AR Rahman Turns 55: The Mozart of Madras, AR Rahman turns 55 today. The music composer has been an inspiration to many people. He is well-known for his soulful music and a number of awards and honors. Still, there is a lot about him that so many people do not know. On the birthday of AR Rahman, here are some lesser-known facts about the music maestro.
- Rahman was born in a Hindu family as Dilip Kumar. At the age of 23, he embraced Isalm after he met his spiritual guru, Qadri Islam
- Before entering into the movie industry, he was seen in Doordarshan’s Wonder Balloon as a kid playing 4 keyboards at once
- Mani Ratnam was the first one to spot Rahman’s talent and began film scoring for Ratnam’s Tamil Movie Roja (1992). For this project, Rahman got a sum of Rs. 25000 and became the recipient of the National Film Award
- Rahman married Saira and has three children namely – Ameen, Khatija, and Rahima
- AR Rahman is the first person from Asia to win 2 Oscars in the same year
- He is the recipient of Padma Bhushan, Padma Shri and also won 4 National Awards
- The Oscar-winning song ‘Jai Ho’ was initially composed for Salman Khan’s Yuvraaji
- Rahman also composed scores for Hollywood movies including Lord of War, 127 hours, etc
- AR Rahman joined hands with Dave Stewart, Mick Jagger, and Joss Stone to introduce a completely different kind of music under the name SuperHeavy.
- A street in Markham, Ontario, Canada was named after AR Rahman in November 2013
- Airtel’s signature tune composed by Rahman is said to be the world’s most downloaded mobile music with more than 150 million downloads
