Looking Back At AR Rahman's Rags To Riches Story That No One Talks About

The Oscar-winning Indian musician, A.R. Rahman has constantly been making tunes that have captured audiences across different ages. Celebrating his 55th birthday, he is still on a spree to make the world dance and vibe to his music.

Allah Rakha Rahman was born on January 6, 1967, as A. S. Dileep Kumar in Madras, Tamil Nadu. Rahman started learning piano at the age of four and assisted his father, a film composer for Tamil and Malayalam movies, since childhood. After his father's demise, he had to begin working to support his family, which demanded him to comprise regular school classes. The Padma Seshadri Bala Bhavan principal called for his mother to advise him to focus more on his education than on supporting his family.

Retrospecting his time in school, he commented in an interview in 2012 that he carried both good and bad memories from that place amidst the abuses he was targeted to from the school. One of his vivid memories being, his mother getting summoned to school and being told to take him to the streets of Kodambakkam to beg and not send him to school anymore.

Having faced abuse in his previous school, he later shifted to two schools and even pursued music in his third school and was a part of a boy band as well. However, after having discussed this with his mother, he dropped out of school and decided to pursue music as his full-time career. He began his career by assisting many music directors and even earned a diploma in Western Classical music from Madras.

It's About Overcoming Hurdles

Rahman began taking his baby steps by composing scores for different documentaries and jingles for many Indian advertisements. He composed his first soundtrack in 1992 when director Mani Ratnam approached him to compose for his movie, Roja. Having started his journey there, he has come a long way and has won several awards for his contributions to the music world.

In 2007, Rahman entered the Limca Book of Records as "Indian of the Year for Contribution to Popular Music." In 2009, for his Slumdog Millionaire score, Rahman won the Broadcast Film Critics Association Award, the Golden Globe Award for Best Original Score, the BAFTA Award for Best Film Music, and two Academy Awards (Best Original Score and Best Original Song, the latter shared with Gulzar) at the 81st Academy Awards. He is also a two-times Grammy winner and has received Padma Bhushan, the third-highest civilian award in India.

In spite of having speculations that many in the Bollywood industry are preventing this star from rising, A. R. Rahman continues to steal people's hearts with his tunes and beats. From 99songs to Mimi to several other upcoming projects, Rahman's style of music will continue to stand out and be loved and taken to heart by millions of listeners.

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