Allah Rakha Rahman was born in Chennai as A.S. Dileep Kumar on 6th January 1966. Dileep Kumar started learning piano at the age of 4. When Dileep Kumar was 9 years old, his father passed away. In order to support his family, he joined in Ilayaraja’s music troupe as a keyboard player, at that time he was 11-years-old.
He dropped his education and accompanied with great Tabla maestro Zakir Hussain. He won a scholarship in Trinity college of Music at Oxford University. He decided to rechristen himself as A.R. Rahman, this is the turning point in his life. Once Rahman’s sister was very ill, at that time his Muslim friend suggested to pray in a particular mosque, he did that, his sister was recovered. This is the reason the entire family converted to Islam.
In 1987, he started advertising and also composed more than 300 jingles. In 1989, he started Panchathan Record Inn, it is a small studio which later developed into one of the advanced sound recording and well-equipped studio. In an advertising function Rahman met a prominent director Mani Ratnam, while talking with him he offered a chance to compose music for his Tamil film Roja at mere Rs. 25,000. This movie was a smash hit, from this success Rahman’s career started scaling up.
He started composing many films in Tamil and Hindi industry, Rangeela (1995). The massive success of his first Hindi project was followed by Bombay (1995), Dil Se (1998), Taal (1999), Zubeidaa (2001) and Lagaan (2001), which was nominated for best foreign-language film at the 2002 Academy Awards.
On 23rd February 2009 A.R. Rahman created a history with Two Oscars for Best Original score and Best Original song for Slumdog Millionaire.
A.R. Rahman’s Family:
A.R. Rahman married Saira Banu on March 12, 1995. He was married at the age of 27. Mrs. Saira Rahman is a daughter of a businessman and also sister-in-law of the Tamil actor Rahman. It was an arranged marriage. A.R. Rahman and Saira Rahman are blessed with three kids (two daughters and one son). His daughters are Kathija and Raheema. His son is Roomi who was born on 6th January 2002 (Rahman was born on 6th January 1966). His sisters Raihana, Talath and Israth are professional musicians. Music director G.V. Prakash is A.R.Rahman nephew.
A.R. Rahman lives in a joint family with his wife Saira Banu, his three sisters (Raihana, Talath and Israth), his mother Kareema Begum and his three kids.
