Surely any space is too limited to describe the musical wonder that is A. R. Rahman. Rahman is primarily known as a music composer and producer for movies in India and thereafter, singer-songwriter, musician, composer/producer for Indian movies and international too. While he has attained a lot of awards on home ground, Rahman has also bagged worldwide recognition and awards, including the coveted Academy Awards, Grammy Awards, BAFTA and Golden Globe for a number of soundtracks he has produced for Hollywood films. One may assume his main genre would be classical, movie scores or ‘typical Bollywood’, however his study of music and love for technology has allowed him to master and even harmonize several genres of music ranging from world music, jazz, electronic to pop, while fusing in Indian classical.
His first compositions were for documentaries and advertisement jingles, but his first foray into film came in 1992 when he produced the score for the film Roja, winning the National Film Award for Best Music Direction, the Filmfare Award for Best Music Director and a listing in TIME’s 10 Best Soundtracks in the process.
Since then, A.R. Rahman has gone on to produce music for countless movies and has picked up numerous award for his work. Amongst his winnings, he has won two Academy Awards (for his work on Slumdog Millionaire) out of a total of 5 nominations, one Golden Globe, two Grammys and four National Film Awards.
Rahman’s film scores have gone on to sell more than 150 million copies and over 200 million cassettes, making him one of the world’s best-selling artists of all time. A.R. Rahman has travelled the world performing at numerous concerts and has collaborated with a plethora of A-list artists in his career and is widely regarded as one of the greatest composers of our generation.
Born in Chennai (formerly known as Madras), Rahman was given the title “Mozart of Madras” for his musical genius and his contribution to the art – be it for the Indian film industry or the advancement of technology in music production. Such is his passion for creation that he is known to bring his full production including instruments, musicians and orchestra to all of his gigs, instead of sourcing anything locally like most musicians do these days. And hence this would make for such rich an experience at any of his concerts, whether 20 years ago or even today.
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