INTRO to MORTAZ of MADRAS A R RAHMAN ji
Birthday-> january 6th 1966
Allah Rakha Rahman was born as Dileep Kumar to a musically affluent family. His father R.K.Sekhar was an arranger and conductor in Malayalam movies and had worked under the likes of Salil Chowdhary and Devarajan. Dileep started learning the piano at the tender age of four. At the age of 9, his father passed away following a mysterious illness with rumours abounding that he was the victim of black magic by his rivals. The pressure of supporting his family fell on Dileep. At he age of 11, he joined Illaiyaraja's troupe as a keyboard player. It was his mother Kareema Begum who encouraged him to follow in his father's footsteps. But all this had an adverse affect on his education. Infrequent attendance and an unaccommodative management forced him to shift schools from the prestigious Padma Seshadri Bal Bhavan to the Madras Christian College and finally he dropped out of school altogeth
MASSIVE TURNINGPOINT...
In 1988, one of his sisters fell seriously ill and numerous attempts to cure her failed. Her condition progressively worsened. The family had given up all hope when they came in contact with a Muslim Pir - Sheik Abdul Qadir Jeelani or Pir Qadri as he was popularly known. With his prayers and blessings, Dileep's sister made a miraculous recovery. Rattled by the bad experience and influenced by the teachings of the Pir, the entire family converted to Islam. Thus A.S.Dileep Kumar became A.R. Rahman.
He also played on the orchestra of M.S.Vishwanathan and Ramesh Naidu and accompanied Zakir Hussain and Kunnakudi Vaidyanathan on world tours. All this experience enabled him to earn a scholarship to the famed Trinity College of Music at Oxford University from where he obtained a degree in Western Classical Music. After he returned he continued to be a part of various music troupes. He was also a part of local rock bands like Roots, Magic and Nemesis Avenue where he performed with his future colleagues like Ranjit Barot and Sivamani.
HERO OF AWARDS... ENDLESS....
Dileep got his first break in advertising when he was asked to compose the jingle to promote Allwyn's new Trendy range of watches, in 1987. The ads were a success and Dileep's work in them was appreciated. Dileep moved full time into advertising as a few offers came his way. Thus began Dileep's 5-year saga in advertising where he went on to compose more than 300 jingles. Rahman did a lot of popular ads like those for Boost featuring Sachin Tendulkar and Kapil Dev, Titan, Premier Pressure Cooker, Hero Puch and Asian Paints, Parry's, Leo Coffee. The jingles that he composed for the Leo Coffee ad starring Aravind Swamy and the Asian Paints advertisement directed by Rajeev Menon also won him awards and recognition. He also won an award for composing the theme music of the Madras Telugu Academy's Spirit of Unity Concerts.
In 1989, he started a small studio of his own, called Panchathan Record Inn, attached to his house. This would later develop into one of India's most well equipped and advanced recording studios. In his established state of the art sound and recording studio he began experimenting in sound engineering, design and production. He also began a collection of sound samples, creating one of the most comprehensive sonic libraries in Asia.
During his stint in advertising, he released his first album, of Muslim devotional songs, titled `Deen Isai Malai'. This was followed by `Set Me Free', an album of English songs which was the launch album of singer Malgudi Subha, by Magnasound, where Dileep set the songs to tune. However, both the albums went unnoticed in the market.
Maniratnam was introduced to the young composer by his cousin Sharada Trilok of Trish Productions. Maniratnam requested for a sample of his wares. and the composer readily complied and invited the director over to his studio where he played out a tune that he had been pushed into composing by his school friend G.Bharat alias Bala. Mani was hooked instantly. He signed on the composer to score the music for his next film which was to be produced by the veteran Tamil director K.Balachander. That film was Roja. The score of `Roja' was the first step in changing the face of Indian film music. `Roja' won every conceivable award in music that year. Rahman also got the Rajat Kamal for best music director at the National Film Awards , the first time ever by a debutante. He left ads and moved into film music full time.
Since Roja, he has created music for blockbuster Indian films including Pudhiya Mugam, Gentleman, Kizhaku Seemaiyilae, Duet, Kadalan, Bombay, May, Madham, Indian, Muthu, Kadhal Desam , Love Birds and others. His 1995 soundtrack for Bombay crossed 5 million units and Rahman had arrived as the "King of Indian Pop" with sales of more than 40 million albums over a period of 3 years. The success continued with films like Dil Se.. with Mani Rathnam, 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, Deepta Mehta have worked with Rahman in movies like Thakshak, Zubeidaa, and Fire.
In the movie "Bombay" Rahman formally took to playback singing. Rahman had lent his voice to his compositions earlier too but they had been part of the preludes or interludes like `Yelelo' in `Chinna Chinna Aasai' in `Roja'. But `Hamma Hamma' in `Bombay' was Rahman's first complete song. Sony took notice of Rahman and signed him on for the non-film album `Vande Mataram'. While he continued lending his voice to several uncredited songs, his solos such as "Dil Se Re" from `Dil Se..' have made his fans crave for more songs from him.
Rahman is well known for introducing several unknown voices into the main stream 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, Shahul Hameed, Srinivas, Shankar Mahadevan, Harini, Anupama, Dominique, Minmini, Shubha, Febi, Hema Sardesai are some of the singers who have thrived after the advent of Rahman. Singers like Hariharan, Sujatha, Unnimenon have had successful comebacks in the industry after working with Rahman. Unnikrishnan, Bombay Jayshree and Nithyashree Mahadevan who are successful Karnatak classical vocalists have been introduced into film playback by Rahman.
In 1996, when Rahman had gone to Bombay to attend the Screen Awards ceremony, he met his childhood friend G.Bharat. During this meeting both had discussed a proposal for an album to commemorate 50 years of Indian Independence in 1997. In 1997, the International music giant, Sony Music, whose portfolio included the likes of Michael Jackson, entered the Indian market in a big way. They were looking to promote Indian artistes internationally. And the first person to be signed up by Sony Music from the Indian sub-continent was A.R.Rahman, on a 3-album contract. Rahman suggested the idea that he had discussed with Bharat to Sony Music India and was immediately accepted. Called `Vande Mataram'. `Vande Mataram' was released simultaneously in 28 countries across the world under the prestigious Columbia Label of Sony Music on August 15th 1997. Rahman himself performed live at Vijay Chowk in New Delhi on the eve of the Golden Jubilee of Indian Independence to a packed audience that comprised of the Prime Minister of India. The album was a mega success and sold over 1.2 million copies in India and did well internationally too.
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 `Jana Gana Mana' was released on January 26 2000 to mark the 50th year of the Indian Republic.
At the age of 32, Rahman has already worked with internationally reputed artistes like Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, Apache Indian, Zakir Hussain, Kunnakudi Vaidyanathan, Dominic Miller, L.Shankar, Kadri Gopalnath, Vikku Vinayakram, Ustad Sultan Khan and Pandit Vishwa Mohan Bhatt among many others. Rahman has in collaborations with artists such as L. Shankar, Zakir Hussain, David Byrne, Talvin Singh and Apache Indian - both recording and on tour.
In his career Rahman has received several awards in various instituted Indian film awards. He was awarded the "Padmashree" titled by the Indian Government in year 2000. He has received awards in Filmfare, Screen-Videocon, Zee Sangeet, Bollywood Music Awards, MTV-VMA awards among others. Notable in this list is the Filmfare awards. He has received 13 Filmfare awards in all.
In October 1999, Rahman performed a song "Ekam Satyam" in a charity concert in Munich with Michael Jackson called "MJ and friends". The meeting between Rahman and Michael Jackson was arranged by Hindujas and Bharat Bala. Rahman and his troupe performed after Michael Jackson in the concert. Melodious strains of 'Satyameva Jayate' by Rahman provided the closing to the concert by pop king Michael Jackson.
Rahman lists among his favourites Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Carpenters, Carnatic, Rock and Fusion.
And his journey is contineous rapidly... he cant able to forget the year 2009.... its the eve of SLLUMDOG MILLIONARE
He the first indian to get the GOLDEN GLOBE award..... and the great OSCAR is waiting for him with 3 massive nominations....
He recently got the BRITISH's great BAFTA award for best musical score...:-)
A R RAHMAN ji bags two ACADEMY OSCAR AWARDS
>one for ORIGINAL MUSIC SCORE in SLUMDOG MILLIONIARE...
>another one for ORIGINAL MUSICAL SCORE for JAI HO in SLUMDOG MILLIONIARE...
Our mortaz RAHMANji created a new HISTORY in WORLD to grab the first OSCAR by an INDIAN...
-------------> RAHMAN ROCKZZZ <---------------
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