The name A.R.Rahman needs no introduction. The man who redefined contemporary Indian music and is the pride of the entire nation and an idol for millions all over the world needs no preamble.

A. R. Rahman (full name - Allah Rakha Rahman) was born as Dileep Kumar on January 6, 1966, in Madras to a musically affluent Tamil Mudaliar family.His father R.K. Sekhar was a composer, arranger and conductor in Malayalam movies and had worked under the likes of Salil Chowdhary and Devarajan. His mother was Kasthuri (now Kareema Begum).

Dileep started learning the piano at the age of 4 and at the age of 9 his father passed away. Since the pressure of supporting his family fell on him, he joined Illaiyaraja's troupe as a keyboard player at the age of 11. Dileep Kumar dropped out of school as a result of this and travelled all around the world with various orchestras. He accompanied the great Table maestro Zakir Hussain on a few world tours and also won a scholarship at the Trinity College of Music at Oxford University and obtained a degree in Western Classical Music. Due to some personal crisis, Dileep Kumar embraced Islam and came to be known as AR Rahman.

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. He came back with a dream to bring an international and contemporary world perspective to Indian music. After he returned, he continued to be a part of various local 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 Suresh Peters, Ranjit Barot and Sivamani Anandan. Dileep thus firmly established himself this way and worked for nearly 8 to 9 years with various music directors. He also worked as an arranger for Illaiyaraja, M.S.Vishwanathan, Ouseappachan and Raj-Koti.

Fortunately for Dileep he soon 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 quit playing in orchestras and moved full time into advertising as a few more offers came his way. Thus began Dileep's 5-year successful saga in advertising where he went on to not only compose more than 300 jingles, but would also be the stepping stone to his entry into films. Rahman did a lot of popular ads like those for Parry's, Leo Coffee, Springz Mineral Water, Boost featuring Sachin Tendulkar and Kapil Dev, Titan, Remanika Sarees, Premier Pressure Cooker, MRF Tyres, Hero Puch, The Hindu Young World and Asian Paints. He also scored the title music for television channels like JJTV, Sun TV, and Asianet.

During this period, on one of his trips to Bombay he met the veteran Hindi music director Naushad Ali who was very impressed by the young Rahman's work and asked him to try his hand at composing for films. Rahman was initially a little hesitant about entering films mainly because of the attitude of most movie makers towards music, where songs were used as just fillers and something to give the audience a break during a movie. But in 1991, he was given an offer that would change his life. At the awards function where he received the award for Best Jingle Composer for the Leo Coffee ad,he was approached by the man known as the Spielberg of India, Mani Ratnam.

Rahman's D-Day arrived when 'Roja' was released on August 15th, 1992. It was awaited with curiosity since it was Mani Ratnam's first film without Illaiyaraja. The entire film world and filmgoers were in for a pleasant surprise. Rahman delivered the best ever music to Roja.Rahman became a household name in Tamil Nadu overnight and the score of 'Roja' was the first step in his changing the face of Indian film music. 'Roja' not only won the heart of millions with its music it also 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 debutant. He was flooded with offers to do more films. He gradually cut down on his work in ads and subsequently moved into film music full time. And there was no looking back for A. R. Rahman. With 'Roja', A. R. Rahman had finally arrived.

In the next 5 years, he scored music for a lot of block buster films namely - "Pudhiya Mugam", "Gentleman", "Kizhaku Seemalyilae", "Duet", "KADALAN", "Bombay", "May", "Madbam", "Indian", "Mutbu Kadal Desam","Love Birds", "Jeans", "Oke Okkadu", etc,.In 1995, his sound track for "Bombay" crossed sales of 5 million units signalling A.R. Rahman's arrival as the "King of Indian Pop" with sales of more than 40 million albums over a period of three years. Today, A.R. Rahman is the heart throb of the music world and all time great music directors in the field.

His inspirational, infectious numbers won him a lot of praise in India. The Tamil movie "Minsara Kanavu" earned him the award for "Best Music" in May '97. He has been honoured with a "Rajat Kamal Award" for "Best Music Director", "The FilmFare Award", "Cinema Express Award", "Telugu Academy Puraskar Award" for the year 1992-94, "Bommala Nagi Reddy Award", "Sumu Award", "Rajiv Gandhi Award" and etc,.

A.R. Rahman has been hailed as a music genius by world artists including "Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan", with whom he performs a duet in his first pop album, Vande Mataram.Internationally too, A.R. Rahman has remarkable recognition that "David Byrne" was so impressed and asked him to take part in a few sessions for his new project.

AR Rahman will compose the music score for the West End version of the hit movie ‘The Lord of the Rings’.He also composed the music for Andrew Lloyd Webber’s hit play ‘Bombay Dreams’.He is looking forward to compose the tunes for director Shekhar Kapoor’s next film Paani, which is set in futuristic Mumbai 20 years from now.