Oscar Nayagan !

> Allah Rakha Rahman better known as AR Rahman was born as AS Dileep Kumar.

> Rahman was born in Chennai in 1966 to a musically affluent Mudaliar Tamil family. His father R K Shekhar, was a Chennai based composer and conductor for Malayalam films.

> Rahman lost his father at a young age and his family rented out musical equipment as a source of income. He was raised by his mother Kareema (Kashturi).

> Rahman is the founder of the Chennai-based rock group, "Nemesis Avenue". He played the keyboard and piano, the synthesizer, the harmonium and the guitar. His curiosity in the synthesizer, in particular increased because, he says, it was the "ideal combination of music and technology".

> During these formative years, Rahman served as a keyboard player and an arranger in bands such as "Roots", with childhood friend and percussionist Sivamani, John Anthony, Suresh Peters, JoJo and Raja.

> He began early training in music under Master Dhanraj. At the age of 11, he joined, as a keyboardist, the troupe of Ilaiyaraaja, one of many composers to whom musical instruments belonging to Rahman's father were rented. Rahman later played in the orchestra of M S Viswanathan Ramesh Naidu and Raj Koti, accompanied Zakir Hussain, Kunnakudi Vaidyanathan and L. Shankar on world tours and obtained a scholarship to the Trinity College of Music where he graduated with a degree in Western classical music.

> He is married to Saira Banu and has three children, Khadijah, Rahima, and Aameen. Rahman has always kept his kids away from the media glare.

> Rahman had become an atheist as a result of childhood struggles, but eventually converted to Islam in 1989, the religion of his mother's family. He is very devoted to his mother. During the Oscar Award also he paid her a tribute saying: "There is a Hindi dialogue 'mere pass ma hai' which means even if I have got nothing I have my mother here."

> In 1992, he was approached by film director Mani Ratnam to compose the score and soundtrack for Ratnam's Tamil film Roja. The debut led Rahman to receive the Rajat Kamal award for Best Music Director at the National Film Awards, the first time ever by a debutant film composer.

> Rahman has since then gone on to win the award three more times (for his scores for Minsaara Kanavu (Tamil) in 1997, Lagaan in 2002, Kannathil Muthamittal (Tamil) in 2003, the most ever by any composer.

> Roja's score met with high sales and acclaim, in its original and dubbed versions, bringing about a marked change in film music at the time, and Rahman followed this with successful scores for Tamil–language films of the Chennai film industry including Ratnam's politically charged Bombay, the urbanite Kadhalan, Bharathiraaja's Karuththamma, the saxophonic Duet, Indira, and the romantic comedies Mr Romeo and Love Birds, which gained him considerable notice.

> His fanbase in Japan increased with Muthu's success there. His soundtracks gained him recognition in the Tamil Nadu film industry and across the world for his stylistic versatality in his pieces including in Western classical, Carnatic, Tamil traditional/folk, jazz, reggae and rock music

> Rahman has worked with poets and lyricists such as Javed Akhtar, Gulzar,Anand Bakshi, PK Mishra, Mehboob, Vairamuthu and Vaali.

> His compositions have been reused in scores within India and have made appearances in Inside Man, Lord of War, Divine Intervention and The Accidental Husband.

> In the United States, the soundtrack topped the Dance/Electronic Albums chart and reached Number 4 on the Billboard 200 chart.

> Rahman, in a career spanning over a decade, has sold more than 100 million records of his film scores and soundtracks worldwide and sold over 200 million cassettes, making him one of the world's all-time top selling recording artists. Time magazine referred to him as the "Mozart of Madras" and several Tamil commentators have coined him the nickname Isai Puyal which means "Music Storm".