A.R. Rahman (born January 6, 1967, Madras [now Chennai], India) is an acclaimed Indian composer, singer-songwriter, and music producer whose artistry and extensive body of work for film and stage earned him the nickname “the Mozart of Madras.” He has received numerous accolades, including two Academy Awards (2009), a Golden Globe (2009), and two Grammy Awards (2010), as well as the Padma Shri (2000) and Padma Bhushan (2010), two of the highest civilian honors in India.

Early life and interest in music

Rahman was born as A.S. Dileep Kumar to a Tamil family. His father, R.K. Sekhar, was a prominent musician who composed scores for the Malayalam film industry, and Rahman began studying piano at age four. Sekhar died when Rahman was nine years old, and within the next few years Rahman was playing piano professionally to help support his family. He dropped out of school but later received a qualification in Western classical music through Trinity College, London. In his early 20s Rahman, along with his family, converted to Islam, and he then adopted the name by which he is now known.

Debut soundtrack and rise to fame

Rahman created advertisement jingles before he debuted as a music composer for films. In 1991, while at a ceremony to receive an award for his work on a coffee advertisement, Rahman met film director Mani Ratnam, who persuaded him to write music for motion pictures. Their first project was the Tamil film Roja (1992), which was subsequently dubbed in multiple languages, including Hindi. Roja resulted in Rahman’s first film soundtrack hit and fetched him his first National Film Award and Filmfare Award South, both for best music direction. The soundtrack—which includes the melodies “Chinna Chinna Aasai” (“Small Hopes”) and “Pudhu Vellai Mazhai” (“New White Rain”), the patriotic song “Thamizha Thamizha” (“Tamil Tamil”), and the more upbeat “Rukkumani Rukkumani”—showcased Rahman’s ability to navigate a versatile range of musical styles and genres. The Hindi version of Roja featured the songs translated from Tamil, which brought Rahman to national attention. Following the success of Roja, Ratnam and Rahman collaborated on several other productions through the decades, such as Dil Se… (1998; “From the Heart”), Alaipayuthey (2000; Flowing Waves), Guru (2007), and O Kadhal Kanmani (2015; “Oh, My Love”).

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Throughout the 1990s Rahman composed music for such popular Tamil films as Thiruda Thiruda (1993; “Thief! Thief!”) and Bombay (1995). As with Roja, both films were dubbed in Hindi and featured translated songs. The 1995 blockbuster Rangeela (“Colorful”) marked Rahman’s first score for a Hindi film not dubbed from Tamil. The film featured such popular tracks as “Hai Rama” (“Oh, Rama”) and “Rangeela Re” (“Colorful One”). Rahman subsequently created music for more Hindi films, such as Daud: Fun on the Run (1997; “Race: Fun on the Run”), Doli Saja Ke Rakhna (1998; “Keep Your Palanquin Decorated”), and Taal (1999; “Rhythm”). His 1997 album Vande Mataram, released in commemoration of the 50th anniversary of Indian independence, found massive commercial success.

More Bollywood hits and international projects

Rahman composed the soundtrack for Lagaan (2001; “Land Tax”), only the third Indian movie ever nominated for the Academy Award for best foreign-language film. The soundtrack, which includes such popular songs such as the classical “Ghanan Ghanan” (“Thundering”) and the folk-inspired “Radha Kaise Na Jale” (“How Can Radha Not Feel Jealous?”), is considered one of Rahman’s best works. His other notable Bollywood credits from the 2000s include Saathiya (2002; “Companion”), Rang De Basanti (2006; “Paint Me Saffron”), Jodhaa Akbar (2008), and Delhi-6 (2009).

In 2002, working with lyricist Don Black, Rahman composed the score for Andrew Lloyd Webber’s stage musical Bombay Dreams, a colorful romance inspired by Bollywood films. His next stage project, a musical version of The Lord of the Rings, premiered in Toronto in 2006. He also contributed a song—one of Rahman’s very popular tracks, “Chaiyya Chiayya” from the movie Dil Se…—to the soundtrack of Spike Lee’s Inside Man (2006) and cowrote the score for Shekhar Kapur’s Elizabeth: The Golden Age (2007).

Rahman’s true breakthrough to Western audiences came with Danny Boyle’s rags-to-riches saga Slumdog Millionaire (2008). Rahman’s score, which captured the frenzied pace of life in Mumbai’s underclass, dominated the awards circuit in 2009. He collected a BAFTA Award for best music as well as a Golden Globe and an Academy Award for best score. He and lyricist Gulzar also shared the Academy Award for best song for “Jai Ho,” a dance track that accompanied the film’s closing Bollywood-style dance number. Rahman’s streak continued at the Grammy Awards in 2010, where he collected the prize for best soundtrack and “Jai Ho” was again honored as best song appearing on a soundtrack.

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Later work

In 2010 Rahman scored the film 127 Hours, for which he received nominations for a BAFTA (original music), a Golden Globe (best original score for a motion picture), and two Oscars (best original score and best original song). He also scored The Hundred-Foot Journey (2014) and Million Dollar Arm (2014). He worked on the Hindi movies Rockstar (2011), Raanjhanaa (2013; “Beloved”), Highway (2014), and Beyond the Clouds (2017). In addition, he scored the biopic Pelé: Birth of a Legend (2016). He later wrote the music for the British film Blinded by the Light (2019), about a British Pakistani student who is inspired by the music of Bruce Springsteen, as well as the Tamil film 2.0 (2018) and the popular Bigil (2019; “Whistle”). His more recent credits include the Tamil films Ponniyin Selvan: Part One (2022; “Son of Ponni: Part One”) and Ponniyin Selvan: Part Two (2023), also called PS 1 and PS 2, respectively; the Malayalam film Aadujeevitham (2024; The Goat Life); and the Bollywood films Amar Singh Chamkila (2024) and Chhaava (2025).