hell, and if I worship thee in hope of Paradise, exclude me from Paradise, but if I worship thee for thy own sake, grudge me not thy everlasting beauty.
Whom do you consider your closest rival?

“The man who’s inside me and constantly trying to distract me from doing good work.”
How does it feel to be on top?

“I don’t really think I’m at the top. Basically, I came into this field not to intrude on anybody else’s success.”

“I am like a boat without an oar. I let life take its own course. I know only my work and God, I pray a lot. You get dejected if you plan something and it does not happen.”

“I like music that is able to stir my soul. My music is a spiritual exercise” “Criticism is fine - at the end of the day, my music speaks for itself”
“You can’t have everything in life: What one thinks is possible might not always be so. I try to do my best but, finally, everything lies in God’s hands. I consider my skills as a musician to be a blessing from God. Even today, before I perform, I am unsure of whether I will be able to move my audience. I leave everything to Him… He pulls the strings in my life.”"I dont have time to cherish the joys and repent the failures in life . I go on with my work not caring about the response i have got of my previous works”

“Rather than making money I believe in making people happy, all other things are secondary.” Money isn’t important, creative satisfaction is.
“Swades” is right from my heart. It is simple and sweet music.
How would you describe A.R.Rahman in your own words?

“A.R.Rahman is a failure and slowly he is trying to reach something.”
In my case, dust has become gold.”"I feel at home with my food and my people.”
“Awards come with the blessings from God and it encourages you. At the same time it is not the end and it’s a promise and you feel ashamed and ask yourself “What have I done to get this?”

“If a musician wants to blossom into a full-fledged person, it’s not enough if he knows only classical music; nor it is enough if he’s well-versed only in raagas and techniques. Instead, he should be a knowledgeable person interested in life and philosophy. In his personal life there should be, atleast in some corner of his heart, a tinge of lingering sorrow.” — A.R.Rahman”The search is more important than the destination” “You are what your deepest desire is. As you desire, so is your intention. As your intention, so is your will. As is your will so is your deed. As is your deed, so is your destiny.” –The Upanishads