A. R. Rahman

A. R. Rahman is an Indian composer, singer and songwriter, nicknamed Isai Puyal ("Musical Storm") and "the Mozart of Madras". ^{1 2} Born a Hindu, he converted to Islam with his family in 1989, and his music — for Roja, Lagaan and Slumdog Millionaire among hundreds of films — made him India's most honoured film composer, with two Academy Awards and two Grammy Awards. ^{1 2} His birth year is given as 1967 by the English article and Britannica, the date followed here, while Wikidata's preferred claim is 1966, with 1967 deprecated; the conflict is recorded in his data record. ^{1 2 3}

He was born A. S. Dileep Kumar on 6 January 1967 in Madras, now Chennai. ^{2 1} His father R. K. Shekhar was a composer for Malayalam films — Britannica spells the name Sekhar — and died when Rahman was nine. ^{1 2} His mother Kareema, born Kashturi, raised the family in straitened circumstances after his father's death. ¹ He began the piano at four, later played professionally to help support the family, and worked as a keyboardist and arranger for composers including Ilaiyaraaja. ^{2 1} He trained under Master Dhanraj and took a diploma in Western classical music from Trinity College of Music. ¹

The English article tells the family's turn to Islam in these terms: Rahman was introduced to the Qadiri tariqa when his younger sister was seriously ill in 1984, Sufism influenced his mother, who was a practising Hindu, and eventually his family, and at the age of twenty-three, in 1989, he converted to Islam with them. ¹ His new name was formed from suggestions made through a Hindu astrologer — "Abdul Rahman" and "Abdul Rahim" — to which his mother added "Allah Rakha" after a dream. ¹ Britannica corroborates the conversion itself, saying that in his early twenties Rahman, along with his family, converted to Islam and adopted the name by which he is now known. ² The Urdu article tells the turn differently, through the boy's own recurring illness and his mother's vow at a pir's shrine, after which the household entered Islam; it is an independent telling, not a translation of the English one. ⁴ The Urdu article also has a dedicated section on Sufism stating that Rahman believes in Sufism, visits the shrines of pirs and saints, and is a devotee (murid) of the Pakistani qawwali singer Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, and that he once acknowledged the spirituality in his music to be a gift of the saints. ⁴ On these two independent attestations — the English article naming the Qadiri tariqa, the Urdu article naming Sufism itself — this museum records his orientation as Sufi; no source names a legal school for him. ^{1 4}

He began in advertising jingles, among them campaigns for Allwyn and Titan, and in 1992 he founded his own studio, Panchathan Record Inn. ¹ The director Mani Ratnam gave him his first film, Roja (1992), and its score won him a National Film Award and changed the sound of Indian film music. ^{1 2} There followed Bombay, Rangeela, Dil Se.. — whose "Chaiyya Chaiyya" the English article links to Sufi mysticism — Taal and Lagaan. ¹ In 2002 Andrew Lloyd Webber commissioned his stage musical Bombay Dreams. ^{1 2}

For Danny Boyle's Slumdog Millionaire (2008) he won two Academy Awards — for the score, and for the song "Jai Ho", shared with the lyricist Gulzar — together with a Golden Globe, a BAFTA and, in 2010, two Grammy Awards. ^{1 2} Couples Retreat (2009) was his first Hollywood film, and he scored 127 Hours in 2010. ¹ India honoured him with the Padma Shri in 2000 and the Padma Bhushan in 2010, and the English article counts seven National Film Awards in his name. ^{2 1} TIME placed him in its 100 most influential people in 2009, and the English article estimates his record sales at some 150 million, an estimate recorded as the article's own. ¹

In 2008 he founded the KM Music Conservatory in Chennai, and in 2009 the Sunshine Orchestra, which trains underprivileged children in music. ¹ He became an ambassador for the Stop TB Partnership in 2004. ¹ His honorary doctorates include Berklee College of Music (2014) and Aligarh Muslim University, and a street in Markham, Ontario, was named for him in 2013. ¹ His directorial debut, the virtual-reality film Le Musk, came in 2017. ¹

He married Saira Banu in 1995, and they have three children, Khatija, Raheema and Ameen. ¹ In November 2024 the couple announced their separation. ¹

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