64 Facts About AR Rahman

AR Rahman is a winner of six National Film Awards, two Academy Awards, two Grammy Awards, a BAFTA Award, a Golden Globe Award, fifteen Filmfare Awards and seventeen Filmfare Awards South.

AR Rahman initially composed scores for different documentaries and jingles for advertisements and Indian television channels.

AR Rahman was awarded Best Compilation Soundtrack Album and Best Song Written for Visual Media at the 2010 Grammy Awards.

AR Rahman has become a humanitarian and philanthropist, donating and raising money for a number of causes and charities.

AR Rahman has received honorary doctorate from Aligarh Muslim University.

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AR Rahman's father, R K Shekhar from a Mudaliar family, was a film-score composer and conductor for Tamil and Malayalam films.

AR Rahman assisted his father in the studio, playing the keyboard.

However, in an interview in 2012, AR Rahman said that his mother was summoned and was told to take him to the streets of Kodambakkam to beg and not to send him to the school anymore.

AR Rahman attended another school called MCN for a year, and later joined the Madras Christian College Higher Secondary School, where he was admitted on his music talent and formed a band with his high school classmates.

AR Rahman was a keyboard player and arranger for bands such as Roots and founded the Chennai-based rock group Nemesis Avenue.

AR Rahman mastered the keyboard, piano, synthesizer, harmonium and guitar, and was particularly interested in the synthesizer because it was the "ideal combination of music and technology".

AR Rahman was introduced to Qadiri tariqa when his younger sister was seriously ill in 1984.

AR Rahman initially composed scores for different documentaries and jingles for advertisements and Indian television channels.

AR Rahman's soundtracks are known in the Tamil Nadu film industry and abroad for his versatility in combining Western classical music, Carnatic and Tamil traditional and folk-music traditions, jazz, reggae and rock music.

In 2005 AR Rahman expanded his Panchathan Record Inn studio by establishing AM Studios in Kodambakkam, Chennai, creating the most cutting-edge studio in Asia.

AR Rahman co-scored Shekhar Kapur's second British film, Elizabeth: The Golden Age, in 2007 and received a Best Composer Asian Film Award nomination at the Hong Kong International Film Festival for his Jodhaa Akbar score.

AR Rahman's music has been sampled for other scores in India, appearing in Inside Man, Lord of War, Divine Intervention and The Accidental Husband.

In 2010, AR Rahman composed the original score and songs for the romantic Vinnaithaandi Varuvaayaa, the sci-fi romance Enthiran and Danny Boyle's 127 Hours, composing for the Imtiaz Ali musical Rockstar; the latter's soundtrack was a critical and commercial success.

In 2012 AR Rahman composed for Ekk Deewana Tha and the American drama People Like Us, and collaborated with director Yash Chopra on Jab Tak Hai Jaan.

AR Rahman's next were the scores for the two back to back Hollywood films, Million Dollar Arm and The Hundred Foot Journey, both of which got into the contended list for the original score category nomination at the Oscars.

AR Rahman received two Academy Awards for Slumdog Millionaire and two Academy Award nominations for 127 Hours.

In 2018, AR Rahman got national award for the background score of Mom.

AR Rahman followed it with an album for the Bharat Bala–directed video Jana Gana Mana, a collection of performances by leading exponents and artists of Indian classical music.

AR Rahman has written advertising jingles and orchestrations for athletic events, television and Internet media, documentaries and short films, frequently using the Czech Film Orchestra and the Chennai Strings Orchestra.

In 1999, AR Rahman partnered with choreographers Shobana and Prabhu Deva and a Tamil film-dancing troupe to perform with Michael Jackson in Munich, Germany at his Michael Jackson and Friends concert.

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Since 2004 AR Rahman has performed three successful world tours before audiences in Singapore, Australia, Malaysia, Dubai, the United Kingdom, Canada, the United States and India, and has been collaborating with Karen David on her upcoming studio album.

AR Rahman, was released in May 2006 and his non-film album Connections was released on 12 December 2008.

AR Rahman performed at a White House state dinner arranged by US President Barack Obama during an official visit by Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on 24 November 2009.

AR Rahman is one of over 70 artists on "We Are the World 25 for Haiti", a charity single to raise relief funds in the wake of the 2010 Haiti earthquake.

In February 2011 AR Rahman collaborated with Michael Bolton on Bolton's album, Gems – The Duets Collection, reworking his "Sajna" from Couples Retreat.

On 20 May 2011 Mick Jagger announced the formation of a supergroup, SuperHeavy, with Dave Stewart, Joss Stone, Damian Marley and AR Rahman; its self-titled album was scheduled for release in September 2011.

In Summer 2012 AR Rahman composed a Punjabi song for the London Olympics opening ceremony, directed by Danny Boyle, part of a medley showcasing Indian influence in the UK.

In December 2012 AR Rahman and Shekhar Kapoor launched Qyuki, a networking site which is a platform for story writers to exchange their thoughts.

AR Rahman released a 19-minute orchestral composition The Flying Lotus in 2017 featuring the demonetisation.

On 15 August 2018, AR Rahman appeared as the host in the 5-episode series of Amazon Prime Video titled "Harmony".

AR Rahman launched India's first YouTube Original, ARRived, which aims to find the best singing talent from across country.

AR Rahman is the main judge and he is accompanied by Shaan, Vidya Vox and Clinton Cerejo.

AR Rahman partnered with Marvel to compose a promotional track titled "Marvel Anthem" in Hindi, Tamil and Telugu for Avengers: Endgame .

AR Rahman has sung and composed the track spiced up with rap and heavy percussion.

AR Rahman stated that ahimsa requires courage and strength, and that the song is a celebration of non-violence and peace.

Skilled in Carnatic music, Western and Hindustani classical music and the Qawwali style of Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, AR Rahman is noted for film songs amalgamating elements of these and other genres, layering instruments from different musical idioms in an improvisational style.

AR Rahman has worked as a pianist in Ilaiyaraaja's troupe for hundreds of movies.

AR Rahman's compositions have an auteuristic use of counterpoint, orchestration and the human voice, melding Indian pop music with a unique timbre, form and instrumentation.

AR Rahman is one of the best-selling music artists in India, with an estimated 150 million records sold worldwide.

On 21 May 2014 AR Rahman announced that he has partnered with former Black Eyed Peas' Will.

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AR Rahman is married to Saira Banu, sister-in-law of actor AR Rahman; they have three children: Khatija, Rahima and Ameen.

In February 2020, AR Rahman was critiqued for his liberal image after Bangladeshi author Taslima Nasreen raised a question about his daughter wearing a burka.

AR Rahman has supported Save the Children India and worked with Yusuf Islam on "Indian Ocean", a song featuring a-ha keyboard player Magne Furuholmen and Travis drummer Neil Primrose.

AR Rahman produced the single "We Can Make It Better" by Don Asian with Mukhtar Sahota.

In 2008 AR Rahman opened the KM Music Conservatory with an audio-media education facility to train aspiring musicians in vocals, instruments, music technology and sound design.

AR Rahman composed the theme music for a 2006 short film for The Banyan to aid poor women in Chennai.

In 2008 AR Rahman and noted percussionist Sivamani created a song, "Jiya Se Jiya", inspired by the Free Hugs Campaign and promoted it with a video filmed in a number of Indian cities for a cause.

AR Rahman announced Ta Futures, a collaborative culture project that would curate and celebrate the sounds of Tamil Nadu.

In 2019, AR Rahman performed a Sufi Benefit Concert at the annual New York gala of Pratham, one of the largest non-governmental organisations in India, which focuses on the provision of quality education to India's underprivileged children.

AR Rahman has received a Kalaimamani from the Government of Tamil Nadu for excellence in the field of music, musical-achievement awards from the governments of Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh and a Padma Shri from the Government of India.

The following year, AR Rahman entered the Limca Book of Records as "Indian of the Year for Contribution to Popular Music".

AR Rahman received the 2008 Lifetime Achievement Award from the Rotary Club of Madras.

In 2009, for his Slumdog Millionaire score, AR 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 at the 81st Academy Awards.

AR Rahman has received honorary doctorates from Middlesex University, Aligarh Muslim University, Anna University in Chennai and Miami University in Ohio.

AR Rahman received the Padma Bhushan, India's third-highest civilian honour, in 2010.

AR Rahman is an Honorary Fellow of the Trinity College of Music.

On 24 October 2014 AR Rahman was awarded an honorary doctorate from Berklee College of Music during a concert paying tribute to his music featuring an international cast of students.

AR Rahman will promote and project the state's achievements nationally and globally.

AR Rahman was honoured with the Pride of Indian Music award at the first Zee Cine Awards Tamil, held on 4 January 2020 in Chennai.