A.R.

Rahman

Composer Extraordinaire

The Complete Biography of A.R.Rahman

The continuing saga of the genius par excellence

Table of Contents

-----------------------------------------------------------------------
---------

Introduction The Year - 1996

Prologue The Man Behind the Music
Background The Year - 1997
People-Speak The Year - 1998
Early Days The Year - 1999
The Year - 1992 The Year - 2000
The Year - 1993 The Year - 2001
The Year - 1994 The Year - 2002
The Year - 1995 Epilogue

INTRODUCTION:
The name A.R.Rahman needs no introduction. The man who redefined
contemporary Indian music and is the pride of the entire nation and an
idol
for millions all over the world needs no preamble. But if you happen
to
be one, still among the few unfortunate souls, who are a stranger to
him and his heavenly music, then read on.

PROLOGUE:
The year was 1991. Ace Tamil movie director Mani Ratnam was on the
lookout for a new composer to give music for his films. His long
standing
fruitful association with the doyen of Tamil film music Illaiyaraja,
which had spanned over 10 films and as many years had come to an end
when
the two had had a fallout after the latter reportedly made some
sarcastic comments during the making of Mani Ratnam's then latest film
'Dalapati'. One day, at an awards function for excellence in the
field of
advertising, Mani Ratnam chanced upon a young man who received the
award
for the best ad jingle which he had composed for the popular Leo Coffee
ad. At the celebrations party that followed the awards presentation
ceremony, Mani Ratnam was introduced to the young composer by his
cousin
Sharada Trilok of Trish Productions for whose company the young man had
produced some outstanding work. Sharada had words of high praise for
the young composer. Mani was curious and requested him for a sample of
his wares. The composer readily complied and invited the director over
to
his studio. Mani Ratnam turned up at the studio only after six months,
where the 24 year old lad played out a tune that he had been pushed
into composing by his school friend G.Bharat alias Bala when they both
had
been greatly disturbed by the socio-political tensions in South India
over the Cauvery river waters issue. Listening to the tune that was
played, Mani was hooked instantly. Without a second thought he signed
on
the composer to score the music for his next film. That film did not
work
out but Mani signed him on for a new film which was to be produced by
the veteran Tamil director K.Balachander for his respected
'Kavithalayaa' banner. That film was 'Roja'. That tune would become the
song
"Tamizha Tamizha" in 'Roja'. The music of the film would be a
phenomenal
success that would revolutionise modern day Indian film music. The name
of
the 25-year old composer was A. R. Rahman. And the rest, as they say,
is
history.

Cut to the year 1998. Mani Ratnam's then latest film, his first in
Hindi and his fifth with Rahman, 'Dil Se..' hit the screens. The movie
all
but bombed in India. But the music, yet again was a resounding
success. The music sold like hot cakes even six months after it was
released
in the market. In a recession hit Indian Film industry, the two biggest
hits of the year, 'Pyar Kiya To Darna Kya' and 'Ghulam' had sold 2
million cassettes each. Such was the confidence of the music company,
Venus, in the Rahman-Ratnam combination that they started with an
unprecedented initial run of 2 million cassettes, then notched up sales
of 6
million and are still going strong. It even successfully survived the
onslaught of what later became the year's biggest hit, Kuch Kuch Hota
Hai.
So much so, that just on the strength of its music, Dil Se.. succeeded
in gaining the distinction of being the first Asian film to enter the
U.K. Top 10. Moviegoers in London said that it is the music that drew
them to the movie halls. Such is the spell that the music from the
Rahman-Ratnam combination has cast over music lovers.

The Rahman-Ratnam combination forged six years ago is now five films
strong and has given the world of Indian films some of its best music.
The combination has taken music to new heights that has succeeded in
captivating millions of listeners not just across India but even in far
flung corners of the world. Rahman says about his mentor, "I was
blessed
to be picked by a director like him. He encouraged me a lot. It was as
if I studied in Mani's own university of music. He is like a brother to
me."

BACKGROUND:
Going back in History, the following question arises. Six years ago,
who listened to Tamil music? Only Tamilians. Five years ago, what did
teenagers dance to at discotheques? What else but Michael Jackson,
Dr.Alban or the latest Western dance hit of the day. But one man
singlehandedly changed all that. With his universally appealing tunes,
A.R.Rahman
has demolished all conventional rules in Indian film music. He amazes
with the manner in which he seamlessly integrates traditionally
incompatible harmonies. If anyone can make a perfect potpourri of the
latest
dancehall rhythms, electro-pop, Latin melodies, Western and Indian
classical and pepper it all with a local folk touch or even something
as
otherworldly as Reggae and serve it all in a contemporary Indian manner
that
mesmerises listeners, it is A.R.Rahman. His music transcends all
barriers - geographic, age or linguistic. Everyone from 6 to 60,
Kashmir to
Kanyakumari, as the cliché goes, are fans of his music. He was the
first
to successfully and solidly bridge the gap across the Vindhyas with
Hindi speaking denizens who did not understand one word of Tamil
enthusiastically lapping up his music. He gave film music a trendy
legitimacy, a
legitimacy that made Indian youth who were till then ashamed of
admitting in public that they enjoyed Indian film music, dance to Humma
Humma,
Muqabla Muqabla, Musthafa Musthafa and Chaiyya Chaiyya at every pub,
club and disco. Overnight, Indian film music considered 'infra-dig' by
the youth became 'cool' and 'hep'. All in all, quite arguably, no one
has
influenced Indian music as much as Rahman has in recent times.

He is the man who helped south Indian cinema go national in a way that
was considered impossible even a decade ago. He bridged the gap between
Tamil (and even Telugu on occasion) and Hindi with that most universal
of all languages: music. Predictably Rahman would later say "I hate the
discrimination between south, north, Tamil, Hindi. If I represent India
that is good enough for me. But we should cross all these barriers."
Rahman did more: he made, to use film industry jargon, music a
territory
in its own right. Thus, the soundtrack of each movie was sold as if it
were a separate entity from the film itself. And as if to prove him
right, his music assumed a life of its own, flying off the shelves at
record speed even when the film in question bombed at the boxoffice.

Rahman's strength lies not only in his perfect sense of melody and
rhythm but also in his immaculate sound engineering. His music has been
hailed as that of the digital age and has also been assailed for the
very
same reason. His music can never be adequately described in words. One
has to personally experience the pleasure of his creations. Many of his
compositions might actually sound ordinary the first time. But his
music has this amazing capacity to grow on you and establish a firm
hold on
the listener. His compositions are an intriguing cocktail of musical
pieces that literally blow your mind. His music is unique in its
offbeat
instrumental interludes, unconventional harmonies, and use of far from
perfect voices and thumping rhythms.

PEOPLE-SPEAK:
Says Gangai Amaran, well known South-Indian composer-singer and brother
of Ilaiyaraja, "Rahman's music is of the computer age. It is digital
but intelligent, not just noise. He concentrates on his melodies and
has
not totally deviated from Carnatic traditions". Noted director and
lyricist Gulzar says "He is a milestone in Hindi film music. He has
single-handedly changed the sound of music in the movies. He has broken
the
mukhda-antara-mukhda scheme of composition and replaced the traditional
patterns of tuning. He can tune to a near identical rhythm in two
different songs. But these songs will still catch the listener off
guard even
when played immediately after each other. Instead of having the fixed
format, the song can also run like free verse with his kind of music."

One very interesting aspect of Rahman is his preference for untrained

voices. Rahman says ".. a defect in the singing adds a human touch."
His
close friend and arranger-composer Ranjit Barot adds "In the Hindi
music industry, if Kumar Sanu or Udit Narayan don't turn up, the music
director starts panicking. But Rahman would probably look around the
studio
and experiment with some unknown and untrained voice." He goes on to
add, "The man is a whiz coz he eats, breathes and sleeps music. AR
Rahman has revolutionised the Hindi film music. Before we did Humma
Humma
for Bombay, the two of us composed jingles together. Rahman's USP is
his
ability to combine slickness with melody. The songs from Roja still
haunt me. Few can make a successful transition from doing 30-sec
jingles
to 5 min songs. He's a genius." Bollywood movie mogul Subhash Ghai
says
of Rahman "Rahman is the biggest representative of Indian music. He is
an example for future generations. He is the best fusion of art and
science in music". One of his favourite directors Ramgopal Varma says,"
It
is a challenge to picturise songs set to Rahman's music." His erstwhile
competitors Nadeem-Shravan say, "The most amazing quality about Rahman
is that he has been able to create a 'national sound' which in spite of
his strong south-Indian feel appeals to a pan-Indian audience".
Composers Jatin-Lalit say, "He totally changed the sound of Indian film
music."

Internationally acclaimed Indian Tabalchi Ustad Zakir Hussain

reminiscing about the time when Rahman played the keyboard along with
violinist
Kunnakudi Vaidyanathan and drummer Sivamani, on the album 'Colours'
says, "He was barely 19 years old then but had mastered many different
styles of music - western classical, jazz, rock and Carnatic. Even
after
his work was done he would stay in the studio, sitting through other
musicians' pieces, eyes and ears tuned in, constantly imbibing. Very
intelligent, smart and creative. He started as a young boy working with
great composers like K V Mahadevan, for example. He knows the public
pulse
and has given the public a very intelligent combination package. This
reminds me of R D Burman. These guys made it possible to bring together
all elements of world music."

Singer Lata Mangeshkar, known as the 'Nightingale of India' with whom

Rahman worked for the first time in Maniratnam's 'Dil Se' and later in
'Pukar', 'Zubeidaa', 'Lagaan', 'Water' and '1 2 ka 4', is all praise
for
him, " Rahman is known to record only during the night time. But he
records with me during the daytime... when my voice is fresh. I don't
like
recording at night. And I've heard that Rahman records mostly in the
night. But he made an exception for me. When an artiste shows such
consideration for another artiste, it feels good. Aur kaam bhi achha
hota
hai. (Even the work done is good), Rahman doesn't take long over his
recordings. Jiya jale was recorded in 40 minutes." Singer Srinivas,
whose
career best numbers have been with Rahman is totally impressed with
Rahman's dedication to music and says, " He's totally absorbed in his
music
and there's nothing else that affects him. For him music is God. And he
gets the best out of a singer." Says classical turned film singer P.
Unnikrishnan who made his debut with the song 'Ennavale' from
'Kadhalan'
and went on to win the National Award for his very first song, "I have
sung more than 500 songs till date but this first song of mine is
something I will remember and cherish all my life. The most wonderful
thing
is that today ARR is the most sought after Music Director in the whole
country but as a person he has not changed and even today he is the
same calm, composed, humble, committed, unperturbed ARR. Thanks to
Rajiv
Menon for having introduced me to such a wonderful artist." At one time
an assistant to Rahman and today an independent composer in his own
right, Harris Jayaraj remarks "I have learnt many things from many
music
directors. If you single out A.R.Rahman, I can quote his relentless
labour, high enthusiasm, and commitment to the tasks at hand. He would
never compromise on the quality of a song. He is quality-conscious and
individualistic."

Singer Srinivas, whose career best numbers have been with Rahman is
totally impressed with Rahman's dedication to music and says, " He's
totally absorbed in his music and there's nothing else that affects
him. For
him music is God. And he gets the best out of a singer." Reocunting his
experiences he says, "In 1992, in Coimbatore, was when I went to see
Maniratnam's Roja because it was a Maniratnam movie. Dreams of
playback
singing had taken a back seat; I was in Coimbatore and travelling and
didn't know how to approach it now. I was just taken aback by the
freshness of Roja's music. After a long time, I had bought a tamil
film
audio cassette. This new person, Rahman, had introduced so many
singers;
the re-entry of Sujatha, Hariharan , Minmini and Unnimenon.
Immediately, I realized that this person has an attitude towards
introducing new
artists, his music sounds fresh and he was definitely here to stay! On
one of my official trips to Chennai, I got hold of Rahman's address and
went to see him directly. At that time, he was very accessible (he
had just started working on Pudhiya Mugam). He conducted a voice test;
I
sang a Mehdi Hassan ghazal and he liked it. I mentioned that I lived
in Coimbatore and he said that if I moved to Chennai, he might be able
to work with me. By the time I came to Chennai in 1994-95, he had shot
through the roof! The gates had become bigger at Rahman's place . It
was difficult to even get through to his office. With persistance and
a
little bit of luck, I was finally able to see him again. As soon as he
saw me, he remembered. That's Rahman!.. He's human... and he's got GOD
inside him as well! He slowly started giving me singing assignments.
Rahman's approach is totally different which now many people have
started following. For example, Raja Sir has the whole thing in his
mind
from the very beginning. You don't have a
doubt about what you should sing and you better not! (laughs). Two
totally different schools of music. With Rahman, when you go in,
nothing
is ready. He just feeds in some basic chords. When you listen to them
on your headphones, you are transported to some other world. Within
two minutes, he creates a masterpiece of a loop. Those chords are just
magic. You feel like singing so much! He incredibly motivates you
when
singing, which is also the reason why artists (singers and
instrumentalists alike) give him the very best.

Vairamuthu, the lyricist, with whom Rahman shares a special bond

remarks "I am considered to be a great poet, but I don't have any words
to
describe his genius. A.R.Rahman is not a normal music director. He has
some God given gift in him. Otherwise, how can he compose such
soul-stirring numbers? He is a rare pearl in an ocean of music.When one
composes
a song he is always worried as to whether the song will click or not.
But Rahman is one composer who does not care about the commercial
success of the song. He is always confident that if a number is
composed wth
a good heart and self-confidence it will be a big hit. He is like a
younger brother to me. The total submission of his (A.R.Rahman) life
for
the cause of music; his thirst for creating not any chaff but only
grains appeals to me the most!" Another veteran lyricist Vaali says "I
have
been in this field for decades and have seen a lot of music directors
come and go.. But this young boy has held me spellbound! His talent,
energy, enthusiasm is a lesson to all youngsters. He is always
experimenting and is always open to new ideas." Grammy Award winning
instumentalist Pandit Vishwa Mohan Bhatt says "Rahman has a good
understanding of
both Western and Indian classical music. I was asked to play for Mani
Rathnam's film Anandam (renamed "Iruvar") which Rahman has scored. He
has
high regard for others, and gives due respect to other forms of music.
I find Rahman very innovative, and wouldn't mind doing more films with
him."

"Rahman's amazing," drools upcoming composer Vishal Dadlani, "I've

listened to the music of Dil Se.. a hundred times and, each time, I
learn
something new. It is like an encyclopaedia on production." Director
Suresh Krissna with whom he worked on 'Sangamam' and then the Indian
version of 'The Return of the thief of Baghdad', calls him a 'die-hard
perfectionist' and said "Rahman's manner of working sounds very
unusual.
Generally music is composed, lyrics are readied and the recording is
done.
But with Rahman it is not so. Far from it, Rahman composes and mixes
the voice with a basic rhythm track. Then he goes on adding the music
making innovations, inclusions and improvisations till the very last
minute, or rather till the cassette stage itself. At every point the
workaholic in him keeps goading him to feel that 'there should be
something
more to it.' The singer, under Rahman's direction, is given incredible
scope to delve into every conceivable variation and the whole of it is
recorded. This system of working was a revelation for me." Upcoming
lyricist Ilayakamban who is working with Rahman in 'Tenali' says "His
musical ability to confine the whole world's air in his flute; his
glowing
inner peace; the simplicity of a mother is what I saw in him." Singer
Harini, who was discovered by Rahman in a talent search competition
says,
"The best part about singing for Rahman is the freedom he gives the
singer. Even for my first song he let me sing the way I was comfortable
with, eventhough I was a nobody then." "Singing for Rahman was a
wonderful experience. I really enjoyed the song. A R Rahman is a
wonderful,
humble person to work with. A complete workaholic and very involved
with
his music. He is very creative and undoubtedly talented," says singer
Roopkumar Rathod. Singer Abhijeet echoes his thoughts, "It is every
singer’s dream to work with A R Rahman because he makes you feel like
God.
I worked with Rahman for a beautiful song called E Nazneen suno and for
Nayak. Of course, I did get nervous when I had to record with him,
especially since he records at an unearthly hour like three in the
night.
But he makes you feel as if you are AR Rahman and he is just an
ordinary
fellow. Other music directors should learn to be humble like him.
Today’s music directors do not respect their singers. If one singer is
not
around they replace them with another. Also, they demoralise you when
you are in front of the mike."

Director Shankar, again a favourite with Rahman - having worked with

him on on some of his earliest films like 'Gentleman' 'Kadhalan' and
later 'Indian' 'Jeans', 'Mudhalvan' 'Nayak' and 'Robot', has only
praises
for him, "A.R.Rahman - the name speaks for itself. He knows what clicks
and what does not. He composes music according to the demand of the
situation. He slogs so much to see that a song is good. He does not
want
to give anyone in the world the chance to tell him that his
compositions
are bad. What I like best in Rahman is his fighting spirit and 'never
say die attitude' ." World famous guitarist, Jeremy Spencer ,formerly
of
Fleetwood Mac says 'The only contemporary Indian composer I know of and
like is A.R.Rahman. His 'Vandemataram' was brilliant'. Lyricist
Mehboob, who made his debut in 'Rangeela' and later penned Maa Tujhe
Salaam
cannot stop singing the praises of Rahman, "If there is one person whom
I
revere after God, our prophet, and my family then it is Mr. AR Rahman.
He is like a brother to me. I adore him so much that I have no words to
describe my feelings for this gentleman." The veteran director Shyam
Benegal who shifted from his long time regular, the equally veteran
Vanraj Bhatia, to Rahman, for the film Zubeidaa says, ', I admire three
things about Rahman. Among the young composers he probably is the most
original. He has a strong sense of melody and his harmony is
unbeatable.
Finally he gives his music a rich tonal color, richness through his
combination of instruments, a character to the music.'

Shankar, Ehsaan and Loy, the composer trio can't stop raving about
Rahman. Says Loy Mendonsa, "Rahman is a great musician, a great human
being, his music is fresh, and honest. That's very important, writing
something from the heart". Adds Ehsaan Noorani, "A R Rahman is my
favorite,
he's a genius, his personality reflects in his music, it's fantastic,
his music is so pure, it's from the soul." And finally Shankar
Mahadevan,
"A R Rahman is my favourite because he's a genius, he knows exactly
what he's doing, he's very well versed in classical as well as western
jazz, all kinds of stuff. And he's open minded."

Director Bharathiraaja, known for his movies with rural themes - the
ones with Rahman being 'Kizhakku Cheemayile', 'Karuthamma',
'Anthimanthaarai' and 'Taj Mahal' - and once an Illaiyaraja regular
remarks
"Illaiyaraja is a born genius. I wanted a change and that's why I
shifted to
Rahman. There is something in his music that intoxicates you. You work
with him once and you will never want to work with anyone else after
that." Veteran singer Chitra says "I have worked with all the music
directors in the south before Rahman came in. When I sang for him the
first
time I found that I was doing something really different from what I
had
done before. I like Rahman, the music director. But I like Rahman the
person even more. I don't how he manages to keep his feet firmly on the
ground even after tasting so much success in this field. He is the only
Indian composer whose stuff stands out." Says director Rajeev Menon
"He'll remain my only choice and preference. He's part of my family.
We've
been working together for the past 14 years. In fact he was the one who
got me into filmmaking, while I called him for a lot of my advertising
assignments." Acclaimed singer Yesudas says, 'He is a genius musician
knowing the psychology of youth.' Veteran singer Manna Dey remarks "I
do not think too much of today's melodies. I do admire A.R.Rahman, for
he is a master of rhythm. He is extremely experimental, and leaves no
stone unturned in trying out new things."

Composer Vishal Bharadwaj opines "A. R. Rahman has elevated the quality
of film music to an international level. When you hear Michael Jackson
and Rahman at one go, you can't tell the difference in sound quality.
Rahman is a terrific composer. He is a genius." Says old friend and
singer Suresh Peters, "I was a drummer, not a singer and Rahman was a
keyboard player. Both of us were working in a band called `Nemesis
Avenue'.
He was a very talented composer earlier itself, but everything happens
only when the time comes. He started composing jingles and they started
clicking. He was then signed on by Mani Ratnam and then there has been
no looking back. I appreciate Rahman's sense of arrangement. No one
can teach Rahman how a song should be composed. He is aware of all the
latest in sound techniques. He knows what will appeal to people and
what
will not. He is very versatile and different from one film to the
other. As long as he does not repeat himself, nothing can stop him from
reaching the top ." Independent composer, rhythm programmer and close
associate of Rahman, Pravin mani says, "...Rahman gives a lot of
freedom to
his technicians and all those-involved with him, while working.
Moreover, he is extraordinarily creative. Rahman is the greatest person
i have
ever-seen in my life. He is really a humble person. though he has risen
to very high levels, yet he is the same person and behaves the same way
as he used to do in his earlier days, mingles freely ..., and that
shows his greatness."
Singer Kavita Krishnamurthy, a Rahman favourite says "It's such a
pleasure to sing for A. R. Rahman. He's such a simple guy. He has no
ego
hang-ups." Singer Sadhana Sargam, another Hindi singer whom Rahman
prefers
over many established singers, says "When Rehman calls you go without
asking questions because you know it's going to be worth it.He's a
reserved person and talks very little but he makes you give your best.
He
keeps a cassette ready wherein he has sung the song himself and
listening
to it makes your work so much easier, he allows any number of retakes.
If you've sung half a line beautifully and haven't sustained that in
the other half, he'll retain that half and make you work on the other
half. The result is magnificent. . And Rehman makes his pleasure very
evident when he likes something you've done... then he won't even be
shy."

Veteran singer Asha Bhonsle whose career got a revival when she sang
for Rahman in 'Rangeela', says, "He understands the youth of today, he
has brought about a freshness, a new sound to film music. He's always
experimenting, doing something different which is very inspiring for
the
playback singer." New age Singer-Composer and a close friend of Rahman,
Shankar Mahadevan says "I think A.R.Rahman is an absolute genius and is
one of the few music directors who completely knows what he is doing.
It's an absolute pleasure working with him as he is a cool and modest
guy." Noted Sarod maestro Amjad Ali Khan says, "Wonderful! He has a new
approach, he has given a new direction to film music. I think even the
established music directors want to sound like him. Perhaps all his
songs won't be remembered and hummed after decades. But for the time
being,
Rahman's tunes are extremely enjoyable." Veteran singer S. P.
Balasubramanium says "The man responsible for the variety in today's
music is A.
R. Rahman." Hema Sardesai who shot into fame when she sang Aawara
Bhanwre in 'Sapnay' is effusive in her praise for Rahman, "When Rajiv
Menon
recommended me to A.R. Rahman, he never gave a second thought and
called me over the phone to be in Madras the next day for the
recording.
Even though I was on cloud nine, deep down I was feeling as if somebody
had pulled a trick on me. God has been great! He came into my life as
Rahman sir." ONe of his blue eyed boys, singer Sukhvinder Singh says "A
R
Rahman not only gave me the break (in Dil Se), he taught me a lot of
techniques in composing music arrangement and recording. He was the one
to impress upon the need to be technically perfect before any producer
could be expected to invest in you." Composers Anand-Milind say, "He is
the only composer to have brought in something new all by himself in a
long long time." Says Ehsaan of the Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy trio ""A. R.
Rahman is the best! He is a genius and a wonderful human being and it
translates in his music."

Popular drummer Sivamani, a childhood friend of Rahman and a

professional regular with him, says "Our association began when we both
were
really young. We had this band called Roots. We just make very good
music
together. He is a master of laya(melody) and taala(beat). The
recognition that I enjoy today is because of Rahman. There are so many
talented
people behind a film music score. I played for Illayaraja for very
long,
but my name never figured on the screen or the cassette cover. Rahman
changed it all. He gives credit to every single member of his team for
whatever part they play, big or small. That makes him really special.
People came to know about me only because of him. I thank him for
that."
Javed Akhtar, noted lyricist, says "I think he is an all rounder, I
mean his grounding is very very solid. He knows Indian classical music,
he
is in touch with Indian folk music, he knows about western music and he
has really studied western classical also. He knows about Middle
Eastern music. So there is no wonder you see different colours in his
songs.
But Indian music has borrowed albeit being influenced by Middle Eastern
music in past also. But, you see, when Rahman takes a raag or if he
takes a folk tune, or if he takes notes of say Arabian music or South
American music. When this music comes to Rahman, it becomes Rahman's
music
his influences are beyond film music and he has a kind of courage where
he is not afraid to experiment, he is not afraid to fail and that is
why he succeeds. We remember only those people who were not only
successful but they have brought something to the arena that is new.
Now this
is a another leap, a quantum leap that Rahman has taken and he has
given
a kind of new sensibility to Indian music listener and the music maker.
The sound, the orchestration, the very structure of the song. He has
challenged the basic structure of Indian film song and he has altered
it,
changed it. And, I think his contribution is totally unprecedented.
Successful people come and go. Ultimately it's the pathbreakers who're
remembered with the passage of time. People who have walked on
untrodden
roads. Success is worshipped momentarily, and then forgotten. It's not
enough to be successful. It's important to attempt something new.
Rahman's contribution to film music will never be forgotten. He has
given a
new dimension and understanding to sound. Working with him is
definitely
a great pleasure. I get along very well with him. He is one person who
is only interested in his work. Inspite of his stupendous success, he
is so humble and down-to-earth."

Says composer and former Rahman associate Sandeep Chowta, known as 'The
poor man's Rahman', "Rahman revolutionised sound. He's a trend-setter
in more ways than one. The only thing common between us is the fact
that
we started out in advertising and moved on to films. There's just no
comparison otherwise. Rahman is a legend of sorts. Rahman is unique. He
doesn't have set ragas. Yet his chord progressions are beautiful.
People
sometimes compare me to A R Rahman, it happens. People like Lata
Mangeshkar, Asha Bhosle and even Andrew Lloyd Webber have paid tribute
to him
and called him a legend. I can't even begin to fathom the reasons for
the comparison. He's in another zone altogether, he is amazingly
brilliant. If people compare me to him, I'd take it as a compliment. "
Bhupen
Hazarika, the legendary Assamese composer with whom Rahman worked on
'Desh Ka Salaam', opines, "People become immediately entranced by
whatever Rahman composes. He is a phenomenon. He's young and talented.
And he
has his fingers on the pulse of the new generation. Like Salil
Chowdhary he knows both western and Indian music styles. He's a great
talent
but his talent shouldn't be overutilised." Many other noted
personalities
like lyricist Javed Akhtar, actress-parlimentarian-social worker
Shabana Azmi, actress Sridevi, singer Shubha Mudgal, classical
instrumentalist-composer Pandit Vishwa Mohan Bhatt(worked with Rahman
on Iruvar and
Alai Paayuthe) have repeatedly expressed their liking for the Rahman
brand of music. Says Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber, the reknowned composer of
musicals, who picked Rahman to score for his musical Bombay Dreams, the
first time an outsider worked on the compositions of an Andrew Lloyd
Webber musical, " I think he has an incredible tone of voice. I have
seen
many Bollywood films, but what he manages to do is quite unique--he
keeps it very much Indian. For me as a Westerner, I can always
recognize
his music because it has got a rule tone of voice of its own. It's very
definitely Indian, yet it has an appeal which will go right across the
world. He will hit the West in an amazing kind of way; that is, if he
is led in the right way. He is the most extraordinary' composer who is
still true to his cultural roots, ' and deserves to be heard by an
international public"

Choreographer Chinni Prakash throws up his hand in mock frustration and

says, "Its challenging to choreograph Rahman's songs. He does not stick
to the conventional four-eight-twelve-sixteen beats. He's
unpredictable. Sometimes, he gives you a two and three-quarters beat.
What do you do
with that?" Ramgopal Varma , who worked with Rahman on Rangeela and
Daud says "There is a bigness in Rahman's music. Every note reflects
the
mood of the song. When I used to hear his music for my film I used to
wonder if I was feeling my story as deeply as he was". "His music has
that international quality which is absolutely stunning," says
international director Douchan Gersi for whose film 'The Return of the
Thief of
Baghdad', Rahman scored the music. Says Pune based music critic Jayanth
Deshpande, "The unique brand of classicism brought into Bollywood music
by A.R.Rahman mirrors not only the variegated tapestry that is India,
but also the global musical culture. Rahman borrows ever so subtly from
American soul or Gospel. He draws generously from rap, disco, folk,
reggae, qawaali, Hindustani and Carnatic in his rhythms. And the vocal
ornaments of Carnatic music or ever present. Orchestral textures and
harmonies typical of Western music often grace the background. His is a
truly international music with a distinctly Indian feel. He has
experimented as perhaps no other Indian composer has before him or does
now. Some
may be tempted to call it Indian fusion music of a highorder. I've
heard his music being used as background in a German TV feature
unrelated
to music or India."
Govind Nihalani who was the first Bollywood director to sign Rahman
says " I am a lover of music. Some years ago a friend of mine gave me a
cassette of 'Roja'. I was amazed after I listened to the songs. I
decided
right away that A.R.Rahman will give the music for atleast one of my
films. Immediately I came to Chennai and spoke to him. He is an
absolute
genius. Very Modern! His range of imagination is expansive. He doesn't
treat his profession as just composing music for films. He is able to
lift a film to a new level with his music. Just as a painter is
identified by his artistic style he is identified by his tunes. Even If
i say I
am satisfied he does not stop. Uncompromising spirit!! I am not saying
this just to praise him. A. R. Rahman is the only composer in India
upto international standards today. In fact I will go so far as to say
that he is a composer of the next millennium. He is not a person who
merely makes tunes. He is someone who creates music. He is constantly
observing the trends and developments in his profession. I believe
that is
also a reason for his success. First , he reads the script and takes
detailed notes of the situations, the mood, and the characterisations.
Sitting before his keyboard in the studio at night he would say, "Give
me
a word!Give me a phrase." And he would work out a rough tune on the
spot. Then he records it with a singer. But the real magic starts when
once he has the song before him on his computer screen. He plays with
it,
takes a phrase from here and puts it there. Block by block, verse by
verse he builds up his song. YOu can see the coloured bits forming
fascinating patterns." He paid the ultimate compliment when he said "
Its
like watching a master sculptor in action."

Ace director Subhash Ghai, with whom he worked on 'Taal' is all praise
for him, "Rahman is the rhythm of 'Taal - The Rhythm'. I wouldn't be
able to make Taal without this remarkable musician, this great soul
who was born to give Hindi music a new life. I am privileged to work
with a man who has been inspired and blessed by God above. I don't mind
changing all my nights into days to work with him. You know this great
man only creates fresh tunes in the night and sleeps during the day.
Rare
man, rare way of working. That's how all great men are. He creates
according to the director's need. He is a widely knowledgeable
composer,
with knowledge of all kinds of music of the world. He can play Western
Symphony with as much ease as Hindustani or Carnatic classical which is
a
very rare quality in composers. Rahman has a strange kind of
spirituality within which he lives. He knows technique, has a rare
sense of sound
and a great ear. He can make any besura (tuneless) voice sing well.
This is obvious from singers who have sung beautifully for his albums
but
have not done well later. I love him both as a composer and as a
friend. He is very sweet to talk to. The only thing is you talk and he
listens. He has a sharp intellect and understands not just the sound of
music
and quality of voice but also the market forces and how to move from
post to post. Rahman is undoubtedly a genius. He's divine and simple. "
Rahman's favourite singer Hariharan says, "His strength is the way he
designs sound. He has revolutionised film music. He is perpetually on a
quest to get the best out of you and makes you feel at ease which is
important. I have sung some of my best songs for him."

Indian-born Canadian director Deepa Mehta with whom Rahman has worked
on 3 films - 'Fire', 'Earth' and 'Water' - says, "Brilliant, I think
he
is the most consummate composer that I know of in the world. His music
comes from the characters and is an extension of them. I think he is
the best.He is the most brilliant film composer in India today and is
in
such demand that he has altered his normal working day to begin at six
in the evening and go through the night, so that he can compose
undisturbed by producers' calls. A.R.R. is a very young man of
prodigious
talent with an immense sensitivity to the film's context and
characters.
Whatever I say about his genius will be stating the obvious. He finds
the
sound for every character in the film. He finds the character's sur.
Raag, rhythm, reggae, folk, classical, he's got it on his finger tips.
He's so cinema literate. He can discuss Ingmar Bergman's Autumn Sonata
and he can talk about Subhash Ghai's Taal, all in one breath." Singer
Alka Yagnik opines "He's a one-man-show. Once he's taught you the song,
he
gives you a free hand. He lets you sing it the way you want to.". Noted
Qawwal, The late Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, who worked with Rahman on
'Vandemataram' said ldquo;The young boy Rahman is the only person with
humility in this entire industryrdquo;. Up and coming composer Ismail
Darbar
who pipped Rahman's 'Taal' to the National Award in 2000 with his score
in 'Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam' is an ardent admirer of Rahman. He says,
"His work speaks volumes. There's no one like him. Which is why I
didn't
mind when he walked away with all the awards for Taal. He's just so
good. When it comes to making electronic music he's the best. I know I
can't even compete with him there." Says another leading Bollywood
composer Anu Malik, "I appreciate A.R's work. He has a penchant for
being
international. I think he is talented. A.R. has taught me the value and
meaning of sound in my recording and thanks to him, today I am my own
arranger."

One of his closest associates, long time friend and sound engineer H.
Sridhar reveals some little known facts of Rahman,"I had known Rahman
many years before I started working with him on Roja. While he was
doing
jingles, we would often meet and compare notes on music trends and
synthesisers. Rahman's biggest asset is that he treats each song as his
first song. He prays before each session. I believe there is some power
in
his God, faith and religion. I can give you countless examples when he
became so inspired after his prayers. He is very open-minded about what
a song needs and gives each song a completely individual taste. It is
the way he soothes you into a song that I call his signature. There is
a
visual texture in his mind when he composes music. When you see the
song picturised you can immediately connect. Rahman allows musicians to
be
themselves. He understands their soul. He also has a fabulous way of
getting notes out of a musician without telling them in so many words.
Rahman never ceases to amaze me. He is such a fine musician apart from
being a music director; his strength is fusion. He is also a
techno-junkie. If you give him a set of headphones he will most
probably rip it
apart to understand why it works so well! I sometimes say that we are
techno-brats. But Rahman knows that a song shouldn't speak the
technical
language but should have soul. Rahman is humble and very generous with
money. He hates to see people suffer. I think his philosophy is that
people should derive happiness from his music, even if it is a sad
tune. He
has this tremendous need to be perfect." Hot shot director of the
bubblegum generation, Karan Johar says "The only music composer from
the
current lot who will be remembered for a long time is A.R.Rahman."

Comments British-based international chart star Apache Indian, who

worked with Rahman on a track for the film 'Love Birds', "He's very
talented as a songwriter and singer. I think he can do great things."
His
mentor and favourite director Mani Ratnam says, "I have found that
Rahman
is a favourite because he is new and above all different. He knows the
pulse of the audience. He has a very good sense of tune. He knows what
kind of orchestration is necessary for a scene and what music suits the
mood of the scene.He has the music in his mind, and uses every musician
as an artiste, probably because he has been an instrumentalist himself.
He tries to extract something extra from every one of his musicians as
well as his playback singers. He believes in their additional input.
Rahman improvises. I found in him a new and different composer who
never
compromises on quality. Rahman is every director’s dream." He has no
ego problems and tries to come out with a new number with the same kind
of passion with which he did the earlier one. But he is best summed up,
perhaps, in the words of Cinematographer-director Rajeev Menon who
worked on many ads and the films 'Minsara Kanavu' and 'Kandukonden
Kandukonden' with him, " Music comes to him instinctively. When you see
him
play, his skill is such that you really believe God exists in his
work."

India's leading newspaper 'The Times of India' carried a feature titled

"Men we regard: Our tribute to the men without whom this world would be
quite, quite insipid" in which it picked Rahman as one of them and
wrote "Music maker A.R.Rahman has given these raucous and raunchy times
melody and mood. His style is individual to the extent of sounding
repetitive sometimes, but when you hear his work, you feel at last the
kind of
involvement with the spell of sound that was R.D.Burman's. What is most
attractive about Rahman's music is his ability to link modern rhythms
and experiments with sound with our enormous legacy of classical and
folk music."

India's leading newsmagazine 'India Today' paid glowing tributes to him

when it published the following lines - "Sometimes a song is just a
tune for a music director, whose rhythm invades you, which you hum in
front of a bathroom mirror that has a warranty never to break.
Sometimes a
song is just an intricately woven lacing of words that embraces you on
a still, lonely night. Sometimes a song is just a voice for a music
director, whose passion makes your hair stand. When A.R. Rahman takes
you
on a journey-- and to hear it is to feel you have no choice but to
journey with him...... ." India's leading women's magazine Femina
published
a feature in its July 1999 issue listing Rahman as one of the 14 "Men
we'll still want to see around in 2009"

EARLY DAYS:
A. R. Rahman or Allah Rakha Rahman was born actually A. S. Dileep
Kumar on the 6th of January in the year 1967, in Madras (now Chennai),
to a
musically affluent Tamil Mudaliar family. The second of four children
he had three sisters Kanchana, Bala (now Talat) and Israth, Kanchana
being elder and the other two younger. His father R.K. Sekhar was a
composer, arranger and conductor in Malayalam movies and had worked
under
the likes of Salil Chowdhary and Devarajan. His mother was Kasthuri
(now
Kareema Begum). Dileep's baptism in music happened early in life.
Dileep's earliest memories of the studio are with his father. On one
of
those visits, a music director Sudarshanam Master found the four year
old
playing a tune on the harmonium. He covered the keys with a cloth. It
made no difference. Dileep replayed the tune effortlessly. This
impressed the music director who suggested that he be trained in music.
Dileep
started learning the piano at the tender age of four. He recieved his
early training in music from Dhanraj Master.

But he wanted to grow up to be an electronics or computer engineer. He

says today, in reminiscence " I was not crazy after music. I was more
interested in technology". He was first drawn to music strongly when
his father bought a synthesiser, one of the very first in film circles
then, from Singapore. Till then he now says, "As a child, music seemed
to
be a means of earning bread and butter. I had no special fascination
for it... it was associated purely with work. Yet I couldn't take my
eyes
away from the synthesiser, it was like a forbidden toy." This
instrument was an object of much curiosity to the young Dileep and
caught his
fancy. Dileep used to spend hours experimenting with the novel
instrument. This instrument was to shape the future of this child. It
was perhaps
divinely ordained that the synthesiser would become Dileep's favourite
instrument since it was the ideal combination of music and technology.

Rahman's early years were one of struggle and hardships. At the age of
9, his father passed away following a mysterious illness with rumours
abounding that he was the victim of black magic practised by his
rivals.
Unfortunately R. K. Shekhar passed away the very same day his first
film as composer was released. It was at this time that Rahman's belief
in
God first took a beating. Much of his time was filled with hospital
visits, pain and anxieties. It is an issue that Rahman outrightly
refuses
to discuss even today. After his father's death the pressure of
supporting his family fell on the young Dileep. At first the family
subsisted
by lending out his father's musical instruments. At the age of 11, he
joined Illaiyaraja's troupe as a keyboard player in order to earn for
his family's upkeep. He also learnt to play the guitar. Thus Rahman
formally entered the world of music. He also began to play the keyboard
for
programmes on television.

It was his mother Kareema Begum who encouraged him to follow in his
father's footsteps and fully supported him in his vocation. But all
this
had an adverse effect on his formal education. Infrequent attendance
and
an unaccommodative management forced him to shift schools from the
prestigious Padma Seshadri Bal Bhavan to the Madras Christian College
and
finally he dropped out of school altogether when he was doing his 11th
grade. He also played on the orchestra of M.S.Vishwanathan, Raj-Koti
and
Ramesh Naidu and accompanied Zakir Hussain and Kunnakudi Vaidyanathan
on world tours. He also appeared playing the keyboard on a few popular
music shows on televison like 'Wonder Balloon' on the Madras
Doordarshan
channel. He also supposedly composed a few short pieces of music in
Ilaiyaraja's films, a notable one being the theme music in
K.Balachander's
'Punnagai Mannan'.
All this experience enabled him to earn a scholarship to the famed
Trinity College of Music at Oxford University from where he obtained a
degree in Western Classical Music. He came back with a dream to bring
an
international and contemporary world perspective to Indian music. After
he returned, he continued to be a part of various local music troupes.
He was also a part of local rock bands like Roots, Magic and Nemesis
Avenue where he performed with his future colleagues like Suresh
Peters,
Ranjit Barot and Sivamani Anandan. This, he says, was a very valuable
learning experience. Thus Dileep came to be totally immersed in music.
The only source of joy to him was music, so much so, that friends like
guitarist John Anthony would say, "Who is the Prime Minister of India,
do
you know? Get out and see beyond your nose in Kodambakkam". But he was
not at all sure he wanted to turn professional.

Dileep thus firmly established himself this way and worked for nearly 8
to 9 years with various music directors. He also worked as an arranger
for Illaiyaraja, M.S.Vishwanathan, Ouseappachan and Raj-Koti. He has
this to say of his stint with Illaiyaraja "Until then I thought you had
to drink or take dope to be a good artist. But Ilayaraja was making
such
beautiful music and leading a pure life!'' " I was under the
impression that if its music, whoever it is, they must have some bad
habit. When
I saw them with drinks and drugs I thought 'Oh! they are music people.
They have to take drinks, smoke and cocaine to get their inspiration'.
The man who changed these impressions altogether was only Ilayaraja. He
proved that he can make good music without any bad habits! Even now he
is an inspiration for me being so religious today."

But the young and enthusiastic Dileep felt shackled by just plain
arranging and could barely withstand the monotony of playing in an
orchestra
all the time with all his creative urges being suppressed. The kind of
sound he liked was already there in fusion - in L. Shankar and L.
Subramaniam whom he worked with, and in the then popular 'Shakti'
group. He
played on the keyboard for T. V. Gopalakrishnan and Kadri Gopalnath,
with Sivamani on the drums. He says, "It gave us some kicks.'' At this
time, Vizi Manuel, the lead keyboard player in Illaiyaraja's troupe
advised him to try other alternatives for pursuing a musical career,
like
advertising. This was a suggestion that appealed to him and he explored
some avenues seriously. The complexes increased. "I thought, what if
the
film world ends? I learnt driving, so that I could survive as a
driver.'' The restlessness pushed him into making jingles for ads.
Fortunately
for Dileep he soon got his first break in advertising when he was asked
to compose the jingle to promote Allwyn's new Trendy range of watches,
in 1987. The ads were a success and Dileep's work in them was
appreciated. Dileep quit playing in orchestras and moved full time into
advertising as a few more offers came his way. Thus began Dileep's 5-
year
successful saga in advertising where he went on to not only compose
more
than 300 jingles, but would also be the stepping stone to his entry
into
films.
Working as a jingle composer not only gave him an outlet to his
creative urges but also gave him the much needed exposure to the music
industry. The people he came in contact with during his work in
advertising
gave him a pathway to the film world. During his stint in advertising,
he
released his first ever complete music album, of Islamic devotional
songs, titled 'Deen Isai Malai', in Tamil. This was later followed by
'Set
Me Free', an album of English songs which was the launch album of
singer Malgudi Subha, by Magnasound, where Dileep set the songs to
tune.
Subha had earlier sung for Dileep in many jingles. Both the albums went
somewhat unnoticed in the market. He also set to tune the poems of
poet-author Randhir Khare.

Around this time, in 1988, one of his sisters fell seriously ill and
numerous attempts to cure her failed. Her condition progressively
worsened. The family tried everything from medicine to religious
methods like
havans and prayers in the church. The family had given up all hope when
they came in close contact with a Muslim Pir - Sheik Abdul Qadir
Jeelani or Pir Qadri as he was popularly known. The family had earlier
gone
to the Pir when his father had similar troubles, but were too late to
save him. With his prayers and blessings, Dileep's sister made a
miraculous recovery. Rattled by the bad experiences earlier in the case
of his
father and now his sister and influenced by the teachings of the Pir
and the succour that they found in him the entire family converted to
Islam. Thus A. S. Dileep Kumar became Allah Rakha Rahman. Today, Rahman
says 'Islam has given me peace. As Dileep I had an inferiority complex.
As A. R. Rahman I feel like I have been born again.'

Both his father and mother were believers in Astrology. His mother took
him along once to a astrologer to get the horoscope of Bala (Talat)
done. She asked the astrologer to suggest an Islamic name for Dilip.
The
astrologer on seeing Dilip immediately told his mother to name him as
Abdul Rahman and shorten it to A. R. Rahman. When his mother asked the
astrologer why the other initial 'R', the astrologer replied "Give him
a
name with two initials and mark my words, he will grow up to be a great
man". His mother did accordingly. But the A and R would later become
Allah Rakha on the suggestion of reknowned composer Naushad Ali.

In an interview, he was to say about his father, " My father passed

away when I was 9 years old. My mother used to narrate many tales about
my
father which used to make me very happy. My father was regarded to be
highly knowledgeable in music by many people. I still listen to many of
the old songs tuned by him. I think that its his enormous knowledge of
music that has come down to me by the grace of God".

When asked what prompted him to convert to Islam, he says "I remember
my father suffering. He was taken to eight to nine hospitals, including
the CMC hospital in Vellore and the Vijaya hospital in Madras. I saw
him suffering physical pain... I remember the Christian priests who
would
read from the Bible beside his hospital bed... I remember the pujas and
the yagnas performed by the pundits... by the time, the Muslim pirs
came , it was too late. He had already left us. After my father passed
away, for some years when I was a teenager I believed there was no God.
But there was a feeling of restlessness within me. I realised that
there
can be no life without a force governing us... without one God. And I
found what I was looking for in Islam. I would go with my mother to
durgahs. And pirsaab Karim Mullashah Qadri would advise us. When we
shifted
to this house, we resolved to stick to the faith."

Rahman became a very religious and devout Muslim. After this period his
career graph began to take the upward path. More and more advertising
offers came his way. In 1989 Rahman was very intent on having an own
studio so that he would have dedicated recording facilities where he
could
not only equip himself with the latest infrastucture but also
experiment with music at his convenience. At this time, the Pir came to
his
house and blessed him saying that he would attain unparalled success.
The
very next day the Pir passed away. Thus Rahman decided to establish his
studio at the very spot where he had been blessed by the Pir. He called
his studio Panchathan Record Inn and it was attached to his house in
Kodambakkam. Even today, the first thing that you notice when you
enter
his studio is a framed photograph of the Pir. The studio abounds with
Islamic inscriptions. This studio would later develop into one of
India's most well equipped and advanced recording studios. In his
established
state-of-the-art sound and recording studio he began experimenting in
sound engineering, design and production. He also began a collection of
sound samples, creating one of the most comprehensive sonic libraries
in Asia.

Continuing with his stint in the advertising world Rahman did a lot of
popular ads like those for Parry's, Leo Coffee, Springz Mineral Water,
Boost featuring Sachin Tendulkar and Kapil Dev, Titan, Remanika Sarees,
Premier Pressure Cooker, MRF Tyres, Hero Puch, The Hindu Young World
and Asian Paints. He also scored the title music for television
channels
like JJTV, Sun TV, and Asianet. He also scored the music for numerous
television and radio commercials, scores for corporate films and
documentaries, multi-media audio-visual scores national integration
programmes, social awareness and public campaign programmes and
international
documentaries in many languages. These scores range from 10 seconds to
a
complete hour. The jingles that he composed for the Leo Coffee ad
starring Aravind Swamy and the Asian Paints ad directed by Rajeev Menon
also
won him awards and recognition. He also won an award for composing the
theme music of the Madras Telugu Academy's Spirit of Unity Concerts.
Later he would say about his stint in advertising " Working in ads
contributed to the precision in my music. In jingles, you only have a
few
seconds to create a mood, or convey a message or emotion. Jingles
taught
me discipline."

THE YEAR - 1992:

During this period, on one of his trips to Bombay he met the veteran
Hindi music director Naushad Ali who was very impressed by the young
Rahman's work and asked him to try his hand at composing for films.
Rahman
was initially a little hesitant about entering films mainly because of
the attitude of most movie makers towards music, where songs were used
as just fillers and something to give the audience a break during a
movie. But in 1991, he was given an offer that would change his life.
At
the awards function where he received the award for Best Jingle
Composer
for the Leo Coffee ad,he was approached by the man known as the
Spielberg of India, Mani Ratnam. In the course of his interactions with
Mani
Ratnam, he was offered the responsibility of composing music for the
director's forthcoming film. Rahman, inspite of his reluctance to
seriously take up work in films, accepted the offer since Mani Ratnam
had the
reputation of a director with a keen taste for good music and he was
sure the director would do justice to his compositions on screen.

Rahman would later say, "I wasn't sure myself why I accepted Roja. I
was offered Rs.25,000 for it, a sum that I could make in three days
composing ad jingles. I think it was the prospect of working with Mani
that
enticed me. Mani is no the usual kind of director who uses songs as
fillers. He takes great pains over the music of his films. I love his
picturisations, he can elevate a routine song by 400 percent; give it a
new
dimension." All the same, as a newcomer Rahman was terrified over his
film debut. Expectations were high. What a fall if he failed! "Mani
praised everything I did. Later I realised it was to keep me going. He
discarded whatever bore the influence of others and picked out tunes
that
had my individual stamp. ''This is you!" he'd say.''

Rahman's D-Day arrived when 'Roja' was released on August 15th, 1992.
It was awaited with curiosity since it was Mani Ratnam's first film
without Illaiyaraja. Sceptics doubted the ability of a 25-year old
debutant. The entire film world and filmgoers were in for a pleasant
surprise.
Rahman delivered the goods and how. To call the music a superhit would
be an understatement. Rahman became a household name in Tamil Nadu
overnight and the score of 'Roja' was the first step in his changing
the
face of Indian film music. 'Roja' not only won the heart of millions
with
its music it also won every conceivable award in music that year.
Rahman also got the Rajat Kamal for best music director at the National
Film
Awards, the first time ever by a debutant. He was flooded with offers
to do more films. He gradually cut down on his work in ads and
subsequently moved into film music full time. And there was no looking
back for
A. R. Rahman. With 'Roja', A. R. Rahman had finally arrived.

Recalling the massive success of his first film, Rahman says, "I was
lucky to set a sound in the first film. And I had the right people like
Mani Ratnam guiding me to achieve it also and by the grace of god it
set
and the people know from the moment the song is heard that this is
Rahman's." Mani Ratnam, in response says, "I was not trying to any
favours
for Rahman. I was trying to do a film, I wanted good music and I was
searching for somebody who would and I heard a demonstration tape of
his
which he had sent across. I thought that in the first note of the piece
that he had sent me was really brilliant, really outstanding piece. So
I went across to his studio and he played me some more, lots of things
which he had done for jingles and a few other musical pieces he has
done for somebody else. They were quite amazing and I had no doubts
that
he would be right for my film. How much he would grow, I was not
looking
at. I was looking at predominately my film at that point of time. He
was ready to break a lot of conventions that were there in terms of
music
at that point of time, in terms of recording at that point in time. So
I was very lucky to find someone who was willing to break away and do
something different. To that extent it was absolutely perfect. He is
the
perfect bridge between today's technology and Indian music. He has the
soul of Indian music inside and there is a lot of engineering and
recording talent in him. He is able to blend the two together. He is a
very
talented person."
Producers began to queue up at his doorstep. But even at that young
age, Rahman was very mature and sagacious. He did not let success go to
his head and was very choosy about what he accepted. He had his
priorities set right from the beginning. For a person who had struggled
throughout his childhood, he did not let insecurity get the better of
him and
wisely opted for quality over quantity and refrained from signing films
blindly. "Rather than making money, I believe in making people happy;
all other things are secondary. That is why I am not interested in a
lot
of movies but only in one at a time. I like directors whom I can vibe
with. Ten years of experience in this field has made me quite
frustrated. I have evolved a technique which requires a lot of time.
Other music
directors record a song in seven or eight hours. But I am different. We
do a basic sitting and we record it. We record the voice and I add
instrument by instrument to improve the quality." He also began to
formally
learn Indian classical music, Carnatic from Dakshinamurthy and N.
Gopalakrishnan and Hindustani from Krishnan Nair. He took classes in
film
music from Nithyanandham and Western Classical from Jacob John. He also
learnt the qawwalli style from Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan".

THE YEAR - 1993:

The following year, 1993, saw a lot of new releases that made him more
popular. His second film 'Pudhiya Mugam' with director Suresh Menon was
also a success but was not in the same league as 'Roja'. It was his
third film "Gentleman" with debutante director Shankar that firmly
established him as the new king of Tamil film music. 'Gentleman' became
a
bigger hit than 'Roja' especially the song 'Chikku bukku rayile'.
Rahman
also did a film in Malayalam called 'Yodha' for the brothers Sangeeth
and
Santosh Sivan, and two films in Telugu titled 'Super Police' and
'Gangmaster', all of which were moderate successes. But his Malayalam
and
Telugu films have remained relatively unknown till date, inspite of
having
the classic Rahman touch in them. 'Yodha' particularly was offbeat
featuring Nepali, Tibetan and Buddhist music in tune with the film's
setting.
His other films in Tamil in that and the subsequent year were 'Uzhavan'
with Kadhir, 'Kizhakku Cheemayile' with Bharathiraaja, with both of
whom he would work on many more films in the future, 'Vandicholai
Chinnarasu', and 'Pudhiya Mannargal'. All the scores were only
moderately
successful. But it was his second score for Mani Ratnam in 'Thiruda
Thiruda' and for K.Balachander in 'Duet' that really stood out.
Rahman
redefined film music with his score in 'Thiruda Thiruda'. While the
film
itself did not do too well, the music became an all time chartbuster
and
the Tamil songs of 'Thiruda Thiruda' appeared on Hindi language
countdown shows. It was for the first time that Tamil songs became
popular on
a national scale. His equally unconventional score for 'Duet' centering
around one instrument - the saxophone, played by one of its noted
Indian exponents Kadri Gopalnath, was also widely appreciated and is
considered to be one of Rahman's best scores.

THE YEAR - 1994:

In late-1994, 'Roja' was dubbed into Hindi. Needless to say, both the
movie and the music become phenomenal successes. This heralded a new
trend where every Rahman film was necessarily a trilingual with the
film
getting dubbed into Telugu and Hindi. 'Roja' was also later dubbed into
Malayalam, Marathi and Bengali. At the time of Roja's success in Hindi,
Rahman's second film for Shankar, 'Kadhalan' featuring dancing
sensation Prabhudeva was released. It was as if the movie was
structured around
the brilliant score that Rahman produced for Kadhalan. While the entire
score was a runaway hit, one song 'Mukkala Muqabla' caught the
imagination of the entire nation, never mind if the song was in Tamil.
"Muqabla' became the flavour of the year. The song was played at every
club,
disco, restaurant, marriage hall and street corner across the country
and
went down in Indian movie history as one of the most popular songs of
all time. There was not a soul in the country who was neither dancing
to
it or humming it. With this song Rahman became a nationally recognised
figure. The song was plagiarised freely by Bombay's tunesmiths and
nearly a dozen versions of the song were churned out, a feat that
earned
'Muqabla' and Rahman a place in the Limca Book of Records, the Indian
equivalent of the Guinness Book of Records.

But Rahman was more pleased about the immense popularity of the song
'Ennavale Adi Ennavale' which won Carnatic vocalist Unnikrishnan,
making
his film debut with this song, the National Award, because he felt that
it is easy to compose a dance number like 'Muqabla' which is here today
and gone tomorrow but is real hard work to produce an everlasting gem
like 'Ennavale'. He said that he had been inspired by a 2000 year old
Tamil composition. Overnight most Rahman tunes in Tamil reappeared in
Hindi albeit under the baton of other music directors. Three other
releases of Rahman that year were 'Pavithra' , 'Karuthamma' with
Bharathiraaja
and "May Maatham', a film that was originally supposed to be made by
Mani Ratnam but was later made by his cousin Balu. One interesting
story
about May Maatham went thus. Producer G. Venkateshwaran, incidentally
Mani Ratnam's brother, sold the rights of the music of the film to
three
companies simultaneously on the strength of Rahman's score. Lahiri,
Pyramid and HMV shelled out huge sums, sure of the score's success but
unaware of the producer's subterfuge. When the deed was discovered the
companies took GV to court. He finally sold the rights to Pyramid who
had
offered him the highest sum, mollified Lahiri by offering them the
rights of his next film with Rahman, Indira -diretced by Suhasini
Maniratnam, and had an out-of-court settlement with HMV. In 1994 Rahman
also won
the Filmfare Award, Tamil Nadu State Award and many others for
'Gentleman'. He also won the Filmfare-R. D. Burman Award for best new
musical
talent.

Following the unprecedented success of 'Muqabla' Rahman realised the

importance of not only having to do original Hindi scores but also
ensure
that the dubbed Hindi versions of his Tamil films were released
simultaneously, to prevent the continued blatant lifting of his tunes
by
Bollywood tunesmiths. He stepped into the cutthroat world of Bollywood
when
he signed two Hindi films, one for director Mahesh Bhatt and one for
the Seengals of Compact Disc India to be directed by Priyadarshan.
While
the film with Mahesh Bhatt was shelved even before a scene was canned
the other film was taken over by R.Mohan('Good Knight' Mohan) of Shogun
Films and would appear much later as 'Kabhi Na Kabhi'. But his first
original release in Hindi would actually be the third film that he
would
sign.

Popular Telugu director Ramgopal Varma was also setting foot into
Bollywood just then with two films, one a remake of one of his Telugu
films
'Gaayam' which had a script by Mani Ratnam and the other titled
'Rangeela'. Following a strong recommendation from friend and colleague
Mani
Ratnam, Varma signed on Rahman for 'Rangeela'. Following this,
directors
from Bollywood clamoured to work with the 'whiz-kid' and Rahman also
signed Bollywood movie mogul Subhash Ghai's Magnum Opus 'Shikhar' and
noted art film director Govind Nihalani's 'Droh-kaal'. But 'Shikhar'
was
shelved and Rahman was forced to opt out of 'Droh-kaal' when he lost
all
his compositions for the movie owing to a computer system crash. But
later Rahman would work with both directors, with Ghai in 'Taal - The
Beat of Passion' and with Nihalani in 'Takshak'. Rahman was very
frustrated about not being able to work in 'Droh-kaal' and rued the
loss of his
compositions for the movie. He recounted later that it was one of the
most unique experiences for him.

THE YEAR - 1995:

In early 1995 'Kadhalan' was dubbed into Hindi as 'Humse Hai Muqabla'
and needless to say, went the same way as the original. In April 1995,
Rahman's third film with Mani Ratnam, the controversial 'Bombay' was
released. The successful partnership that he had forged with his mentor
went to new heights with the music of this film. The music of 'Bombay'
was one of the most awaited scores and was hailed as a classic. With
this
film, Rahman also formally took to playback singing. Rahman had lent
his voice to his compositions earlier too but they had been part of the
chorus or bit pieces like 'Marhaba' in 'Urvashi' in 'Kadhalan' or
background pieces and interludes like 'Yelelo' in 'Chinna Chinna Aasai'
in
'Roja'. But 'Hamma Hamma' in 'Bombay' was Rahman's first complete song.
With 'Humma Humma' Rahman came to be regarded as much a playback singer
as a composer. It became an amusing and common sight at various award
functions to see the comperes trying to cajole Rahman into singing on
stage and Rahman coming up with hilarious excuses to avoid the same.
'Bombay' also became the first Rahman film to be released in Tamil,
Telugu
and Hindi simultaneously. 'Humma Humma' became an instant chartbuster
and went on to become the blockbuster of the year.

Rahman composed a haunting and surreal instrumental theme with a long

and eerie flute prelude to capture the sombre mood of the film. The
evocative, soul-stirring and sensitive theme music, with a remarkably
outstanding flute interlude by his flautist Naveen, of 'Bombay'
touched the
hearts of many and was included by popular British-Indian Artiste
Talvin Singh as a part of his album "Sounds from the Asian Underground'
and
aroused a great deal of curiosity in A. R. Rahman's music among
international music connoisseurs. A critic named Kingsley Marshall had
this to
say of the Bombay Theme - "Establishing itself through soundtracked
strings, which sits menacingly in a cradle of drifting flute rises -
epic
horns introducing a full orchestral progression. Although classical
music is more than a little unusual in a compilation of dance music,
the
beauty of the piece warrants its inclusion - in a class above most of
the material I've heard in the last couple of months with regards both
production and arrangement. Simply stunning." The music of 'Bombay'
became the biggest seller in the history of Indian films toppling 'Hum
Aapke
Hain Koun' from the top. Till date 'Bombay' has sold close to 15
million units in all languages.

Following closely on the heels of 'Humse Hai Muqabla' and 'Bombay',

Rahman's first original score in Hindi, 'Rangeela' was awaited with
great
expectations. Carrying the tremendous burden of the enormous
expectations of the public once again, Rahman did not disappoint.
'Rangeela'
became an instant runaway success. With 'Rangeela' Rahman had
successfully
stormed the Bollywood bastion. Though Aamir Khan's performance in the
film did help in sustaining the film at the box-office, it was Rahman's
music that brought the crowds in droves to the theatres. Every song in
the film became a phenomenal hit. With the songs 'Rangeela Re' and
'Tanha Tanha' Rahman brought veteran singer Asha Bhonsle back into the
limelight. Crowds danced to the music in the theatres and forced the
theatres into showing the songs again. People whistled in the theatres
as his
name appeared in the credits of the movie. He hogged equal space with
the actors on the publicity material of the film. For the first time a
music director was also considered as one of the 'stars' of the film.
The Tamil Nadu distributor of Rangeela, apprehensive about how Rangeela
would perform there, since it was a Hindi film and none of the stars
were particularly well known in that part of the country, took the
advice
of his brother-in-law, Ganshyam Hemdev, of Pyramid Music, and did away
with the actors altogether from the posters and replaced them with a
mugshot of Rahman with the catchline "The first original score of
A.R.Rahman in Hindi". And sure enough, crowds flocked to watch the
movie like
crazy and for the first time a Hindi film was a runaway success in
Tamil Nadu.

Late 1995 saw the release of 'Indira' directed by Suhasini Maniratnam

where Rahman came up with a score with a rural touch. The score met
with
lukewarm success with a couple of songs 'Thoda Thoda' and 'Nila
Kaigiradhu' becoming popular. By the end of 1995, Rahman was the No.1
composer
in the country, all at the age of 28. Hailed by various critics as 'the
true successor to R.D.Burman' and the 'Messiah of Music' he had
endeared himself to the Bombay film crowd as well but Bollywood music
directors were none too happy about his success. Not only were they now
unable
to rip off his tunes without a care but they had to compete with him
on their own turf to boot. Rahman began to reportedly charge over 1
crore rupees (10 million) per film, more than three times that of his
nearest competitor. But most producers were readily willing to shell
out
even that amount forcing him to further hike his fees as a deterrent
and
keep the producers at bay. The ones who could not sign up Rahman took
someone else and asked him for a 'Rahman jaisa gaana'(literally -
Rahman
type song - meaning a song in the style of Rahman's music). He had
become a national idol and cult figure. His style of music had become
the
rage of the day.

Rahman's music also began to arouse interest internationally. He was

treated like a God and crowned with titles like 'Isai Arasan'(Emperor
of
Music); 'Isai Puyal' (Musical Storm) and 'Melody King'. Adulation that
was reserved for the biggest of film stars was showered on him.
Moviegoers cheered wildly and threw money at the screen when his name
appeared
on the credits. Films that were sold on the strength of the stars in it
or its directors now began to sell just on the strength of the name A.
R. Rahman attached to it and attract fabulous initial responses when
released. The music rights of the movie, till then just a nominal
source
of additional income for the producer, became a separate territory in
its own right and commanded prices equivalent to the distribution
rights. Any Rahman sound track used to sell out within hours of its
release.
For the first time one could see crowds queuing up outside music stores
on the morning of the release of any Rahman soundtrack. Crowds that
used to leave the movie hall for a break during the songs stayed put
firmly in their seats and took in every note of the songs in Rahman's
films.
People came in to music stores and asked if there were any new releases
by Rahman, instead of the practice of asking for a film by name or by a
that of a starring popular actor. But Rahman had a sound head on his
shoulders and took none of this overwhelming acclaim to mind. He had
his
feet firmly planted to the ground and went about his work with the same
devotion and dedication as before. He did not give a dozen interviews a
week and shoot his mouth off like most others did. In fact he became
very elusive and remained as media-shy as ever. He rarely if ever met
the
media, going to great lengths to avoid them and would not even say more
than a 'Thank You' at awards nites inspite of rpeated requests for
rendering a song on stage. This earned him the nickname 'Artful
Dodger'.

In 1995 he yet again won the Filmfare Award and the Tamil Nadu State
Award , among many others, for 'Kadhalan'. He was also a very strong
contender for the National Award. But according to Chetan Anand, the
Chairman of the Jury for the National Awards for that year "Rahman's
music in
'Kadhalan' had a great deal of variety which established the
versatility of the composer and swung most members in the jury to his
side, but
since 'Kadhalan' was a typical masala movie, we thought it would send
the wrong signals to film makers and decided against giving it the
award". End 1995 also saw the release of an album of his favourite
lyricist,
Vairamuthu's double album of poetry amp;'Thenvandhu Paayudhe' where he
scored the background music for Vairamuthu's recitation. But the album
remained very inconspicuous. He consolidated his hold on Bollywood and
signed more Hindi films with Shekhar Kapoor's 'Tararampampam' (which is
yet to be made), Boney Kapoor's 'Pukaar' to be directed by Raj Kumar
Santoshi and Ramgopal Varma's 'Daud'.

Fresh from the success of his "Bandit Queen", director Shekhar Kapoor
planned "Tararampampam" as a mega musical with 10 songs. Rumours that
Rahman himself would be producing the movie abounded. But Kapoor took
for
foreign shores leaving the movie unmade as yet. He also agreed to do a
film in Hindi for his schoolmate turned director Shivendra Singh titled
'Waqia' and later a second film with him titled 'Ittefaq'. Rahman was
to work with Gulzar on both the movies. Both the films never got made
unfortunately. Rahman's first score for Rajnikanth was released, with
'Muthu', in 1995. The score was awaited with high expectations and one
witnessed serpentine queues outside music stores on the morning of the
soundtrack's release and cassettes were even sold at a premium. Though
the
music did very well it was criticised for not suiting Rajnikanth's
superstar image. The song 'Thillana Thillana' became a chartbuster. He
also
did 'Lovebirds' the same year where he sang a song with the
international Bhangra-Rap star Apache Indian.

His music also received international recognition when his tracks were
used on the BBC Clothes Show and other international fashion shows. He
was invited to compose the theme music of the 1996 Cricket World Cup
that was to be held in India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. Rahman accepted
the
offer but later backed out for unspecified reasons with some sources
saying that he had quoted lack of sufficient time to do a befitting
job.
He also signed three films with Hollywood-Indian producer Ashok
Amritraj, one film each in Tamil(Jeans), Hindi(Love You Hamesha) and
English(Jungle Boy). He was also offered 'Kamasutra' by the Indian-
American
director Mira Nair and 'Fire' by Indian born Canadian director Deepa
Mehta.
He accepted only the latter. He would go on to do 'Earth' and 'Water'
with Deepa Mehta, to complete her Elements trilogy. He later said in an
interview that much as he wanted to work with Mira Nair he turned down
Kamasutra because he did not want to be known internationally as the
'Kamasutra Boy'.

Reflecting on the runaway success of his rhythm based tunes, he says, "
I had some golden rules when I started my first film, 'Roja'. These
rules were - good lyrics, good thought, good melodies, good recording
and
good presentation. But I think Gentleman was to break the rule
completely because Shankar wanted commercial music for the film to
break the
monotony of the serious subject. So we did it, and gave it full blast
to
them. Unfortunately the success of the rhythm-based compositions
reached the masses much faster than normal 'Roja' type of music and the
trend
became an epidemic because it was easy and safe. I was pushed by
producers to make similar kind of stuff. But rhythm-based compositions
can be
listened to only for a very short time, though we put in too much
energy in polishing it. But later, I realised that the golden rules
were
going out of my hand. I think we are back to normal."

On the personal front, 1995 proved to be a momentous year for him.

That year, on March 12, he got married to Saira Banu, sister-in-law of
the Tamil actor Rahman and the daughter of a Madras based businessman.

THE YEAR - 1996:

Rahman's popularity touched such heights, that other composers began to
cash in, rather innovatively, on his name rather than his music. Many
albums like 'Fantasy' and 'Beauty Palace' which actually had music
composed by someone else but was falsely credited to Rahman were
released
in the market. Usually such albums had Rahman's photograph splashed
across the album cover to draw the attention of buyers. And most people
bought such albums without question if they saw the name A. R. Rahman
on
it. So much so, that the music company Magnasound re-released one of
Rahman's first albums 'Set Me Free' under the title 'Shubhaa' without
the
consent of Rahman, which led to the souring of relations between the
two. In its earlier avatar as 'Set Me Free' the focus was on singer
Malgudi Shuba and Rahman was a mere footnote as Dileep. But this time
around, the spotlight was on Rahman and Shubha was relegated to the
background. Magnasound publicised the release as 'Rahman's first
international
English album'. Hoardings publicising the album sprung up overnight in
major cities. Rahman was livid. "I'm not ashamed of my old album.
Neither am I trying to hide my past," explained the music director. But
he
wanted the public to know that 'Set Me Free' was a six-year-old album
which was done as an experimental venture with singer Shubhaa.
Magnasound,
he said, was wrong in trying to pass it off as a brand-new album.
Magnasound sold 2 lakh copies in no time, an increase of over 10000% in
sales since the previous time. But Magnasound's Managing Director
Madhav
Das was unapologetic about it, "See, we had the rights to the album.
And
today A.R.Rahman's name is an instant guarantee to success. So, what is
wrong in exploiting that?". That summed up the brand equity of the name
'A. R. Rahman'.

Relatively, 1996 proved to be a listless year for Rahman, career wise.

He had only four major releases, 'Indian', 'Lovebirds', 'Mr. Romeo',
and 'Kadhal Desam' along with Bharathiraaja's extremely low-profile
'Anthimantharai'. Though the music of both the films , Indian and
Kadhal
Desam did very well they did not take him to any newer heights on
counts
of both creativity and success. From 'Indian', starring Kamalhassan,
'Akada', 'Maya Machindra' and 'Telephone Mani' became huge hits. In
'Kadhal Desam', his second film with Kadhir, he went the whole hog and
sang
3 of the 6 songs with 'Musthafa Musthafa' becoming extremely popular.
With 'Musthafa Musthafa', Rahman arrived as a singer. 'Mr. Romeo' and
'Lovebirds', both starring Prabhudeva. bombed. His background score for
Deepa Mehta's 'Fire', where some enchanting new compositions were
embellished with snatches from his score for 'Bombay', was
internationally
appreciated. But the soundtrack of 'Fire' was not released in India and
was available only through mail order from a German company. This
denied
the score not just public acclaim but also prevented the masses from
listening to one of Rahman's best soundtracks.

That year, he was offered a very prestigious multilingual project,

'Kaalapani' by director Priyadarshan with whom he was already working
on
'Kabhi Na Kabhi'. But, reportedly on the request of lyricist-writer
Javed Akhtar who had scripted 'Kabhi Na Kabhi' that he concentrate on
any
one of Priyadarshan's films he opted out of 'Kaalapani'. Following the
failure of his 'Trimurti', Subhash Ghai decided to put 'Shikhar' on
hold
and make a relatively low-budget film called 'Pardes' and he asked
Rahman to handle the score. But Rahman's response as he recounted later
was
"At that time I was extremely busy with 7-8 films. I told him that if I
had to work with him I had to give him priority and I if I gave him
priority I wouldn't be able to do these films. So I said let me finish
these and then we will work together. He said alright and demanded full
priority on the next film". And he later went on to do Ghai's 'Taal -
The
Beat of passion'.

He also went on his first ever concert tour, to Malaysia, in October

1996 where he was greeted by hysterical crowds. For this concert he
specially composed a song 'Bosnia Oh Bosnia' since the concert was in
aid of
Bosnian War victims. This song was rendered by a chorus of 40 children
accompanied by Rahman on the piano. The lyrics were in the local
Bahasa-Malay language. The concert was a humongous success. It featured
all
the top singers from India including Hariharan, S. P. Balasubramnaniam
and others. For the first time Rahman sang in public when he rendered
'Musthafa Musthafa' at this concert. As always, he won numerous awards
that year, the notable ones being two Filmfare Awards for 'Bombay' and
'Rangeela'.

In end-1996, Rahman went on a signing spree in Tamil films. He signed

Kadhir's next film 'Kadhalar Dhinam'. He then signed his friends R. M.
Sait and Anwar Ali's "Love Letter'. There was lot of speculation that
Rahman was producing this film along with his friends. But this turned
out to be false. 'Love Letter' was later retitled 'En Swasa Katre'. He
also signed 'Engineer' starring Arvind Swamy and Madhuri Dixit to be
directed by Shankar's assistant Gandhi Krishna. Unfortunately the film
has
remained unmade till date owing to a cash crunch. One other film that
has remained unmade was "Mudhal Mudhalaaga' starring Arvind Swamy and
Karisma Kapoor directed by Mani Ratnam's assistant Perumal.

One very interesting incident that occurred that year, was at the
annual Screen-Videocon Awards for cinematic excellence in Mumbai.
Following
the super success of 'Rangeela', everyone took it for granted that
Rahman would win the award for Best Music. Even the organisers forced
him
to come all the way from Madras to Mumbai, saying that he had got the
award and he had to receive it personally. On the night of the Awards
ceremony, everyone at the event and those watching the show live on
T.V.
were shocked into stunned silence when the award for Best Music Score
was given away to Rajesh Roshan for a fairly popular though largely
copied score in 'Karan-Arjun'. Even the compere of the show Javed
Jaffrey
was taken aback and immediately rushed to Rahman in the audience and
asked him for his reaction. All that Rahman said was 'God is Great!'
which
immediately won the hearts of everybody. Such is the humbleness of this
man.

THE MAN BEHIND THE MUSIC:

Gradually, criticism also began to pour in. He was said to be very slow
and was accused of taking his own time in composing, something that
reportedly forced Mani Ratnam to drop a song from 'Bombay' to release
the
already delayed film on time. Rumours were rife that Mani Ratnam had
dropped him from his next project for this reason but they were proved
to
be unfounded. But Rahman made no bones about it and said that he was no
machine that could churn out scores on an assembly line endlessly and
admitted that he did take his time over his scores. He added that it
was
essential that he take his time in order to do a quality job and made
clear the same to his directors before taking up the assignment. "What
is the use of quick delivery if you don't get good stuff? I'm not lazy.
I need time to get involved so that something undefined comes naturally
to help the movie. I can't do it in a week - all I had for
Karuthamma.''

The above problem threw up another quirk in Rahman's scores. Due to the
lack of time in completing scores Rahman began to serve up his lesser
known earlier compositions in new avatars. This happened for the first
time when he used the 'Raakozhi Rendu' song from 'Uzhavan' as 'Aa
Siggueggulenta Varaku' in the Telugu film 'Super Police'. He followed
this up
by using the song 'Baboo Love Cheyyara' from 'Gangmaster' as 'Yaaron
Sun Lo Zara' in 'Rangeela' . Then 'Anjali Anjali' from 'Duet'
reappeared
as 'Milgaye Woh Manzilen' in 'Kabhi Na Kabhi' . This dubious practice
earned Rahman a lot of criticism but he didn't seem to care. This
feature would become a hallmark in many of his future scores. He would
reuse
'Porale Ponnuthayi' from 'Karuthamma' as 'Gurus of Peace' in
'Vandemataram', 'Ottagathai Kattiko' from 'Gentleman' as 'Musafir' in
'Vandemataram', 'Maanpoove' from 'Yodha' as 'Chevaanam' in 'Pavithra',
and
'Jumbalakka' from 'En Swasa Katre' as 'Jumbalika' in 'Thakshak'. But he
would
top himself when he would go on to reuse not one but two songs for
'Pukar'. 'Oh Bosnia' would reappear as 'Ek Tu Hi Bharosa' and
'Nayagara'
from 'En Swasa Katre' as 'Kay Sera Sera'.

Another charge against him was that his music was getting repetitive.
Initially Rahman countered it saying that it was his individualistic
brand of music and therefore might sound that way but later he brushed
away the oft-repeated allegation saying "hellip; the accusation is
getting
repetitive. You call it predictable, I term it as my style. They are
ways of looking at it. If you call my style predictable, that means you
have understood Rahman has been dealing with a particular brand of
music
alone. Once you hear the music, you know it is has been composed by
Rahman. That is what I am all about. That is my identity; that is the
identity of my music. ". " If I stick to my what you call my trademark
sound, I am accused of sounding the same, and if I try to do something
different , people complain that it doesn't sound like Rahman's music.
Its
a no-win situation for me. Left to myself I would like to be
adventurous and try out styles I haven't tried before."

Rahman takes both acclaim and criticism in his stride. When told that
that many are of the opinion that he has given a new dimension to music
he responds by saying that many also feel that he is lousy. He adds
further that ' I accept I am lousy at times. It depends on the
inspiration
I get. One can't be on the same creative plane always'.

Many of his colleagues in Madras and Bombay, unable to compete with him
took the route of slander and took digs at him calling him 'only a
jingle composer' and saying that he would fizzle out in a couple of
films.
The same 'composers' who copied him left, right and centre made
grandiloquent statements like "Let us see if he is around after two
years,
Rahman's type of music is just a temporary passing fad which will wear
out
once the crowd gets used to his music, he will not be able to sustain
himself". Always one to shy away from controversies, Rahman refused to
be drawn in to a war of words and responded characteristically with a
very curt "Music speaks, statements don't.". And as expected he replied
with his music which blew all the other composers out of the scene.

When asked about the influences in his music he says "Nobody can be
completely original ... because the notes are already there... from the
notes we form a raag and from the raag a tune... it is a process. As
far
as possible, to my conscience, I try to be original. The rest is up to
Allah." Explaining his approach to composing he says, "Once I complete
a composition, a week later, I listen to it and after two weeks, I take
it up again. In the process my music grows. Sometimes even after a
shoot, I listen to the music find its allwrong and get down to re-
working.
Sometimes it gets all done just before themusic is mixed. For most,
once the shooting is done, its all over but I don'twork like that."
Music
is like a medicine that cures. Just like a medicine, it tastes sour at
the beginning but as time passes it starts to work. If you take sweets
for example, they taste great at the beginning but they vanish without
a trace immediately. Songs are also like that. You like some songs
immediately on hearing but you forget them in the same speed. And there
are
songs that you hated the first time you heard it, but as time goes on
you get a real satisfied feeling hearing it. So, as far as music is
concerned you can't decide anything immediately. "

Other filmmakers, whose offers he turned down spread rumours about him.
When asked why he turns down so many offers even when he is offered
stacks of tempting money, Rahman, as philosophicaly as always, says, "I
would say that I'm fighting as hard as I can to be exclusive. I don't
have the capacity to handle more than 4-5 films at a time. And once I
accept a project it is my responsibility to give my fullest to it. When
I
refuse offers, I do feel terrible. Some could feel disappointed by my
refusal. I say no mainly because I know I won't be able to do adequate
justice to their projects. At times, they look as if I've broken their
hearts. Sad... its just that I can't please everyone. And as far as the
money goes, Money can't buy you happiness. The biggest offers I get are
for 'live' shows. The amount I'm offered for one concert is much more
than what I would earn after slogging on 10 films! But I'm afraid you
can't buy creativity... Everyone comes with the same offer- 'state your
price, we'll give you what you want...'. Rather than huge fees, I'd
appreciate interaction on a film's score. In reality, the best music
emerges from any composer when there's an exchange of ideas... when
there
are stories that inspire you. Then the project keeps moving... when
you're not into the spirit of things, you can get stuck. And then
delays in
delivering the score become unavoidable. So I'd rather not get into
projects which don't excite me from the very outset. I don't want
anyone
to feel that I've let them down later .. honestly that's how I've been
brought up. Don't get into something you'll regret later."

One other criticism levelled at him was that his hip-hop tunes had no
scope for good lyrics. This allegation was also disproved when lyricist
Vairamuthu won National Awards repeatedly for songs set to tune by
Rahman, namely for 'Roja', 'Pavithra', 'Kadhalan' and 'Minsara Kanavu'.
Rahman himself insists on good poetry for his songs, "Lyrics lend
immortality to a melody. The eternal, evergreen hit songs are always
the ones
with profound lyrics ndash; lyrics that remain true and meaningful even
after years."

To the criticism about the use of technology in his music he says " We
are heading towards the millenium. We have to keep abreast of times. Do
they expect me to continue living in the 19th century? What is wrong in
resorting to modern technology? You have to keep pace with the world
around. A computer I bought six months ago had three minutes' waiting
time to get started, but today's computers take just three seconds to
start. I can now record my music on a hard disk and carry it around,
and
synthesise it with any kind of ethnic music anywhere in the world. If
we
are to compete globally, we have to be in step with the times. But you
have to hold yourself back from going overboard. Technology is like a
monster which has to be tamed. You must know how to handle it. I spent
three years to bring the music software I use entirely under my
control."

Rahman is probably the foremost user of technology in music in India

today. He can probably be described as the man who pioneered the use of
technology in Indian music. India's leading Information Technology
journal , Express Computer, profiled the use of technology by Rahman.
He
avoids making music on tape, and prefers to carry his music on his
portable computer. Also, he composes most of his music in-flight and
his
favorite platform is the Macintosh. Rahman, the progenitor of tunes the
nation dances to, is a power user of technology. A proud owner of 12
PowerMacs and two PowerBook portables (now 15, with the addition of the
first
iBook in India), he swears by technology. "I cannot live without my
computers today. Most of my music is made on them - so much so that I
carry my music on my portable even when I am travelling," he says.

"I prefer my computers to traditional tape, as I can rerecord on the

machine, which is not possible on tape. Also, it gives me the
additional
flexibility of editing a song up to one lakh times, which I can do only
once on tape. Also, minor flaws within a musical sequence can be
rectified on the computer, which is otherwise not possible," he says.
But why
the Apple Macintosh? "It is perhaps the easiest and best platform to
use, especially in the areas of music and creative arts. I have
experimented with other technologies too, but the Mac is something that
is very
close to me now. It is a machine with an attitude," he says. Moreover,
a majority of music professionals across the world work on the
Macintosh for their music.

Rahman is currently running his set-up on Apple's G3 processors, but

plans to upgrade to G4 very soon. "I use PowerMacs to formulate various
types of music and musical patterns. The computers in my studio are not
networked, so each performs a different function. Everything is
integrated into the final score at the end, which is further refined a
number
of times before you finally get to hear the end result. More than just
the basic composition, the post-production work is made much easier by
the Macintosh," says Rahman.

Another strange criticism levelled at Rahman was that he made excessive

use of singers without the knowledge of the nuances of a particular
language, like he made Udit Narayan sing in Tamil and also the use of
untrained singers. To the first allegation Rahman replied that it was
quite
true and said that he had reduced the use of Hindi singers in Tamil. To
the second, Rahman's reaction was " Why should any actor or actress
sound like S. P. Balasubramaniam, P. Susheela or Chitra? Why can't a
new
singer sing in his own raw voice? It's the done thing in jingles and
non-film music. Only in films, they insist on an established voice. I
ventured to break the convention and the public has accepted it."

On why he uses so many different voices in a film, irespective of

whether they suit the character or not, he says " I do it for varieity.
Otherwise things would get monotonous. There was a time when the album
of a
film would have only two voices. Today different singers sing for the
same character. The times have changed. The attention span of the
average listener has decreased and his geographical purview has
broadened.
The listeners no longer think in terms of peprfect or imperfect. They
want different voices, standards be damned."

Yet another criticism that was levelled at Rahman in the initial stages
of his career was that he was at home only with Western rhythms and
would never be able to give typical Indian tunes. But Rahman quickly
disproved that allegation and demonstrated that he was equally at ease
with
Indian Classical and Folk rhythms and melodies with his scores in
'Indira', 'Kizhakku Cheemayile', 'Karuthamma', 'Iruvar', 'Uzhavan',
'Taj
Mahal' etc.

One other allegation was that Rahman ahd become very arrogant and
treated filmmakers very badly and made them wait endlessly. Says
Rahman "In
Chennai, I hsve a small studio where all the music happens. I can do
only thing at a time there. Even when a track is being transferred, all
other work comes to a standstill, because I like to supervise
everything
myself. I don't believe in handing over a job to someone else and wait
for the results. This leads to people waiting for me sometimes. But its
not deliberate."

Initially Rahman had to encounter a great deal of opposition in

Bollywood. People were waiting for him to falter. But as one Bollywood
composer acknowledged "He just does not fail. He knows the pulse of the
public
better than any other composer in India today. He is not only in touch
with the Zeitgeist, He is the Zeitgeist.(Zeitgeist - The taste and
outlook that is characteristic of a period or generation)."

By the end of 1996, the relative non-success of scores like 'Mr.Romeo'

and 'Lovebirds' prompted the know-alls in the industry to comment that
Rahman was facing a burn out. Also the failure of dubbed Tamil scores
like 'Tu Hi Mera Dil' made the critics carp that he was running out of
steam and was recycling his own tunes and had exhausted his limited
repertoire. They also remarked that the public was now tired of the
'Rahman
sound'.

One other very notable thing that Rahman can be credited with is the
fact that he has consistently introduced a whole host of new talented
singers, the notable names being Suresh Peters, Shahul Hameed, Aslam
Mustafa, Unnikrishnan, Sreenivas, Mahalaxmi, Harini, Minmini, Sujatha
Mohan,
Nithyashree etc. He even got his secretary Noell James to sing in
films. Once, in 1995, Rahman was invited by Padma Seshadri Bal Bhavan,
his
former school, to be the judge in a singing competition. Rahman
promised
that he would give the winner of the contest a break in cinema. True to
his word, he introduced the winner of the contest, Harini, with the
song 'Nila Kaigiradhu' in 'Indira' and then gave her 'Telephone Mani'
in
'Indian'. This song was a big success. She then went on to sing many
more songs for Rahman. He has also given a fresh lease of life to the
careers of fading and failing singers like Asha Bhonsle with
'Rangeela',
Hema Sardesai with 'Sapnay' and Sukhvinder Singh with 'Dil Se..' . He
also brought to the mainstream Sreenivas and let him prove his worth
after
being a chorus singer for a long time. Rahman says, "That is because I
know the difficulty of not being given a chance to prove yourself when
you are talented. When God has made me a successful music director
today, then why not use it to the best by introducing new talent? I
will
be sinning if I don't provide an opportunity to talented people."

Also a very important reflection of Rahman's humility, fairness,

honesty and sense of equality is reflected in the fact that he is the
only
composer who ensures that his entire team ranging from the rhythm
programmers to the instrumentalists and chorus singers are credited on
the
inlay card of the album. If, today, Noell James, Febi, Feji, Sivamani
are
household names the credit goes to Rahman's sense of fair play.
Sivamani has repeatedly thanked Rahman for bringing him into the
limelight. An
interesting characteristic of him is that he never watches the movies
he has composed for. He has only watched two till date, 'Roja' and
'Rangeela'. "The songs are rarely picturised the way they were narrated
to
me. I don't want to feel disappointed at not having composed to the
feel of the picturisation."

Rahman is also known for some strange personality quirks. Like his
inclination to work during the nights and sleep during the day. When
asked
how he developed this unexpected and unusual habit of sitting up all
night and working and making others work with the same passion, the
same
perseverance, the same precision to come up with nothing but the best,
the best that will satisfy him and satisfy a filmmaker like the
filmmaker who is madly in love with his music. He says he used to work
the
whole day when he worked as a jingles man, working on all kinds of ad
films. He started working on the few films that came his way after 6
pm.
Soon he was working from 6 am to 6 p.m. and then from 6 p.m. to 2 am
and then it went on from 6 am to 6 p.m. the next day. The unusual
man's
unusual schedule now starts at 6 p.m. or 7 p.m. and then goes on till 6
am.

"For a creative job, there are no working hours. When something doesn't
work out, I usually continue working. Initially I used to work in the
day, but My work used to get extended into the night and slept at 2''O
clock and then it got later and later and I used to miss my morning
prayers. So I thought why not work in the nights and sleep in the day."
"It
started when I was working on films and jingles simultaneously. It used
to be nine to nine in a studio, ten to five on jingles, three hours of
sleep, and back to the studio. Then I realised that I actually liked
working in the night - it was quiet and serene. There was another
reason
too. When I used to work till three or later and hen fall asleep, I
missed out on my prayers, so I decided to stay awake for a few more
hours
and complete praying. By then it would be six. So, now I sleep from
nine to three." Speaking about how he relaxes, he says."After I finish
a
film, I mostly take my family to the Dargah where we pay our respects
to
the Aulia. Otherwise I meditate and sometimes Internet. I like to see
what people talk about me and what they are bitching (sic) about me."

Commenting on his responsibilities towards his listeners he says, "Once

music listeners trust you, you've got to live up to their faith. You
can't tell people there wasn't enough time to do justice to the music
or
that the director gave me the wrong brief. All listeners care about is
the quality of the work. So I better do my best. Since buyers spend
their hard earned money on music I think its our responsibility not to
betray their trust. If you lose their trust you've had it."

THE YEAR - 1997:

Early 1997 saw the release of his fourth film with Mani Ratnam,
'Iruvar' and the legendary Madras movie house, AVM's 50th anniversary
film
'Minsara Kanavu'. 'Iruvar' was an offbeat film and had a topical score
with a couple of brilliant jazz and classical numbers in addition to
two
nostalgic numbers from the MGR era, among others. Though the music was
appreciated by the critics, it did not win much favour with the public
at large, probably because the music sounded dated keeping in sync with
the period the movie was set in. In the case of 'Minsara Kanavu', when
AVM wanted to make a movie to commemorate its 50th anniversary, it was
not sure of what kind of movie it would be or who would make it. All it
was sure of was that it wanted A. R. Rahman to score the music. First
thing, Rahman was signed up by the studio and he was asked who he
wanted
the director to be. Rahman suggested the name of cinematographer and
friend from college, Rajeev Menon. Rahman had composed jingles for many
ad films directed by Rajeev Menon and also worked with him in 'Bombay'
which was cinematographed by Menon. The music of 'Minsara Kanavu' was
a
major success and also fetched him his second National Award. The songs
'Ooh La La La' and 'Poo Pookum Osai' (Awara bhanwre in Hindi) became
major hits. His second original Hindi film 'Daud' for Ramgopal Varma
was
released in the same year. Though it was in typical Rahman style, it
did not live up to his high standards. One highly unusual composition
'Zahareela Zahareela pyar' caught the fancy of many but was too
unconventional to became a huge success.

Five years of working in the same kind of movies made Rahman yearn for
something different and get out of the rut. In 1996, when Rahman had
gone to Bombay to attend the Screen Awards ceremony, he met his
childhood
friend G. Bharat. During this meeting both had discussed a proposal for
an album to commemorate 50 years of Indian Independence in 1997. In
1997, the International music giant, Sony Music, whose portfolio
included
the likes of Michael Jackson and Celine Dion, entered the Indian market
in a big way. They were looking to promote Indian artistes
internationally. And the first person to be signed up by Sony Music
from the Indian
sub-continent was, who else but, A.R.Rahman, on a 3-album contract. The
financial details of the contract were not disclosed but Industry
experts believe it to be the largest of its kind in India. Rahman
suggested
the idea that he had discussed with Bharat to Sony Music India and was
immediately accepted.

Called 'Vandemataram', it was a tribute to the motherland and featured

songs to mark the 3 colours of the Indian Flag . Sony asked him to
choose from any of its international stars to work with and supposedly
even
suggested the name of Celine Dion. But Rahman settled, very
appropriately, for the Pakistani Sufi music star Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan
and Dominic
Miller. Rahman had decided that he would definitely work with Nusrat
Fateh Ali Khan after he attended his performance in Delhi. Explaining
his
choice, "I don't want to collaborate with just a name. I must feel
something for the person and relate with his work. I've seen several
famous
names collaborating on songs and albums , but they remain just two
names. There's no chemistry. It's like oil and water. They can' t come
together." Rahman worked overtime on it to come up with a memorable
album.
He devoted so much time to this prestigious project that his film
assignments went behind schedule. He went all the way to Pakistan to
record
the 'Gurus of Peace' number with Khan Saheb. Rahman composed, arranged
and sang all the songs on the album.

Recounting the time when he hit upon the tune for 'Maa Tujhe Salaam' -
"In late January, on the 27th day of Ramzan, an auspicious time when
legend has it that angels open the gates of heaven and all prayers are
answered, I descended on my studio. It was 2 a.m. and my sound engineer
had disappeared. And so I called Bala and when he arrived I told him
you're the sound engineer. And then I sang for the first time, a few
verses for just the two of us. "It was magical," says Bala. "He
laughed,
then he cried," says Rahman.

Two months hence, in March 1997, amidst Sony Music executives in

Mumbai, came a sort of penultimate test. Shridar Subramaniam, director,
marketing, Sony Music India tells the story best. "Everybody was really
nervous. It's an exhausting song and Martin (Davis, head of Sony Music
Asia) doesn't speak a word of Hindi, but in 40 seconds we knew. It was
fresh, new." It got better. In May, at a Sony conference in Manila,
where
the bigger the name you can drop means the more attention you get, they
got 20 minutes. When the songs from the album was played, pre-release,
at the Sony Music conference in Manila, Sony Music executives
representing various Sony Music sub-labels reportedly went berserk and
clamoured
for the international rights of the album. They played the song;
pandemonium reigned. The head of Columbia records ( a Sony label) said,
"It's
unbelievable, I want it." The head of Epic records (another Sony label)
said, "I don't care, I want it." Says Subramaniam: "It was the hit of
the conference."

Rahman became the first Indian artiste of popular music to go

international when 'Vandemataram' was released simultaneously in 28
countries
across the world under the prestigious Columbia Label of Sony Music on
August 15th, 1997. Rahman himself performed live at Vijay Chowk in New
Delhi on the eve of the Golden Jubilee of Indian Independence to a
packed
audience that comprised the Prime Minister of India, Mr. Inder Kumar
Gujral. The album was a mega success and sold over 1.5 million copies
in
India(a remarkable figure for non-film music in India) and did extemely
well internationally too becoming the largest selling Indian non-film
album internationally. The song 'Maa Tujhe Salaam' got repeated airplay
in the world music category on radio and television channels across the
world. With 'Vandemataram' Rahman left all his contemporaries far far
behind and moved into a new dimension altogether. His full-throated
rendition of the title song "Maa Tujhe Salaam", loaded with raw emotion
touched the hearts of many a music lover.

Interestingly the Indian release had only 7 songs while the

International release had two additional songs 'Masoom' and "Musafir'.
Later
'Masoom' was released in India in the album 'Gurus of Peace' and
'Musafir'
in the album 'MTV Total Mix'.

The album was lapped up eagerly by both the masses and the classes and
was described variously as 'brilliant', 'the ultimate expression of
freedom', 'a mantra that instills a sense of pride and belonging', 'a
classic' and 'evocative'. India's leading news magazine 'India Today'
in
its year end issue picked Rahman as one of the faces that made a
difference in the year 1997 "hellip;because Vandemataram is the
national song
once again" and wrote " Forget Roja, forget Bombay, forget everything.
Even if he had never composed a successful piece of film music in his
life, he would have gone down in history for one unforgettable night:
August 14th 1997. That was the night A. R. Rahman gave his country its
most rapturous 50th birthday present - Vandemataram - Maa Tujhe Salaam.
It
was as if the very soul of India had found its voice once more
hellip;".

One of the many glowing reviews for the album went "Good music has
personality. It is a lot like a short story that has embedded messages
which the reader must uncover. Unlike a short story, however, good
music
has many more suggestive qualities. On the one hand it must quickly
grab
the listeners attention and on the other hand it must be so richly
woven that the listener keeps wanting to come back for more. Vande
Mataram
is an example of music with personality. What separates this collection
from the others is the provocative music and lyrics. What makes this
collection enchanting is the raw unbridled emotion that AR Rehman
projects through his musical score. What makes the collection timeless
is that
a thousand years of musical influence, from Khusro to contemporary, is
cleverly woven into the composition."

Speaking about the intent behind the album, Rahman said, "The primary
objective of the album is to inspire a feeling for the country. And the
sentiments so aroused go beyond caste, creed and colour. The feelings
which inspired the album come from the heart, and can solve a lot of
problems. If people look beyond religion and caste barriers, and think
only of the country, that's enough. I personally think Vande Mataram is
an
ongoing movement, and people will feel good about it for the next 50
years."

Rahman himself underwent a physical transformation in order to feature

in the music videos of the album and grew long hair, much to his
dislike initially. In his dedication in the album he says, " All
perfect
praises belong to the Almighty alone. I dedicate this album to the
future
generations of India. I wish that this album inspires them to grow up
with the wealth of Human values and ethics that this country is made
of.
I wish that the youth of today would wipe out phrases like 'Chaltha
Hai' from their vocabularies and find themselves motivated Human
beings".
'Vandemataram' touched the heights of fame, appreciation and
recognition when it made it to the final rounds of the prestigious
Cannes Film
Festival and was in line for an award but lost out ultimately since the
event co-incided with the Indian nuclear blasts. He was asked by people
at the festival "Here he was singing his heart out about peace and his
country and his country was terrorising the world with its nuclear
blasts! Which was the true India?". Vande Mataram was one of the video
film
clips that was in the competition for the top prize. But as luck would
have it, the film was shown the week that India conducted its nuclear
blasts. ''On the one hand, we were singing in praise of our mother
earth
and on the other, we were blasting it away. People kept asking us, what
the hell do you think you all are doing," says Bharatbala. But even so,
their song made it to the finals. From being the No.1 music director,
Rahman also became a top pop star, though he didn't appreciate
'Vandemataram' being branded as a pop album.

1997 brought him further personal joy and happiness when he became a
father. He named his daughter Kathija. Other movies that were released
in
1997 were 'Rakshakan' and 'Vishwa Vidhaata' in Hindi which had the same
music as 'Pudhiya Mugam'. Rahman was very upset with the producer of
'Pudhiya Mugam', Suresh Menon for having sold the dubbing rights of the
music to the makers of 'Vishwa Vidhaata' without his consent. Both the
movies did not do well, though the music of 'Rakshakan' did fairly
well.
He bagged the Filmfare Award yet again, for 'Kadhal Desam'. He signed
Mansoor Khan's 'Josh' but again opted out owing to time constraints.
Aamir Khan, impressed by the music that Rahman gave for his 'Rangeela'
pursued him doggedly to do his next film 'Mela' for director Dharmesh
Darshan, but once again time constraints prevented Rahman from
accepting
the offer. Noted painter M. F. Hussain offered him his much talked
about
film with Madhuri Dixit - 'Gaj Gamini' which also Rahman was forced to
turned down due to paucity of time. He was also asked to compose a song
for the revised version of India's first 3-D movie 'Chota Chetan'.
Again Rahman was forced to decline the offer. He took up one
interesting
offer from Director Suresh Krishna and Producer 'Pyramid' Natarajan.
The
film, 'Sangamam', was a low-budget venture with a musical subject and
would feature out and out classical and folk songs. He also signed
Director Vasanth's new film for the same producer. The title for the
film,
'Rhythm' was suggested by Rahman himself.

Post-Vandemataram, some changes in Rahman's personality could also be

seen. The earlier elusive and evasive Rahman became more accessible and
gave more interviews and appeared to have become media-savvy. No longer
reticent and shy he opened up a bit. He explains the change thus
"Earlier things worked on a level of mysticism. I was this mystic from
the
down South who made music. But you can't hide from people all the time.
I
need to relate to people. I have also realised that if I stayed away
from people, they would get frustrated and start misunderstanding me.
But, there are times when I go back into my shell, it helps me make
better
music. Because, then , I'm involved in nearly every part of music."

THE YEAR - 1998:

1998 began on a good note when the music of 'Jeans', his fourth film
with Shankar did very well. In fact, initially the movie took a bad
opening and later picked up and became a big hit on the strength of
Rahman's
music. One of the first Hindi movies that he signed, 'Kabhi Na Kabhi'
was also finally released. One song 'Mera dil ka woh shehzaada' became
very popular but the rest of the score did not catch on. He signed his
fourth film for Producer 'Pyramid' Natarajan - 'Udaya' to be directed
by
Maniratnam's former assistant Azhagan Perumal. But 1998 would musically
belong to one film. The Rahman-Ratnam combination touched greater
heights with the release of their fifth film together, 'Dil Se..',
which
became a rip-roaring success and also an all-time crowd favourite. The
song 'Chaiyya Chaiyya ' became a humongous success. The entire score
came
in for wide spread appreciation and was hailed as 'Rahman's most
versatile score till date'. For the first time, the 'Nightingale of
India'
Lata Mangeshkar sang a song for Rahman, the song being 'Jiya Jale'
which
also hit the top spot. Rahman later revealed why he doesn't work with
Lata mangeshkar very often, "Most of my songs are so freaky that I feel
embarassed to approach her. I feel they won't do justice to her
reputation."

In the same year, Bharatbala approached him to do a sequel to the super

successful 'Vandemataram', titled 'Vandemataram 2'. But Rahman did not
take up the project for reasons he would later describe as 'This whole
idea of doing the first album came up so suddenly and was so
interesting that I had mercilessly pushed all my producers behind
schedule. There
were too many projects hanging fire. I'd promised to complete the
pending films as soon as I was through with the album. I was supposed
to do
a couple of songs for the second album but after a song like
Vandemataram I knew I would have to do something really exceptional to
match the
previous effort. So, I just decided to take a break and then start work
on it again". He won numerous awards for the music of 'Minsara Kanavu',
including the prestigious National Award, Filmfare Tamil Award for the
sixth time in a row and the Screen Award for 'Vandemataram'. In
October, he performed at the 70th Birthday celebrations of Tamil Nadu
Chief
Minister Karunanidhi. In November he won the Viewer's Choice Channel
[V]
Award for Vandemataram, after being chosen by over 4.4 million fans.
'Dil Se..' swept the film music awards categories at the Channel [V]
awards winning awards for Best Score, Best Song and Best Male and
Female
singers. Later he won the Channel [V]-IMI Award for Best Producer for
'Vandemataram' along with Bala and Kanika.

His second film with Priyadarshan 'Doli Sajake Rakhna' was also
released in November and the music was a fair success but paled in
comparison
to Dil Se.. . He signed an English-Hindi bilingual for director Ketan
Mehta titled 'The Rising' which was to be based on the 1857 First War
of
Indian Independence. His second film for Deepa Mehta, 'Earth', where he
came up with a totally new score was released at the Toronto Film
Festival in September and the music came in for all round appreciation.
He
also signed his second film for Rajnikanth, reportedly rather
reluctantly, titled 'Padayappa', to be directed by K. S. Ravikumar. He
reportedly took up the film after the superstar himself made a personal
reuqest
to Rahman to score music for the film.

In the first week of December he went on a concert tour to Dubai where

the Al-Shabab stadium was packed with crowds in excess of 50,000. He
performed with the choicest of singers like S.P.Balasubramaniam,
Hariharan, Udit Narayan, Chitra, Kavita Krishnamurthy, Sadhana Sargam,
Shubha,
Anupama and his entire orchestra consisting of drummer Sivamani
Anandan, guitarist Kabuli and flautist Naveen. At this concert Rahman
demonstrated the falseness of the claim that he used only electronic
instruments in his music. He introduced his entire 50-piece orchestra
to the
audience and told the crowd that it was the hard work of all those
people
that made good music and not electronic gadgets alone. The crowd was
treated to renditions of more than 30 splendid songs from Rahman's ever
increasing repertoire. In December, he was invited by 'Mukti' a social
service organisation to perform in a concert to promote AIDS awareness.
He composed a song specially for the occasion. Titled 'Zindagi Se Pyar
Karo', the song was a reflection of the theme of the AIDS awareness
campaign 'Love life, prevent AIDS'. He performed the song to packed
crowds
of over 60,000 at the concert on the 24th of December at the Andheri
Sports Complex in Mumbai.

He signed his first Kannada film 'Ram' in addition to his fifth film
with one of his favourite directors Shankar, titled 'Mudhalvan'. While
his first film with Rajkumar Santoshi, 'Pukar' is very eagerly awaited
he went ahead and signed another film 'Rashq' with the same director
starring, Aishwarya Rai, Aamir Khan and Shahrukh Khan. Late in 1998 a
second daughter was born to Rahman. She was named Rafia.

All this success has not been without its fallouts for Rahman. Some
mischievous elements of society spread canards in early 1998 that
Rahman
was funding Muslim fundamentalists in Tamil Nadu, something that was
totally unfounded and caused him a great deal of grief. Later in the
year
he began receiving threatening calls from Fundamentalist groups for
singing Vandemataram and was accorded armed protection by the
Government.
What was amusing that he received threats from both Hindu and Muslim
Fundamentalists, from the Hindu Fundamentalists for 'defiling a Hindu
song' and from the Muslim fundamentalists for 'singing an anti-Islam
song'. Rahman dismisses all these controversies saying that while his
religion is very important to him, his patriotism for his country is in
no
way inferior. Rahman feels that all this security is extremely
cumbersome
and hampers his work but has no choice in view of the perceived threat
to his life. Expressing his views on religion, "God and religion are
very personal. Now it has become politics. I think religion should be
left to a person. The mosque or temple should be within oneself. That
is
the best thing."

"I don't know what all this hullabaloo is about. I am not scared of
death. My life and death are in Allah's hands. I will live only till he
wants me to live. I will die only when he wants me to die. I can't
understand all these policemen following me wherever I go. It hurts in
so
many ways. It hurts my feelings in so many different ways. It makes me
lose faith in man. But what can I do? I have to follow the crazy system
created by a crazy world. But I am not scare of dying anytime", Rahman
says. He remarked in an interview, "It is better that I clear
everything
up. About the rumour that I helped fundamentalists, how can it be that
I provide funds for them, when I have received death threats from the
extremists and the state government has posted police personnels to
guard my residence? Another rumour concerned my giving away money as
charity to such organisations. Charity is done to satisfy my urge to do
more
for the poor. And anyway I have to tell you, I don't give charity only
to Muslim charities, I donate to Hindu and Christian organisations too.
The money I give as charity is limited as I have to improve my
instruments. I have invested heavily in technology and there is not
much left
to indulge in mass charity. The amount I give is definitely not enough
to help the extremists to buy arms with my money!"

His shy demeanour hides a soft and generous heart. His close associates
recount his stopping at a busy Mumbai intersection to give alms to
beggars lining the street. "He just thrust his hand into his pockets
and
gave them all the money," said one. Another time in Chennai he got out
of his car to help a cyclist who lay in an epileptic seizure.

He encountered controversies on the personal front too when he was

charged with throwing out his father's close associates and converting
people. All the charges turned out to be totally unfounded and
baseless.
Rahman defended himself saying, "A rumour has been going around that a
beggar I picked up at a Dargah has become an absolute tyrant and has
become the reason for sending out M K Arjunan. M. K. Arjunan was a
very
close associate of my father and my adviser. He helped our family in
the
time of our need by letting me play the keyboard in his orchestra. The
truth is Arjunan's son wanted to set up a recording studio in Kerala. I
gave him some of my instruments. And M. K. Arjunan went back to Kerala
to help his son set up his recording studio there. Therefore there was
no question of an outsider making him leave,was there? And while on
this point, I did not pick up any beggar on the streets. Another rumour
which is spreading is that I convert people close to me. What nonsense.
If I had converted people, Noel, Shivakumar, Shridhar etc. would have
changed religion! When I am not perfect myself,how can I convert
others?
I follow my religion, let others follow their own. The whole thing was
cooked up by a freelance journalist called Bismi, who married my sister
and later divorced her. He met her when she was doing some stage shows
and we sort of forced her into marriage with him. But unfortunately we
came to know that he was only after my money. He used to be very upset
with my giving to charity. Anyway as soon as my sister came to know
that he was only after the money she separated. But during the time
when
he was around he learnt a lot of the family's inner issues and now he
is
spreading rumours to upset me."

THE YEAR - 1999:

In January 1999, he performed at the Screen Videocon Awards in Mumbai
on the 16th where he unjustly lost the Best Music Award, where he had
been nominated for 'Dil Se..' to some very ordinary music in 'Kuch Kuch
Hota Hai'. In his performance he presented, for the first time, songs
from '1947-Earth' - 'Raat Ki Daldal Mein', 'Piano Theme' and 'Rut
Aagayi
Re'. February saw the release of 'En Swasa Katre'. He bagged the
Filmfare Award for a record ninth time for 'Dil Se..' in the same
month. The
director of 'Ratchagan', Praveen Gandhi asked him to score the music
for his next venture, starring Prashanth, titled 'Jodi'. But Rahman
begged off owing to his busy schedule. But Gandhi went ahead and reused
the
music of 'Doli Sajake Rakhna' for Jodi. In an interesting move the
Producer, Murali Manohar released the music at the Muhurat of the movie
in
February. He signed Rajeev Menon's next film 'Kandukonden Kandukonden'.
Continuing with his award winning spree he picked up the Dinakaran Cine
Award for Best Music for 'Jeans'. 'Doli Sajake Rakhna' was dubbed into
Tamil as 'Oonjal'.

In late March the music of Rajnikanth's 'Padayappa' was released after

a long delay. The expectations were immense and most considered the
music to be disappointing. But the sales told a different story as 1.2
million music cassettes were sold out in just two days. A new record in
the Indian music industry. In 'Padayappa' Rahman tried to compose a
score
that would be apt for Rajnikanth and came up with a nice blend of the
'Rahmanesque' and the 'Rajnikanthish'. Some bizarre rumours that some
fans of Rajnikanth gave death threats to Rahman for his score in
'Padayappa' were also floated. But they were unfounded and Padayappa
was a
resounding hit. In end March Rahman bagged the Dinakaran Cine Award for
his music in 'Jeans'. This was quickly followed by his 10th Filmfare
Award also for 'Jeans' in early April. April also saw the release of
Kadhir's much delayed 'Kadhalar Dhinam'. This was Rahman's third film
with
Kadhir who became his brother-in-law the same year when he married one
of
his sisters. The music was an instant success and was a huge crowd
favourite. He signed Aamir Khan's home production 'Lagaan' and the
third of
Deepa Mehta's Elements trilogy 'Water', a bilingual. He was also slated
to work with the legendary composer Andrew Lloyd Webber on Shekhar
Kapoor's next film which was to be a movie version of Lloyd Webber's
much
acclaimed musical 'The Phantom of the Opera'. Following the lukewarm
response to the reused score of 'Jodi', Rahman consented to compose two
new songs for the movie. He also began working on Maniratnam's next
film
'Alai Paayuthe', this being the sixth film of this now legendary
combination.

Rahman appeared on a Television show previewing 'Sangamam' and

described its music as 'a milestone in Tamil cinema'. A new record was
set when
TIPS Cassettes and Records Industries acquired the music rights of
Subhash Ghai's eagerly awaited 'Taal' for Rs. 5 Crores (Rs. 50
million).
The music was released in the second week of June with TIPS struggling
to
meet the overwhelming initial order of 20 lakh(2 million) CDs and
cassettes. The song 'Ishq Bina' made it to the top of the charts even
before
the release of the music attracting descriptions like 'When A R Rahman
meets showman Subhash Ghai, the result can be nothing short of an
extravaganza.' Producer-Director Subhash Ghai gushing about 'Taal' said
"My
moments with A. R. Rahman at his music studio are embedded in my
memory. The voices of Ashaji, Kavita, Alka and Sukhwinder echoing the
poetry
of Anand Bakshi, had me visualising my characters Mansi, Manav and
Vikrant going through the emotional highs and lows of life even before
the
actual picturisation. That's the charisma of 'Taal' music. 'Taal' will
always be dear to my heart, and to me it is definitely my most
favourite work too date. The credit goes to A.R.Rahman and Anand Bakshi
without
whom 'Taal' would not have happened." Early June saw the release of
'Sangamam'. After a long time, Rahman was working in a low-budget film;
centered around a village dancer. The score was totally folk music and
classical music based. He made use of traditional instruments
extensively. The tunes were appreciated widely. Ananda Vikatan magazine
called him
the 'real hero of Sangamam'.

June 12th 1999. A momentous day for Rahman. The music launch of Subhash
Ghai's 'Taal", Rahman's first truly Bollywood film, his earlier ones
'Rangeela', 'Daud', 'Kabhi Na Kabhi', 'Doli Sajake Rakhna' and "Dil
Se..'
being with South Indian directors like Ramgopal Varma, Priyadarshan and
Mani Ratnam. The launch was a gala event. Held at New Delhi's 'Siri
Fort Auditorium' it featured live perfomances of the songs which was
webcast live on 'Rediff-on-the-net'. The music was praised to the
heavens.
At the press conference that followed, Ghai remarked, "I credit the
name
of the movie to composer A R Rahman. This movie is a romance and I
could have called it any thing -- Dil, Pyaar, Hum Bhaag Gaye, but it
was
A. R. Rahman's presence in the movie that gave me the confidence to
call
it 'Taal'. 'Taal' means music and music means 'Taal'. The whole credit
goes to A R Rahman and Anand Bakshi. Rahman kept me awake many nights,
but after listening to the songs, I felt it was worth all the trouble."
The lead actress Aishwarya Rai commented, "It's soul-stirring. I'm sure
you are going to enjoy the music as much as we did. The music is the
easily the best I have heard and it's definitely going to outlive the
release period and it's divine, soul stirring and straight from the
heart." "The music of 'Taal' is a trip which you can never forget. You
have
to experience it. I feel it is the best music from Mukta Arts till
date", said Anil Kapoor. 'Taal' was a resounding initial success when
it
sold 10 lakh cassettes in two days.

Rahman's composition 'Ekam Satyam' which he recorded in London in May

was picked by Michael Jackson for a charity concert in Munich in June
1999 whose proceeds were to be donated to the underprivileged children
of
the world. On June 19th Rahman travelled to Singapore to attend a
concert to honour the composers of yesteryears Vishwanathan -
Ramamurthy. At
the concert heaps of praise was showered on him. Singer
S.P.Balasubramaniam called Rahman his son and said that Rahman was a
great human being
because he respected elders and was very humble. Vairamuthu revealed
that Rahman came even as the producers of 'Rhythm' and' Sangamam' were
after him to complete the music and background score of their films. He
also revealed that Rahman was busy with the music of Maniratnam's
latest, 'Alai Paayuthe'. Rahman acknowledged all this in his typical
unassuming shy style. M. S. Viswanathan went to the extent of hugging
Rahman on
stage and referred to him as his son. Rahman made a short speech
wherein he revealed how as a small child he saw M. S. Viswanathan's car
pass
by. He said a few more words in praise of M. S. Viswanathan in his
typical Madras Tamil and ended by saying that if he spoke more he would
do
"olaral" (talk rubbish). A number of Rahman compositions were performed
- Padayappa by S.P.Balasubramaniam, Nenjinile by S.Janaki, Jumbalaka by
Rafi, Un Pattu Selai Madippula by Maharajan - to thunderous ovation
from the near capacity Singapore crowd.

On June 27 he rendered the song 'Ekam Satyam' alongwith International

pop star Michael Jackson at a concert for underprivileged children in
The Olympic Stadium in Munich, Germany. He performed along with a
troupe
comprising dancers Shobana and Prabhudeva. The song was sung together
by Rahman and Michael Jackson. The concert was part of the 'Michael
Jackson Friends' series. The song was penned by Kanika Bharat. The
song,
written in English and Sanskrit, was recorded by Rahman in London
within
a week. According to Bharat, the song has a lot of attitude, reflecting
the energy, passion and dynamism of India. Jackson heard the song in
Paris and immediately wanted Rahman for his show. He reserved the best
slot of the concert, the final slot, for Rahman. The other performers
in
the show were Luciano Pavarotti, Stevie Wonder, Alan Parsons, Vanessa
Mae and Boyzone. Jackson rendered the English lyrics while the rest of
the song was rendered by Rahman. Jackson rendered the English portions
of the song while Rahman sang the Sanskrit portions of the number. The
crowd was a huge 60,000. This was Rahman's second collaboration with a
famed international ariste, after Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan. During his
visit to Paris he also met French composer Jean Michel Jarre who
invited
him to work with him on an album.
In July, he signed noted Indian director Shyam Benegal's next venture
'Zubeida', scripted by noted film critic and the editor of Filmfare
magazine, Khalid Mohammed.On the 11th of July, Rahman participated in a
Kargil Benefit Evening at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium in New Delhi the
proceeds of which were donated to the Central Defence Welfare Fund. He
rendered the Vandemataram song 'Maa Tujhe Salaam' with the lyrics
changed to 'Hey Jawan Tujhe Salaam'. In July he became part of an
unique
international project, "Listen" whose aim was to raise $99 million for
the
downtrodden children of the third millenium. ldquo;Being the only
representative from India, it is my responsibility to deliver the
composition according to international standards. Having started to
work at the
age of 11 after losing my father at 9, I understand the plight of kids
who have to work for their survival,rdquo; said Rahman. For the
ldquo;Listenrdquo; project, Rahman was to compose a modified version of
one of
Beethoven's symphonies. In India, two NGOs mdash; Save the Children,
and Consortium for Street Children mdash; were expected to benefit from
the proceeds of the project. The ldquo;Listenrdquo; campaign included
two one-hour international TV specials, two albums, two videos and a
spectacular three-hour international television concert from India.
"Listenrdquo; has the support of 99 creative artists. They include film
stars
Brooke Shields, Liam Neeson, Vanessa Redgrave, Goldie Hawn, Jeff
Bridges, Jamie Lee Curtis and Susan Sarandon; musicians Peter Gabriel,
John
Lee Hooker, Sting and Rahman; visual artists Jeff Koons, Sheela Gowda
and Robert Wilson, and songwriters Diane Warren and Lamont Dozier. With
this Rahman well and truly made an impact on the International music
scene, closely following on the heels of the concert performance with
Michael Jackson in Munich. The album was expected to be released the
next
autumn.

In mid-July he participated in a fund-raising event in Chennai and

donated Rs 5 lakh to the Kargil Relief Fund. End-July saw the release
of
the music of '1947', the Hindi version of Deepa Mehta's 'Earth'. On the
30th of July he won the Cinema Express Award for Best Music in 'Jeans'.
The music of 'Jodi' was re-released with the two additional songs
composed by Rahman. 'Jodi' was dubbed into Telugu under the same name
and
'En Swasa Katre' followed suit as 'Premante Pranamistha'. 'Taal' was
dubbed into Tamil as 'Taalam'. Rahman teamed up with Bharatbala and
Kanika
once again to give a new sound to India's National Anthem. He was part
of a concert with 30 of India's greatest musicians in 'Desh Ka Salaam'.
'Taal' was released in mid-July and Rahman's music was hailed as the
true hero of the movie. India Today magazine described it thus "A. R.
Rahman's glorious music fills every frame , becoming almost a fourth
character in the triangle".

Rahman's new project 'Desh ka Salaam' with Bala and Kanika which
involved the musical reinterpretation of the Indian National Anthem
'Jana
Gana Mana' and was meant to be a tribute of the entire nation to the
martyrs of the last 50 years was unveiled simultaneously on all
television
channels , all radio channels broadcasting in India and the Internet at
8 P.M. IST on the 15th of August 1999, in the process creating media
history. The project involved two musical pieces and videos featuring
some of India's best musical talents. The first video featured the
instrumental version composed by Rahman and was played by the best
instrumentalists in India and was shot at Ladakh with Pandit Shivkumar
Sharma
and his son Rahul Sharma on the Santoor, Pandit Vishwa Mohan Bhatt on
the Mohan Veena, Kartick Kumar, Niladri Kumar, Pandit Hariprasad
Chaurasia on the flute, Ustad Amjad Ali Khan on the sarod and also his
sons
Amaan Ali and Ayaan Ali both on the Sarod, E. Gaayathri on the veena,
Vikku Vinayakram and sons Uma Shankar and Selvaganesh on the Ghatam,
Ustad Sultan Khan on the Sarangi, Ravi Kiran, Kadri Gopalnath on the
Saxophone, Ganesh and Kumaresh on the violin and A. R. Rahman himself
on
the Synthesiser.

The vocal version featured a rendition of Rahman's version of the song

by Lata Mangeshkar, Pandit Bhimsen Joshi, Pandit Jasraj, Asha Bhonsle,
Hariharan, Dr. Balamurali Krishna, Pandit Ajay Chakravarty, Kaushiki
Chakravarty, S P Balasubramaniam, Jagjit Singh, Shobha Gurtu, Parveen
Sultana, Dr. Bhupen Hazarika, Dr. D K Pattamal, UnniKrishnan, Rashid
Khan, Sudha Raghunathan, Kavita Krishnamurthy, Nityashree, Saddiq
Khan,
Ustad Ghulam Mustafa, Ajay Chakraborty and A. R. Rahman himself.
Rahman
retained the basic tune of the national anthem and developed a new
tempo and instrumentation for both the versions. The entire project
was
musically produced, composed and arranged by A. R. Rahman. The videos
were directed by Bala and Kanika. After his highly successful and
acclaimed musical reinterpretation of India's National Song
'Vandemataram' in
1997 this was Rahman's unique attempt at the musical reinterpretation
of
India's National Anthem 'Jana Gana Mana'. "Its our way of paying a
musical tribute to all the poeple who have been martyrs for the cause
of
the nation", said Rahman.

In mid-August Rahman signed another English film, 'The Return of The

Thief of Baghdad' directed by noted anthropologist Douchan Gersi and
starring Chiranjeevi, Charlotte Ayanna and Omar Shariff. The film was
to be
simultaneously remade in Indian languages by director Suresh Krissna.
He also signed Govind Nihalani's next film. He also returned to work
with Ramgopal Varma when he signed his forthcoming film starring Jaya
Bachchan, Amitabh Bachchan, Abhishek Bachchan and Urmila Matondkar. In
early September he won the International Viewers' Choice Award at the
MTV
Video Music Awards for 'Dil Se..' . The award was presented to him by
the Managing Director of MTV India, Alex Kuruvilla at a special
ceremony
in New York City on September 9. The music of Govind Nihalani's
'Thakshak' was released on September 15. He agreed to work on Filmfare
editor-scriptwriter Khalid Mohammed's directorial debut, tentatively
titled,
'Fizaa'.

In September, on the occasion of her 70th birthday legendary Indian

singer Lata Mangeshkar compiled a list of the ten best songs sung her
which included the Rahman composition 'Jiya Jale' from Dil Se.. .
Calling
it her favourite composition of the 90s she said, "A.R. Rahman's style
is amazing. No doubt his style is Indian. But there's heavy Arabic
influence. I don't think that man thinks of anything except his music.
At
first I didn't think all that much of the tune. But when I heard the
recorded song I was floored. I got to sing an outstanding number after
quite a while," Rahman carried forward his ascent on the international
music scene when he tied up with Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber to work on a
dance musical entitled 'Bombay Dream'. He also performed with Sir
Webber at
a concert in Dublin in October 1999.

Speaking on 'Bombay Dream', Rahman said "It is the increasing

popularity of Indian film music in the overseas market which has forced
the west
to sit up and take note of the `richness' and `diversity' of Indian
notes. There is a whole new movement of Indian music happening all over
the world today. Madonna is singing our songs, Michael Jackson is
crooning Ekam Satyam. Even Stanley Kubrick incorporated Indian notes in
Eyes
Wide Shut. The fact that Taal entered the Top 20 of the UK audio charts
has encouraged people like Webber to explore more and experiment with
Indian music too. I was lucky to be able to meet him. I know it's not
going to be easy, but both of us are determined to give it a shot."

Mid October saw the release of 'Taj Mahal', Rahman's fourth film with
Bharatiraaja. A rural love story Rahman came up with a brilliant music
score to match the flavour of the film. The music became fairly popular
but the movie bombed. This was followed by the release of 'Kadhalar
Dhinam' in Hindi as 'Dil Hi Dil Mein'. Late October saw the release of
'Shankar's 'Mudhalvan'. This was Rahman's fifth film with Shankar. Both
the movie and the music became blockbusters. 'Mudhalvan' was a native
score that reminded one of his 'Gentleman' score for the same director.
'Mudhalvan' was dubbed into Telugu as 'Oke Okkadu'. Interestingly
Rahman
appeared in promos of the movie 'Thakshak' wearing the movie's
promotional T-Shirt, with "Thakshak' and 'Jumbalakka' written on it,
and
playing the keyboard for the song 'Jumbalakka'. Visuals of Rahman from
the
'Vandemataram' video were used by an Indian company Bharati Telecom in
an
ad promoting National Integration. He was also reported to be working
with French composer Jean Michel-Jarre on a private album.

Early November saw the release of Rajkumar Santoshi's much awaited

'Pukar'. In 'Pukar', Rahman took his propensity to recycle his own
tunes to
new heights when he reused two of his earlier songs, the 'Nayagara'
song from 'En Swasa Katre' and his non-film 'Oh Bosnia' number, which
was
originaly presented in his 1996 Malaysia concert. 'Nayagara' reappeared
in 'Pukar' as 'Kay Sera Sera' and was a huge hit. 'Oh Bosnia' became
'Ek Tu Hi Bharosa' and this was Lata Mangeshkar's second song with
Rahman. TIPS Records released a special collection of Rahman songs in
November 1999 entitled 'The A. R. Rahman Signature Collection'. This
was
specially autographed by Rahman himself. In its 21 November issue
India's
leading newsmagazine 'India Today' declared Rahman as one of the 'Faces
of the New Millenium' saying 'Only Rahman can replace Rahman'. Rahman
signed his fourth Telugu film with veteran telugu director Kranti
Kumar.
The movie was titled 'Tommidi Nelalu'. But later it turned out that he
was not doing the movie.

As the year and the millenium came to a close encomiums were heaped on
Rahman. The Times of India, India's leading newspaper hailed Rahman as
one of the 100 greatest Indians of this century and placed him in the
Entertainers and Artists category. Rahman achieved another milestone
when he became the first Indian to own the much sought after Apple
iBook
laptop computer. Outlook magazine, in its December issue assessed
Rahman
to be the third highest earning Indian entertainer just behind Sooraj
Barjatya and Subhash Ghai and ahead of other icons like Sachin
Tendulkar
and Shahrukh Khan. He reportedly earned a whopping 25 crore rupees. On
December 12th he won the Zee Sangeet Award for the music of Dil Se.. .
In its year end issue, India's leading newsmagazine 'India Today'
carried a feature titled 'The Nineties' Decade-The people who made a
difference' in which it selected Rahman along with Shubha Mudgal in the
music
category and hailed him as 'The man who single-handedly reinvented
Indian film music.' Unconfirmed reports in the media said that Rahman
would
feature in Micheal Jackson's next release scheduled for early 2000. In
the year end countdown shows on Tamil television, 7 out of the Top 10
songs were composed by Rahman.

1999 was in many ways a momentous year for Rahman. 1999 was the year in
which Rahman extended his horizons as a composer. A major highlight of
his Hindi soundtracks released that year was his effective use of
Hindustani classical music and north Indian folk music. After Dil Se..
found
mass acceptance across the nation, in 1999 it seemed that Rahman had
finally won over the north with his scores in 'Taal', 'Thakshak',
'1947'
and 'Pukar'. This left people in Bollywood with no more ammunition to
attack him with. His scores that year had a breathtaking range and
extended from North Indian folk and fusion in 'Taal' to Hindustani and
Western Classical and period music in '1947' and 'Taal', South Indian
folk
and Carnatic classical in 'Sangamam' and 'Taj Mahal' and contemporary
pop and techno music in 'Kadhalar Dhinam' and 'En Swasa Katre'. It was
also observed in 1999 that Rahman was increasingly moving away from
what
has been traditionally acknowledged as the 'Rahman sound'. 1999
encountered a more explorative and experimentative Rahman. All in all,
nationally he became the only music director who's music most people
bought
without batting an eyelid or reading a review or listening to a teaser.

1999 was the year in which Rahman increased his presence on the
international music scene. This ranged from interactions with Jean-
Michel
Jarre to collaborations with Andrew Lloyd Webber, David Bryne and
concerts
with Micheal Jackson. He also got to work with artists across the
entire spectrum of Indian classical music, both Hindustani and Carnatic
and
instrumentalists and vocalists, when he composed 'Desh Ka Salaam'. In
the midst of all this Rahman had the busiest year in movies. He had all
of eleven releases, the most for any music director this year and the
most for Rahman in his entire career, something very unusual for Rahman
who normally has 3-4 releases a year. He had 'En Swasa Katre',
'Padayappa', 'Kadhalar Dhinam', 'Sangamam', 'Jodi', 'Taj Mahal' and
'Mudhalvan'
in Tamil and 'Taal', '1947', 'Thakshak' and 'Pukar'(music release only)
in Hindi. 'Taal' was the biggest hit of the year and at the end of the
year had sold over 75 lakh cassettes and 5 lakh CDs and was continuing
to figure on top of the sales charts.

The decade began with Rahman entering the Tamil music scene with 'Roja'
and it ended with Rahman making a global impact albeit in a small way.
In the course of the decade Rahman changed many things in music. And as
the decade and the millenium drew to a close Rahman was widely and
ungrudgingly acknowledged as the man who brought about a revolution in
the
sound of Indian music and was hailed as the man responsible for
popularising Tamil film music in India and Indian film music globally.
THE YEAR - 2000:
The new millenium, that is the year 2000, began with the release of the
video of the 'Vandemataram' song 'Masoom' featuring Rahman. The video
was telecast by India's National Television Network, Doordarshan at the
stroke of midnight between 31st December 1999 and 1st January 2000. At
the Millenium Concert held in Cairo, Egypt with the pyramids as a
background, on New Year's Eve, Jean-Michel Jarre played the 'Bombay
Theme'
to a spellbound international audience. In the first week of January he
received as many as four nominations for the Screen Awards 1999. He was
nominated in the Best Music Director category for 'Taal', in the Best
Male Playback Singer category for 'Ishq Bina' from 'Taal' and twice in
the Best Background Music category for 'Taal' and '1947-Earth'. After a
long hiatus he signed his first Tamil film in a year, for director
Praveenkanth. The film titled 'Star' had Prashanth, Simran and
Aishwarya
Rai in lead roles and was Rahman's third film with the director. In an
interview to India's leading English newsmagazine, India Today, during
a
short visit to India, leading world music group 'Deep Forest' said that
they were talking to Rahman about working in collaboration.

He won the first award of the new millenium when he bagged the award
for Best Music Director for 'Taal' at the Stardust Cine Honours on the
7th of January. In January Rahman went on an unprecedented award
winning
spree . He followed up the Stardust Cine Honours by winning the
Filmgoers Award for Best Music Director for 'Taal' and then on January
23rd he
bagged the Screen Award for the music of 'Taal'. The same day he was
declared the winner of the Dinakaran Cine Award for Best Composer for
the
music of 'Kadhalar Dhinam' and 'Mudhalvan'. But the crowning glory was
when, on January 26th 2000, on the occasion of the 50th Anniversary of
the Indian Republic, the Government of India bestowed the prestigious
title of 'Padmashri' on Rahman, for his outstanding contribution to
music. The 'Padmashri' is India's fourth highest civilian honour and is
conferred on only a select few. Reacting to his receiving the award
Rahman
said "I am extremely happy and surprised at receiving this award. I
hope I can justify my receiving this award. Till now I have been
receiving
mainly film awards. This is the first time that I have received such an
award. I thank God, my mother, all the people and the Govt for this
award."
On January 26th, 2000, the Golden Jubilee of the Indian nation becoming
a republic, 'Desh Ka Salaam' was finally released as 'Jana Gana Mana'.
Billed as a tribute to those who struggled to establish the Indian
republic the music was arranged and produced by Rahman and featured
vocal
and instrumental reinterpretations of India's National Anthem, 'Jana
Gana Mana'. It contained exclusive renditions of the national anthem,
both
vocal and instrumental, by more than 65 musical maestros from all over
the country.The pieces were performed by numerous luminaries of Indian
music from playback singers to classical vocalists and
instrumentalists. The original composition by Rabindranath Tagore was
recreated into
magnificent arrangement and production by A. R. Rahman. From classical
to
the contemporary, artists crossing generations, harmonised into a
powerful and soulful rendition of the National Anthem.

The vocalists on 'Jana Gana Mana' were D.K Pattamal,Pt. Bhimsen

Joshi,Lata Mangeshkar, Pt. Jasraj, Dr. Balamuralikrishna, Jagjit
Singh , Pt.
Ajay Chakravarty , Smt Shobha Gurtu, Begum Parveena Sultana, Dr. Bhupen
Hazarika, Ustad Rashid Khan, Ustad Ghulam Mustafa Khan, Smt Shruti
Sadolikar, Dr. S P Balasubramanium, Sudha Raghunathan, Asha Bhosle,
Hariharan, Kavitha Krishnamurthy, P.Unnikrishnan, Nityashree, Sadiq
Khan,
Kaushiki Chakravarty and A. R. Rahman. The instrumentalists were Pt.
Hari
Prasad Chaurasia, Ustad Amjad Ali Khan, Amaan Ali Bangash, Ayaan Ali
Bangash, Pt. Shiv Kumar Sharma, Rahul Sharma, Vikku Vinayakram, Uma
Shankar, Pt. Vishwa Mohan Bhatt, Kadri Gopalnath, Ravikiran, E.
Gayathri,
Ustad Sultan Khan, Pt. Kartick Kumar, Niladri Kumar, Kumaresh, Ganesh
and
A. R. Rahman.

The album "Jana Gana Mana' was formally released at a formal function
on the morning of January 27th in the hallowed Central Hall of the
Indian Parliament House in New Delhi by none other than the Indian
President
Mr. K. R. Narayanan and the Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee
in the presence of a very distinguished audience. Mr Narayanan
expressed happiness that so many artistes had come together on the
project.
This particular tryst with nationalism for Rahman began during the
Golden
Jubilee celebrations of India's Independence in 1997 with
'Vandemataram' and came a full circle in the Golden Jubilee Year of the
Indian
Republic in 2000 with 'Jana Gana Mana'. This was the result of an
endeavour
that began three years ago to give India back to the Indians through
music and films that touch the emotions of all Indians. "Jana Gana
Mana'
was an extension of 'Desh ka Salaam' that was broadcast the previous
year.

Said Pandit Jasraj of the venture, "Bharat, Kanika and Rahman have done
a great job. We all know how difficult it is to get even two artistes
to do a duet and they have managed to bring together 65 of us. They are
really and truly the three musketeers." Said rahman of the venture
"Though it was difficult to bring together artistes from varying
streams to
work together, the spirit of nationalism in every heart made it very
easy. Rejecting the definition of this album and 'Vandemataram' as
'pop-patriotism' Rahman said 'We have made more people listen to the
National
Song and Anthem more often. I wish to take patriotic music to the
poeple. That is why I lent music to Vandemataram and aroused the
emotions of
the people. Likewise I felt I should do it with Jana Gana Mana also. I
feel people sing the national anthem out of a sense of duty and not out
of a sense of joy. I want them to sing it with emotion. That's why I
have taken up this project. Because we were working with the National
Anthem we could not change the tune. All we have done is make it a bit
slower and give it more rhythm and soul."

"The album is an attempt to bring out the inherent soul in both the
vocal and instrumental renditions of the national anthem. The music is
totally unlike Vande Mataram which had been adapted to modern beats.
While
Vande Mataram was a popular album, this one is a completely
non-commercial venture. After all, it is our national anthem and we
didn't change
its music or try to give it a modern touch. Its rendition was made
slower, though, purely to give it soul. And it is meant for the people,
as
the album is not my property. The idea behind Jana Gana Mana and
Vande Mataram, was to direct latent nationalism towards the mainstream.
",
added Rahman.

In the evening of January 27th , Rahman participated in a special

cultural show titled 'Bharat Gaurav Gyan' in commemoration of the
Golden
Jubilee of the Indian Republic, in New Delhi. In front of of an
audience
comprising of the Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee Rahman
sang
'Maa Tujhe Salaam' and 'Jana Gana Mana'. In late January, Rahman was
nominated for the Best Music Director Award for 'Taal' in the Filmfare
Awards 1999 and the Best Music Director Award for 'Taal' and Best Male
Playback Singer for 'Ishq Bina' from 'Taal' in the Zee Cine Awards
1999.
In early February rumours abounded about Rahman turning down all new
offers for films and concerts as he was shifting base to London where
he
was to score the music for Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber's play 'Bombay
Dreams'. On 13th February he won the Filmfare Award for Best Music for
'Taal'. This was his 11th Filmfare Award and his fourth for Hindi
films.
Rahman signed up Bharatiraaja's next film 'Alli Arjuna' to be directed
by
Saran. On February 22nd, the music of the much awaited Mani Ratnam
movie 'Alai Payuthey' was released along with its Telugu version
'Sakhi'.
The music was of a subdued nature but nevertheless like always sold in
huge numbers. This was Rahman's sixth film with his mentor. One of
India's leading film magazines "Stardust', in its annual ranking of the
50
most powerful people in Bollywood, published in its March 2000 issue
placed him at number 38 , eight notches above the previous year's.
Rahman
turned down an offer from Subhash Ghai to work on his next film
'Yaadein' as he wanted to concentrate on 'Bombay Dreams'.

In early March Sony Music released the concert recordings of Rahman's

1998 Dubai concert in a 3 cassette pack. On 7th march, Sir Andrew Lloyd
Webber flew down to Mumbai to formally launch 'Bombay Dreams'. A
musical to feature Asian performers and to be staged worldwide he
musical was
to be in English and the characters to be based on the city of Mumbai.
It was to be produced jointly by Shekhar kapoor and Really Useful
Group, Webber's production company. Speaking at the launch Shekhar
Kapur
said "A.R. Rahman's a genius. When Cate Blanchett visited India last
year,
she took back several Indian sounds, and since then, she's been
badgering me to get Rahman to score music for Hollywood films." Webber
heard A
R Rahman's score for Mani Ratnam's Dil Se. So impressed was he with
Chaiyya chaiyya -- the song, the choreography, the visualisation --
for
the composer, it was love at first sound. The sound of Rahman's music.
that Sir Webber asked Kapur to introduce him to Rahman.

Rahman is the first composer to be invited by Webber to work in a

musical. Bombay Dreams will have Webber as the producer and Kapur as
the
collaborator. Said Sir Andrew at the launch, "Four or five years ago,
people didn't have the same access to Hindi film or Indian music as
they
have today. I became incredibly impressed by Rahman's music. I asked
him
if he would come to London, and he did. I also asked him if he would be
interested in doing a stage show. At that point when he said "Maybe", I
thought I better come here and ask him. I am very happy to say that he
has just said yes. I saw a very exciting Hindi film dance sequence on
Channel 4 and asked Shekhar to give me more such music. And that's how
I
met the amazing Rahman. He is the most extraordinary melodic composer
who is still true to his cultural roots, and deserves to be heard by an
international public. I am not writing the music for Bombay Dreams. It
will be entirely by the maestro here. Dil Se's music was great and
amazingly contemporary. This is for the first time that I have invited
another composer to write a musical for the stage. I am very excited to
be
able to explore this possibility with A R Rahman. My production company
has produced several plays by writers other than myself, but this is
for the first time I will be working with another composer. I regard A
R
Rahman as one of the most exciting young composers of our time. I am
grateful to Kapoor for bringing us together. This man is a fabulous
composer, one of the most exciting today. he is simply brilliant. What
you
might possibly call the best. His work is very different, very unusual
and he himself is such a simple and humble guy that it would be a
pleasure for us to work with him. He will bring a different kind of
flavour
to a musical production in the West." He decided to hear more of
Rahman, from Bombay and Roja to Taal and Rangeela. ldquo;Without being
told
who the composer was, I would identify that it was Rahman," he says.
Waxing eloquent about Rahman's work Webber said "The time has come in
the
West (I believe) for Asian music to make a strong presence and Indian
music is going to be at the centre of this new movement. For it is
strong on both melody and percussions. Someone like Rahman could
provide the
leadership. Yes, I feel very strongly about his music."

Rahman said that though he was heavily pre-occupied with music

assignments in India, he would devote considerable time for the new
project,
which would not only be an extension of his career but also showcase
Indian culture to the West. In turn he said, "I am happy to be
associated
with my friend Shekhar Kapur and the legend Andrew Lloyd Webber,God
willing, it will be successful, an extension of my career and Indian
culture abroad. I am a great fan of the legendary musical theatre
composer. I
loved some of his songs like Don't cry for me, Argentina. It is indeed
flaterring to realise that that my talent has been spotted amidst so
many talented artistes. That certain aspect of insecurity of whether I
will be able to live upto people's expectations is also there." He also
added that he would be shuttling between London, Chennai and Mumbai for
the project.

Rahman signed up for director Rajkumar Santoshi's next film 'Lajja'

which was to be made ahead of his other film 'Rashq' which was also to
have music by Rahman. Not surprisingly rahman opted out of 'Lajja' when
Santoshi decided to make it a quickie. On March 11th Rahman completed a
clean sweep of the year's major awards by bagging the Zee Cine Award
for
Best Music Director for 'Taal'. It looked like Bollywood had finally
accepted that Rahman was here to stay. On 15th March the music of
Rajeev
Menon's 'Kandukonden Kandukonden' was released along with its Telugu
version 'Priyaralu Pilichindi'. The music was a stunner. All the songs
had a classical base and was an instant chartbuster. Encomiums were
heaped on Rahman at the release function. Speakers like Kamalhaasan
said
"'All these people go on and on about his music look at him, he's as
cool
as ever, I think he's composing some tune even now in his mind that
he's least bothered about all these praises! Be like this Rahman, its a
great new high!' But an innocuous remark by lyricist Vairamuthu, "I
agree
wholeheartedly that Rahman is a great composer. But I do wish his music
would not totally swamp my lyrics to the extent that nobody can make
them out", sparked off a whale of controversy. Rumours of a rift
between
the two took flight. But Vairamuthu hastily clarified that all was well
between them and it was just a friendly advice. But stories persisted
that Rahman had totally broken off with Vairamuthu and had begun to
promote an upcoming lyricist IlayaKamban.

On March 23, Kamalhaasan's next film 'Tenaali', a full length comedy to

be directed by K.S.Ravikumar was launched. This was K.S.Ravikumar's
third film with Rahman after 'Muthu' and 'Padayappa' and was his first
home production. Rahman returned, after 'Indian', to work for
Kamalhaasan
with this film scotching persistent rumours of bad blood between the
two. This would be the first time that Rahman would be working in a
film
of this genre. On March 30th, Rahman was conferred the Padmashri by the
President of India, K. R. Narayanan in the Durbar hall of the
Rashtrapati Bhavan in New Delhi. On the 14th of April the Filmfare
South Awards
for 2000 were announced. Rahman bagged the Best Music Director Award
for 'Mudhalvan'. This was the 8th year in succession that he was
winning
the Filmfare Awards for Tamil and it was his twelfth Filmfare award
overall. He was also nominated under the Best Music Director Category
for
'Taal' in the Zee Gold Bollywood International Awards 2000, awarded for
popularity of Hindi films in the USA.

Following his nod to movies like Star and Alli Arjuna which would
feature Rahman's earlier tracks from another language, a wave of
criticism
was unleashed against him. Rahman justified his move thus - 'It is the
question of time. Since I am going off abroad people don't want to lose
the frequncy of my releases. I can't do everyhting at the same time. So
I pick up the best tracks and give them those. Its not my fault. They
ask for it. If I am not in a position to do a film for them they ask me
to atleast let them reuse my tracks from other movies." When asked if
he Bombay Dreams would be a channel to Hollywood, "I am not interested
in Hollywood. There is more fun in what I am into already. Right now
what I need to do is learn a lot of things and spend time to create
music
rather than shuttling between here and there." On being told that his
chances to latch on to the international pop scene were bright "I don't
think I'll fit into that scene becasue I am more of a composer than a
pop performer. That needs a different kind of energy which I don't
think
I have. You need to be more of an extrovert for that." He also at this
time explained his move towards more offbeat films like
'Lagaan','Zubeida',' Fizaa',' Water' thus "When you take up a big movie
people expect
big things and want to hear big things. If you are doing a
non-commercial film with an international spectrum but a small budget
like 'Earth'
the songs are of a different genre. I did not want to get typecasted as
a commercial music director. This is why I am doing more alternative
films." The website indiainfo.com rated Rahman as one of the 10 most
powerful people in Bollywood.

Rahman made his first movie appearance, albeit in a clipping, when he

was shown receiving a Filmfare Award from K. Balachander for the film
'Minsara Kanavu' in the film 'Kandukondain Kandukondain'. In May he was
nominated in the Best Music Director category at the India
International
Film Awards. On May 27th he bagged the Zee Gold Bollywood International
Award for Best Composer for "Taal' making its his sixth straight award
for 'Taal'. On this visit he was honoured by the United Tamil
Foundation of New York for his outstanding contribution to music.
Meanwhile
director Sanjay Gupta was in hot pursuit of Rahman trying to get him to
compose for his next film 'Kaante'. HMV re-released the soundtrack of
Alai
Payuthey with 3 new songs, 'Endrendrum Punnagai', 'Mangalyam' and the
Sultan Khan version of 'Snehidhane'. Sony Music released 'Jana Gana
Mana' on cassette and CD in retail shops finally but intriguingly
enough
there was not a shred of publicity regarding the release. Rahman took
his
award winning spree to newer heights when he bagged the award for Best
Composer for 'Taal' at the International India Film Awards in London on
June 24th. This was his seventh award for 'Taal'. The rumours regarding
the split between Vairamuthu and Rahman and Vairamuthu having lured
away Rahman's keyboardist gained more credence when his long time
keyboardist, Harris Jayaraj signed up as composer for two movies,
'Minnaley'
and 'Majnu' with Vairamuthu as lyricist. After making a clean sweep of
all the other awards Rahman lost the National Award for Best Music
Director which went to Ismail Darbar for 'Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam'. It
was
announced that Rahman would hold two concerts in North America, in New
York City on September 23rd and at the Skydome in Toronto on September
30th.

For a shy and reticent person who always shied away from controversies,
people seemed keen to drag him into more and more of them. After the
earlier instances when he was a victim of bizarre and baseless
accusations ranging from converting his associates to funding
terrorists, he came
in for more of a similar nature in July 2000. First, on a milder note,
people seemed to be in a hurry to label him copycat and were unearthing
the original songs, from which Rahman had supposedly copied, at an
incredible pace. But most of the allegations were either totally false
or
there were only some coincidental or passing resemblances. But to be
fair there were a couple of songs composed by Rahman with striking
resemblances to other numbers. After this he was accused of delaying
the
release of 'Rhythm'. The story was that Pyramid Natarajan, producer of
'Sangamam', 'Rhythm' and 'Udaya' had not paid Rahman for 'Sangamam'.
And
therefore he was dragging his feet on completing the work for 'Rhythm'.
The producer suposedly toyed with the idea of replacing Rahman with
another music director in both 'Rhythm' and 'Udaya' but ran out of
money to
even complete the shooting of 'Rhythm'. Then the producer supposedly
approached Rahman and begged him to complete work on the music of
'Rhythm' so that he could make money from music sales and complete the
movie.
But the most serious allegation was from the internet portal
indiainfo.com which alleged that Rahman was a religious fanatic. It
reported that
Rahman's mother was stalling the telecast of the second part of an
interview to Sun T.V. because the producer refused to delete Rahman's
reference to the song 'Sankara nadasareerapara' from the movie
'Shankarabharanam' as one of his favourite songs composed by another
music director.
Rahman's mother reportedly wanted it removed because she did not want
her Muslim son to refer to a Hindu song as his favourite!!! The article
described Rahman as a religious fanatic and condemned him for
tolerating his family's religious fanticism. It questioned how a
composer who
had tuned Vandemataram and Jana Gana Mana could do such a thing.
Indiainfo.com stood by its article and claimed that it had thouroughly
investigated the whole issue before publishing the piece and the
journalist in
question was one Kalyan Kumar, formerly with the Tamil edition of India
Today.

Added to the above was the continued stories about Rahman's split with
Vairamuthu. If some magazines were to be believed the whole thing
started when director of 'Udaya' Azhagu Perumal introduced upcoming
lyricist
Ilayakamban to Rahman. Pleased with his work Rahman asked him to do a
song for 'Udaya'. This apparently miffed Vairamuthu who till then was
sole lyricist to Rahman. Presently a whole host of lyricists like
Piraisudai, Arivumudhan, Ilayakamban, Pazhani Bharathi and Vaali are
slated to
work with Rahman. In July Rahman signed Shankar's next film 'Nayak'
starring Anil Kapoor, a remake of 'Mudhalvan'. In addition to reusing
some
songs from the Tamil original Rahman would compose three new songs for
the film. This would be Rahman's sixth film with Shankar. On July 14th
Rahman deposed as a prosecution witness in the bevy of corruption cases
against former Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalitha. Deposing before
judge A C Arumugaperumal Adityan, Rehman said that in July 1995
Jayalalitha's secretary Jawahar Babu had called him up saying that she
wanted
to see him. Rahman and his mother went to see the then chief minister
at
the secretariat. Jayalalitha requested him to perform at the wedding of
her foster son, Sudhakaran, whom she has since disowned. Sudhakaran, a
co-accused in a corruption case against Jayalalitha, is one of the
three nephews of Sasikala Natarajan, Jayalalitha's close friend. Rahman
said that 10 days before the function, Bhaskaran (Sasikala's nephew)
and
his wife came to his house to invite him to the wedding on behalf of
the
groom. As is the custom in Tamil Nadu, they invited him with the card
placed on a silver plate holding a 'kumkum' (vermilion) container and
two silk saris. It is common practice at Hindu weddings to present
vermilion and clothing to friends and relatives on behalf of the bride
and
groom. From the bride's side, legendary actor Sivaji Ganesan's son
Prabhu
invited him. A reception was held on September 6, 1995, a day before
the marriage, and Rahman and his troupe performed for an hour. The ace
music director told the court that he had performed free of charge.

In early August the music of Khaled Mohammed's 'Fiza' was released. For
the first time Rahman took on the mantle of Guest Composer and scored
his first full length qawwalli song 'Piya Haji Ali' for this film. The
song was greatly appreciated by critics and received reviews like 'the
best song of the year' putting to shade the equally appreciable score
of
Anu Malik for the film. Rahman finally said yes to Sanjay Gupta's
'Kaante', work on which would start only in late-2001. Around this time
some
rounds of the popular quiz show Mastermind was shot in Chennai. Among
the participants were the actress Kasthuri who had chosen 'The music of
A. R. Rahman' as her area of specialisation for the quiz. On August
10th the much delayed and much awaited score of 'Rhythm' finally made
it
to the stores. Though the score was above average even by Rahman's
standards it did not live up to the massive expectations from it. But
the
score sold more than 3 lakh cassettes and CDs in just 2 days. On August
14th Rahman appeared at the Planet M store in Mumbai to promote Jana
Gana Mana and followed it up with a visit to Music World in Chennai. At
both places he was mobbed by huge crowds. Amidst all this came the news
that Maniratnam had signed up an upcoming composer by name Dina to
score
the music for his next two productions , one to be directed by himself
and one by his assistant Azhagam Perumal. There were contradictory
reports that Dina would only be doing the Perumal film while Mani
himself
had put off his next film so that Rahman would become a little free and
also try to bring about a patch up between him and Vairamuthu. All the
reports appeared to be speculation and nothing was concrete. Around
this time Rahman also trimmed his hair and returned to his
pre-Vandemataram days look.

A further two concerts were added to his North American tour - one in
Los Angeles on October 6th and another in San Franscisco on October 8th
to make it the first ever concert tour for Rahman and a mammoth one at
that. Rahman appeared in ads on Indian channels in the US endorsing the
Raaga music megastore chains and encouraging people to avoid buying
pirated goods. Though all the shooting was completed for 'Tenaali' the
movie was on hold since Rahman was yet to compose 3 songs for the movie
and director K.S.Ravikumar opted to put off the release of the movie to
October from August than settling for below par compositions from
Rahman. Rahman had reached such a position that getting his 'dates' for
a
movie were proving to be more difficult than that of top-of-the-league
actors like Kamalhassan. In early September 'Rhythm' was released in
Telugu as well. Rahman signed yet another movie with director Rajkumar
Santoshi. Titled, 'The Legend of Bhagat Singh', it was to be a Hindi-
English
bilingual featuring Indian and International performers. One of India's
leading newsmagazines, 'The Week' published a survey it had conducted
to determine the most admired Indians. Rahman was placed at No. 12 just
behind Kamalhaasan and ahead of the likes of Shahrukh Khan and Pandit
Ravishankar. Further signifying his shift to Bollywood, Rahman signed a
movie for the Amitabh Bachchan promoted AB Corp(formerly ABCL) to be
directed by ad-man turned director Rakesh Mehra, starring Abhishek
Bachchan. Rahman followed this up by giving the nod to Shankar for his
next
mega film, 'Robot', starring Kamalhassan and Priety Zinta. The movie,
a
science fiction film was to be produced by Media Dreams the new
production house floated by Pentafour and would be Rahman's seventh
film with
Shankar. In September the media carried reports that Rahman had been
signed by the UK based Shakespeare Foundation to score the music for a
new play on Shakespeare's life. He was supposedly offered an astounding
Rs 300 crores for it.

In a reader poll conducted by Stardust Magazine for the year 1999-2000

Rahman was adjudged Best Composer for 'Taal' by an overwhelming 48% of
the respondents. On September 23rd, the first of the four concerts of
Rahman's North American tour was held at the New York Colloseum in New
York City. Rahman previewed a song from 'Bombay Dreams'(sung by new
singer Karen) and one from 'Zubeida' to a massive audience of 20,000
which
was treated to an array of songs, mostly restricted to the very recent
films, by singers like S.P.Balasubramaniam, Hariharan, Udit Narayan,
Kavitha Krishnamurthy, Sukhvinder Singh etc. Rahman came armed with a
82-member strong troupe. Academy award winning British lyricist Don
Black,
best known for writing the songs for James Bond movies, said as a
special guest at the event that Rahman's genius was in his originality
and
skillful improvisation, the "richness and diversity" he could bring to
Indian notes. Black, who was working with Rahman on Andrew Lloyd
Webber's dance musical 'Bombay Dreams' received a special award for
promoting
world music. The audience was treated to another surprise by the
introduction of percussionist Vikku Vinayagam on the Ghattam. This was
quickly followed by an equally successful one in the Toronto Skydome
on
September 30th which was graced by Hollywood superstar Steven Seagal
who
was reportedly interested in hiring the services of Rahman for one of
his
forthcoming films. Here the audience strength was at 40,000. Responding
prehaps to widespead criticism over his use of pre-recorded pieces in
the New York concert Rahman emphasised that the entire Toronto concert
was being performed completely live and no recorded CD music was being
used. The third concert was staged in Los Angeles on October 6th and
the
final one on October 8th in San Francisco. The most jarring feature of
the concerts was the open expression of displeasure at the choice of
songs by the public at the conert. It appeared that Rahman had misread
the composition of the crowd and played tamil songs where there was a
predominantly Hindi crowd and vice-versa. That apart the concerts were
a
resounding success.

In an uncharacteristic interview to Junior Vikatan magazine Rahman

alleged that some vested interests had tried to sabotage his US concert
tour by influencing the American Consulate to deny visas to key members
of
his troupe. He said that they had to run from pillar to post to get the
visas and many of them landed in New York only on the day of the
concert and since they had no time for rehearsals they ended up using
lot of
recorded music in the concert. In early-October the music of Tenaali
was released in Tamil and Telugu. In mid-October trailors of 'Zubeidaa'
broke on air riding on Rahman's name with the line 'A.R.Rahman is back
scoring music for the story of a princess'. The music released on 16th
of October . It was an unconventional album for Rahman, featuring
mellow songs. 'Muthu' was taken up for dubbing in Hindi. The grapevine
reported that Kamal Haasan was trying to persuade Shankar to drop
Rahman
from their next project 'Robot'. In an interview to Ananda Vikatan
magazine Rahman clarified a whole host of rumours, firstly that nothing
was
wrong between Vairamuthu and him and they would certainly work together
in the future. He also confirmed that he was doing Shankar's 'Robot'
and
denied that he was doing any musical in association with the
Shakespeare Foundation.

On November 1st he presented himself in the Chennai High Court once

again to testify that he had not received any gifts from Jayalalitha
for
her foster son's wedding and had only performed out of respect for the
bride's grandfather Sivaji Ganesan. The grapevine reported that Rahman
would perform with Jennifer Lopez at a football tournament scheduled in
India in 2001. It seemed like Rahman would never stop winning awards in
2000. On November 12th he added two Bollywood Music Awards, for Best
Composer and Best Song to his ever-burgeoning kitty. Rahman returned to
work with mentor and veteran Tamil director K.Balachandar with
'Paarthale Paravasam'. The film to be launched in early January 2001
would star
Madhavan and would be completed in five months. In November the
Birmingham Film Fest paid tribute to Rahman by organising a showcase of
movies
with his music titled 'Sound on the Screen:A.R.Rahman'. Rahman also
appeared at the festival. In an interview to India Abroad News Service
director Deepa Mehta said that she had more or less shelved 'Water' in
view of the protests against the movie. The news was a big
disappointment
for Rahman fans since since Rahman had himself rated his music for the
film as 10 on 10. The ABCL film was tentatively titled 'Awaaz'. In
early December Rahman signed up for one of Indian cinema's most
ambitious
project. The project was 'Taj Mahal-The Great Indian Experience',
India's first film on IMAX that was to be made by none other than
Bharatbala.
In the last week of December the state govt. of Tamil Nadu bestowed his
sixth Best Composer State Award for 'Sangamam'. He received two
nominations for the IMI-Zee Sangeet Awards for Thakshak but didn't win
any.

The year 2000 proved to be a very subdued year for Rahman in terms of
output but was unparalleled for the awards and honours that he received
and his public performances. He had only 6 releases viz. Alai Payuthey,
Kandukondain Kandukondain, Rhythm, Thenali, Zubeidaa and Jana Gana
Mana. Apart from this he donned the role of Guest Composer for the
first
time in 'Fiza'. While Jana Gana Mana was a milestone in terms of the
acclaimed names he worked with, 2000 did not see him break any new
ground
with regard to creative output. Alai Payuthey will probably rank at the
bottom among his six movies with Mani Ratnam. Kandukondain Kandukondain
saw him go more classical than usual but failed to be pathbreaking.
Rhythm disappointed while Tenali was as lacklustre as a Rahman score
could get. The saving grace was Zubeidaa where he managed to a great
extent
in recreating a period score that was mellow. It appeared that Rahman
seemed to have hit a plateau. The most significant development was his
teaming up with Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber and Shekar Kapoor for 'Bombay
Dreams'. 2000 was most fruitful in terms of the recognition he
received.
Except for the National Award he pocketed every other award that was
given. In all he bagged he close to two dozen awards. The crowning
glory was the bestowing of the Padma Shri by the Goverment of India.

THE YEAR - 2001:

2001's first music release was a Rahman score. The much awaited
soundtrack of One 2 Ka 4 released on 3rd January. With the trailor
breaking on
TV in the first week it appeared that Love You Hamesha would finally
see the light of the day. Rahman also signed three new films, one in
Tamil, S.A.Rajkannu's 'Prashanth' and two films in Hindi, one for
choreographer turned director Ahmed Khan and one for producer Vashu
Bhagnani.
The film by Vashu Bhagnani was meant to be a remake of the Tamil film
'Minnale'. Following this he also signed his fourth film for intimate
friend and director Kadhir titled, 'Kadhal Virus'. On January 12th he
personally received his sixth Tamil Nadu State Film Award for Best
Composer
for the film 'Sangamam' from Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M.Karunanidhi.
He also grew his hair back to his Vandemataram look. To add to the ever
growing list, he also gave his nod to Priyadarshan's international
venture in English on the life on freedom fighter Chandrasekhar Azad
titled
'The Last Revolutionary'. The stories and newsreports regarding his
performance with Jennifer Lopez at the finals of the Sahara Millenium
Football Cup in Calcutta on January 25th multiplied though there was no
official word from any quarters. Rahman appeared at a ceremony in
Hyderabad where the Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh Nara Chandrababu
Naidu
honoured the team behind Mudhalvan on the mega-success of its Telugu
version 'Oke Okkadu'. Late January saw the release of the music of Love
You
Hamesha finally. Love You Hamesha was panned by the critics. As January
25th passed, it turned out that the much talked about performance with
Jennifer Lopez at the football tournament were totally unfounded.

Rahman made a suprise appearance at the launch of producer

K.T.Kunjumon's 'Swasam'. What set the tongues wagging was Rahman's
appearance
inspite of the fact that he was not scoring the music for the film. The
same
day Rahman also appeared at the launch of Kadhir's 'Kadhal Virus' were
Maniratnam and Bharatiraaja were present. In February Rahman composed
the theme track and background music for a special short film on the
Indian Navy to coincide with the International Fleet Review that was
held
in Mumbai from February 17th for a week. The filmwas titled 'Jaya He'
and was directed by Bharatbala and Kanika with Amitabh Bachchan doing
the voice over. The event was held in India for the first time. This
intended to build bridges of friendship across the oceans and bring
men-of-war together in a gesture of peace. The major countries that
participated included United States, United Kingdom, Russia, France,
Japan,
Australia and South Africa featuring 25 foreign ships from as many as
19
foreign countries. The gossip rags put out another story about how
Rahman
kept Aamir Khan's wife and executive producer of Lagaan, Reena Khan,
waiting at his residence when she had gone there to give him his
remuneration for the film. The stories spoke about how she waited for
an entire
day and therefore missed her flight back to Mumbai.

Rahman, extended his support to the composer of yesteryears, Naushad in

the setting up of a school for music titled 'Naushad Academy of
Hindustani Sangeet'. Sony Music released another recording of the Dubai
concert in a bid to cash in on the public's expectancy of the release
of the
US concerts. Meanwhile there was talk that Rahman would perform in a
concert in March in Delhi , organised by former US President Bill
Clinton
to raise money for the victims of the devastating Gujarat earthquake.
After it changed hands from Sushilkumar Agrawal, HMV released the music
of the Hindi version of Muthu, 'Muthu Maharaja' in early March. Rahman
was spending a lot of time in this period in London on Bombay Dreams.
Around 50% of the work was completed. In an interview, when he was
asked
what he felt about his own growth as a composer since the Roja days, he
replied 'Roja was an effort to do music that crosses mainstream yet be
alternative-and not remain just film music. My effort primarily has
been to give more and more to the film industry as this is the only
form
of recreation for millions in this country.' Countering ceaseless and
baseless criticism on he being repetitive and gizmo-oriented, he said
'There was a repetitive phase four or five years ago, but I think I've
got
over that. In those days, many directors associated me with Prabhudeva,
and wanted me to only do dance songs. But when you do dance music, you
tend to use the same beat. That wasn't what I consciously wanted to do.
So I began incorporating other sounds. In Taal and Thakshak, I used
north Indian influences, unlike my earlier films, where my music was
south-oriented. Today, my music is more rounded, more balanced. To
satisfy
the director, I create three or four variations of each song. Then we
all decide which tune will work best, and thus avoid repetition. Each
film requires a different attitude, and the use of technology depends
on
the film's subject. In today's times, technology is an extra attribute.
It makes things easier. But I don't depend solely on technology. About
90 per cent of Zubeidaa has been recorded with acoustic instruments.'

The barrage of allegations continued when website tehelka.com, known

for its sensationalisation of news carried an article that accused
Rahman
of growing too big for his boots and spoke of the Tamil film industry
turning its back on him. Among the many things that the article related
was that directors like Bharatiraaja, Mani Ratnam and Rajeev Menon had
given up on him and that Kamal Hassan was trying to force him out of
Shankar's 'Robot'. It also alleged that Rahman had refused Rajnikanth's
next and had insulted him resulting in the superstar being furious with
him. According to the piece, both Rajnikanth and Kamal Hassan were
under the impression that Rahman's accusation that someone big in the
industry had tried to sabotage his US concerts was directed at them. In
mid-March The Hindu reported that Rahman had signed actor-dancer Javed
Jaffrey's directorial debut that would be co-directed by Sangeeth Sivan
with whom Rahman had earlier worked on 'Yoddha'.

In one of his best interviews ever, Rahman spoke in depth about various
issues to the magazine AV Max. Revealing his outlook to compising he
remarked 'I believe that only when you have fun can other people have
fun
too. If you feel tortured, people listening to you will also feel
tortured. So I make it as less torturous for people as I can.
Describing his
mental state before he singed 'Roja' he said, "During 'Roja', I
couldn't foresee what was to come, in that sense it is very special.
Before I
signed 'Roja', I was very satisfied with what I had. I had producers
asking me to compose for commercials and whatever ambitions I had had
long been subjugated. Just before 'Roja' happened to me, I went into a
state of spiritual vacuum, and temporal ambitions took a secondary
place.
In such a state, every moment was surprise. I tended to take what came
as it came rather than hope and foresee too many things and have too
many ambitions. Yeah, the success of 'Roja' surprised all of us, but I
tended, and still tend to look at it philosophically. I think it worked
out better this way because it is no use having too many ambitions and
getting frustrated in the process." Commenting on public opinion he
said, "It can be a little confusing at times. It is an odd fact of my
career that whenever the music of a film I have composed for is
released,
the first reaction is one of non-acceptance. The reaction is that
Rahman
is burnt out, he is getting repetitive, he has no future. Four months
down the line, after the film releases, the same people say that the
music is very good. When I tried and worked on a new sound, and I felt
that at least now they would stop saying I was repetitive. But they
complained that the musc was too radical. Give them something that they
can
predict and they don't like it. Give them something completely new and
they don't like that either." On criticism he opined, "Initially, it
used to hurt, but then I tried to analyse that they were trying to say.
One criticism is that all my tunes sound alike. Now that is not true,
but it could be the use of certain instruments. I used the pan flute in
a
couple of songs and since they sounded alike, it is assumed that the
tune was being repeated. So I switched to a bamboo flute for some time.
I
have switched back to a pan flute it takes time for people to realise
that it is not the tunes but the instruments that are being repeated
and
how the instruments are used is a signature style of the composer, it
takes time to establish that it is the feel of the instruments that is
the same and not the tune."
On the much spoken of 'Rahman sound' he conceded that there was such a
thing 'It is like a personal signature. Take Mohammed Rafi, for
example. He might sing in different raga, but no matter what he sings,
you
know that this is a Rafi song. It is also like a RD Burman track. No
matter what he composes, you know this is a RD Burman composition by
the way
it sounds, by the way the instruments are arranged, and by the way the
song flows. It is possible that every musical composition is imbued
with a bit of the personality of the composer. When I compose, I am not
conscious of a particular style, but yes, people do say that there is
something called a Rahman sound." Speaking about his inspiration he
stated, "Personally, I would say that a sense of spirituality helps a
great
deal. And it is important that you study life as well. Both these
things
will make a better human being, and therefore, a better composer out of
you. Life teaches you what real pain and happiness are, and these
things help in creating better compositions. It works like this: if the
film
demands happy music the composer only has to tap into the wellspring of
happy experiences from his own life to create the right ambience for
that tune. I think this is more improtant than learning all the
technical
gymnastics of music." Explaining his reasons for staying away from the
limelight, he stated "I always wanted my music to be famous, not me.
But I accept that people relate the music to the person. I have tried
to
stay away from becoming a commodity. I have tried to stay away from
becoming a face on a soft drink commercial or something like that, and
it
has worked fine so far. The advantage with this is that the day these
people drop me, nobody will get the impression that I am over and done
with, musically."

On March 23 Rahman won his 13th Filmfare Award for his music in the
film Alai Payuthey at the south Filmfare Awards. Sony Music unleashed
the
pre-release publicity for the music of Lagaan revealing that it would
be released on April 6th. The anticipation of the music heightened
among
the public. After a long series of collaboration in Bharatbala's 'India
Pride' series like Vandemataram, Desh Ka Salaam, Jana Gana Mana and
Jaya He, Rahman teamed up with him once again to score the background
music for a short film called 'India on IMAX'. The film directed by
Bharatbala was shot in IMAX and was meant to showcase the diversity of
India
using the power of the IMAX technology. The short film was screened for
the first time at the inauguration of India's first IMAX theatre, set
up in Mumbai by the Adlabs group, on the 25th of March. The film would
later be screened at IMAX theatres across the world. Rahman was also
present at the launch of this IMAX theatre. After opting out of his
first
film 'Gaja Gamini', Rahman agreed to compose for reknowned painter
M.F.Hussain's second film 'Do Kadam Chal Ke Dekho'. The movie 'Kaante'
was
officially launched and the movie was a multi-composer filmwhich would
involve other composers like Viju Shah, Lucky Ali, Adnan Sami and Salim
and Suleiman Merchant. Rahman was no longer involved in the movie.

On March 31 Rahman participated in a charity music show in Chennai

titled 'Netru Indru Naalai' to raise funds for the organisation 'The
Banyan' involved in caring for disabled children. The concert which was
centered around children had Rahman conducting the music for two songs,
'Achcham Illai' from Indira and 'Chanda Suraj' from Vandemataram. He
later
made a public donation for the organisation. It was speculated that
Rahman would score the music for Kamalhassan's next film 'Pammal
Sambandham'. But it turned out that Deva was doing the music. He lost
the
national award to Anu Malik's Refugee for which he was in contention
with
scores like Kandukondain Kandukondain, Alai Payuthey and Zubeidaa. The
Times of India caused a furore by reporting that Shankar had replaced
Rahman with Harris Jeyaraj in Robot. But it turned out that it was
false
news. There was also news that Shankar was launching another movie
titled
'Power' starring Aishwarya Rai, Lara Dutta and Prashanth. But there was
no confirmation if Rahman would score the music for the film.

Bharatbala revealed more information on India's first IMAX film, Taj

Mahal. The film would be released in August 2002 and would be exhibited
all over the world. To be produced by Scott Swofford of Vineyard
Productions the film received financing from India Lotus Inc, a
consortium of
Indian tech enterpreneurs like Kanwal Rekhi, K B Chandrasekhar, B V
Jagdeesh and Gururaj Deshpande, and the IMAX Corporation. Rahman seemed
to
be on an uncharacteristic signing spree and the latest film in his
kitty was 'Dil Ne Jise Apna Kaha' starring Salman Khan, Aishwarya Rai,
Sohail Khan and directed by debutant director Atul Agnihotri. Rahman,
participated in a special feature in the Tamil children's magazine
Chutti
Vikatan wherein he replied to queries from children. A special show on
the music of 'Lagaan' was aired on DD Metro on April 1 and had everyone
in raptures about the music. 'Lagaan' which was scheduled to be
released
on April 6 was premiered on Doordarshan on April 1 and was actually
available in overseas markets on April 3. The score was also released
on
the internet before the official release. Thye music was outstanding
and
was fully in consonance with the period and story of the film. The
soundtrack sold out within hours of release. Rahman appeared at the
soundtrack release in Planet M, New Delhi to promote the soundtrack of
Lagaan.
Rahman also put in appearances at Planet M in Mumbai to promote the
music of Lagaan. On April 8 he recieved his 13th Filmfare Award, for
'Alai
Payuthey' at the Filmfare Awards ceremony in Hyderabad. He accepted an
offer to compose for actor-director Parthiban's film 'Yelelo'.

On April 14th Rahman was present at the launch of 'Yelelo' along with
stalwarts like Mani Ratnam, Shankar and Kamal Hassan. At the ceremony
Rahman revealed that he had accepted the film because of its rural
subject and would try to blend Irish folk music with Tamil folk music
in the
film. Sudha Raghunathan, the acclaimed Carnatic classical singer
rendered the title song of the movie at the launch function. He won
over
another serious filmmaker when veteran director M.S.Sathyu signed him
up
for his next film, 'Neecha Aasmaan'. On April 30, Rahman was awarded
the
Awadh Samman, a honour conferred on outstanding artistes by the
Government of Uttar Pradesh. Rahman received the same from Vishnu Hari
Shastri, the Governor of Uttar Pradesh. Speaking to a newspaper, Andrew
Llyod
Webber commented on the upcoming 'Bombay Dreams' thus, "I haven't heard
a musical in the last 20 years which has got such good tunes. Rahman is
fantastic. His music is so beautiful, and I believe what he is writing
is so far ahead of the game that we could be talking about the future
of musicals for a very long time. I really look on Rahman as someone I
can pass the mantle on to." The M.S.Sathyu film was titled 'Neechcha
Aasmaan'. The pre-release promotions for Lagaan spoke of Rahman
visiting
Bhuj thrice with all his accompaniments to get the right feel for the
score.

The music of 'Star' released in May. There were five songs, one
original, one resued from Earth and three reused from 'Thakshak'. The
album
was way below the mark. All the songs dubbed from the Hindi originals
were infintely better in their inital avatar. The new song was no great
shakes either. Coming a full 7 months after his last Tamil release ,
'Tenali', 'Star' did precious little to regain the ground Rahman had
lost
to composers like Harris Jayaraj(Minnale) and Karthik Raja(Dumm Dumm
Dumm) in 2001. Some new films for Rahman were producer Tahir Hussain's
'Ada' in Hindi. Kamal Hassan revealed in Filmfare in June that Rahman
had
been signed to do the music of his forthcoming film to be directed by
K.S.Ravikumar, post-Pammal Sambandham. Rahman also gave the nod to Mani
Ratnam's next, their seventh together, tentatively titled 'Kannathil
Muthammittal'. In an interview to Minnambalam ezine Illaiyaraja
clarified
about a controversy that erupted three years ago in 1998 regarding a
ring. In a musical function arranged to felicitate musical greats
Illayaraja and M S Vishwanathan, a ring was presented to each of them.
A R
Rahman had presented the rings and put them on their fingers. Raja
immediately removed the ring and presented it back to Rahman.
Explaining what
had transpired that day, Raja clarified that he does not wear gold
ornaments and also disliked jewellery. When the ring was put on his
finger
he was caught unawares. The first thing that he did was put it back on
Rahman's finger. He had refused rings even from MGR on stage once. The
press had blown it out of proportion and written negatively about his
relation with Rahman. He didn't do it to insult anyone, he explained.
In
June, noted cricket expert Harsha Bhogle revealed when writing in The
Week magazine that the New Zealand born coach of the Indian cricket
team, John Wright, had along with the Star Sports channel, used videos
set
to the music of Rahman's Maa Tujhe Salaam to motivate the Indian
cricket team during a tough series against Australia earlier in the
year.
Co-inciding with the summit between Indian Prime Mnister Atal Behari
Vajpayee and Pakistan President Parvez Musharaff, there were reports
that
Rahman would perform in two concerts in Pakistan later in the year as a
part of the effort to increase the people-to-people contact between the
two countries. On July 5th the music of 'Nayak'was released to a
characteristically disappointed response. Five of the songs were
carried over
from the original, Mudhalvan while there were two new songs which
sounded like a half-hearted effort from Rahman. Rahman made a donation
of
Rs. 5 lakhs for earthquake relief in Gujarat. Rahman was awarded the
Best
Music Director Award for his work in 2000 by Film Today, a Tamil film
magazine. Rahman accepted Producer K Prabhakaran's Ashoka starring
Arjun
and directed by Shaji Kailas. Rahman had early done a movie called Love
Story for the same producer but that movie never saw the light of the
day. The Rahman composition Bombay Theme was used in ad for a Mineral
water in France starring the famous French footballer Zenadine Zidane.
Erstwhile Rahman flunkey Harris Jayaraj's second release Majnu, wholly
reminiscent of his first Minnale took the charts by storm.

Rahman's almost year long absence from the Tamil scene save for the
reused 'Star' which bombed, was taking a toll on his stature in the
Tamil
film industry. Rahman was likely to score the music for Rajnikanth's
forthcoming film. Rahman received a double nomination in the Zee Gold
Bollywood Music Awards scheduled to be held in New York on the 10th of
November. He was nominated for 'Zubeidaa' and 'Lagaan'. Rahman's
'Bombay
Theme' was featured in two other international albums, 'Paradisiac' and
'Flying Carpet'. Further 'Kehna Hi Kya' was included in the music
curriculum in Ontario in Canada. On August 15th 2001, Rahman completed
9
years in the Indian Film Industry. Director Rakesh Mehra stated that
Rahman was doing the music for his next film 'Samjhauta Express',
earlier
titled 'Awaaz'. In an interview to MTV, Rahman revealed that he was
working on Tanveer Ahmed's 'Ada', Shyam Benegal's next 'Ganga' and
Khalid
Mohammed's "Tehzeeb' starring Shabana Azmi and Tabu.

On August 25th, Rahman was felicitated by the Al-Ameen Foundation in

Bangalore and was awarded the Al-Ameen Community Award. Shaad Ali,
assistant to Mani Ratnam sounded out Rahman to work on his Hindi remake
of
Alai Payuthey which was being produced by Yash Chopra. For the Tanveer
Ahmed film, Ada, produced by Jhamu Sughand and starring Dilip Kumar and
Amitabh Bachchan, Rahman completed recording six songs. Rahman was
nominated twice, for Lagaan and Zubeidaa, at the International
Bollywood
Music Awards to be held in New York on Novermber 10th. In early
October,
Malaysian information minister Khalil Yaakob, who was on a visit to
India to study the Indian film industry led a delegation on a vist of
Rahman's hi-tech Panchathan Record Inn as well. Rahman came in for
another
round of severe criticism for his slow pace of work. It was more than a
year since he had had an original release in Tamil. Films like
'Udhaya', 'Alli Arjuna' and 'Paarthale Paravasam' were said to be
delayed
because of his failure to record the songs on time. In October Rahman
gave
the nod to Tamil actor Nasser's directorial venture, 'Dheem Tharakita
Thom', starring Mohanlal in the lead.

Going back to one of the very first languages he worked in, Rahman
agreed to compose for director Priyadarshan's dream project on the
weavers
of Kancheepuram to be made in Malayalam on a shoestring budget. An
American company called Mondo released an album of Rahman's Hindi and
Tamil
songs along with one song each of R D Burman and Vishal, called Mondo
India to promote his music in the western world and it drew rave
reviews
wherein Rahman was described as "possibly the greatest of the modern
filmi composers, and a man who can seamlessly marry Indian and Western
melodies, instruments, and techniques in a way no one has managed
before.
He is to the Bollywood scene what Ennio Morricone or Nino Rota have
been to European cinema: people who transcend the idea of score and
soundtrack to bring forth pieces like "Dheeme Dheeme" that can stand
alone as
pieces of music." The music of Paarthale Paravasam which was due to be
released in late October was delayed amidst reports of several music
labels fighting over the rights to the soundtrack. 'Bombay Theme' was
featured in yet another International compilation 'Cafe Del Mar Vol 5 '
in
what was the fifth occasion after 'Anokha', 'Chakra', Paradisiac' and
'Flying Carpet'.

The Bombay Theme was featured in yet another French compilation titled
'Fly' and was also used in the ad for a French brand of mineral water
titled 'Volvic' featuring footballer Zinedine Zidane. Paarthale
Paravasam finally released amidst a mjor controversy over the rights
between
HMV, Challenge Music and Hit Music. K. Balachander sold the rights of
Paarthale Paravasam to both Challenge Music, a Pondicherry based
company
and HMV. When HMV learnt of it they questioned KB who offered to buy
back the rights from Challenge music. Challenge Music, for whom
Paarthale
Paravasam was the first major release, refused and went ahead with the
production of the cassettes. HMV went to court and obtained a stay
order from the Madras High Court restraining Challenge Music from
producing
or selling cassettes of Paarthale Paravasam. Defying the stay order,
Challenge Music wente ahead and distributed the cassettes saying that
it
had already manufactured 3.5 lakh cassettes and would be ruined if it
was not allowed to sell them. Armed with the stay order HMV organised
police raids to seize cassettes released by Challenge Music. Finally
the
music released on all the labels though HMV's was claimed to be the
genuine one. The music was very experimental and unlike Rahman and
received a overwhelmingly positive response from fans but was received
very
badly by listeners by and large. K.Balachander and Rahman-The Duet
duo-failed to love up to the massive expectations and both music and
film met
a sorry fate.

Rahman gave the nod to a new film, 'Naran' starring Kamal Haasan and
Amitabh Bachchan to be directed by K S Ravikumar which said to be man
and
beast story. While the movie was a Tamil-Hindi bilingual Rahman
suggested that the movie be made in Hindi as well. Rahman was also
signed up
for the Hindi remake of Alai Payuthey , 'Saathiya' to be directed by
Shaad Ali, Mani Ratnam's assistant. The film would feature music from
Alai
Payuthey along with new compositions. Rahman took up a Telugu
assignment after nearly 7 years when he accepted producer A.M.Rathnam's
film
that was launching his son Jyothi Krishna as director. In an interview
to
the Tamil magazine Anandha Vikatan cricketing legend Sachin Tendulkar
revealed that he was a great fan of Rahman's music. At a delayed
ceremony, Rahman was awarded the prestigious V Shantaram Award for Best
Composer for 'Taal'. There were reports that Rahman had opted out of
Nasser's
'Dheem Tharakita Thom' which was retitled 'Popcorn' with Yuvan Shankar
Raja as composer. Even Parthiban who launched 'Yelelo' with much
fanfare seemed to have abandoned the project and moved on to other
things.

Mani Ratnam held a press conference to announce the completion of

'Kannathil Muthamittal' with the music expected to be released in late
December. Director Vasanth said in an interview to The Hindu that he
was
working on making a 'different' love story titled '9-30 to 10-00' that
would have music by Rahman. Shankar too put his mega-project 'Robot' on
the backburner and commenced work on a small budget movie called 'Boys'
with Rahman's music. There was no word yet on Rajinikanth's next movie.
Rahman meanwhile started work on Raj Kumar Santoshi's ambitious 'The
Legend of Bhagat Singh'. The song that he recorded was described by the
producer Kumar Taurani of TIPS Films as "It is a unique song which,
besides giving the periodic feel, has a fresh feel about it." The
newspaper
Dinmani reported that a 9-th standard schoolgirl called Vidya had sung
for Rahman in 'Kannathil Muthamittal'. Rahman had chosen the girl from
his alma mater Padma Sheshadri Bala Bhavan. Sify.com carried a story
that Paarthale Paravasam had flopped because of the delay in the
release
of the music and added that record companies were demanding that Rahman
scores be released atleast 45 days prior to the release of the movie
and TIPS was sore about Rahman not delivering the music of Kannathil
Muthamittal on time.

Meera Syal, the writer who was writing the script for 'Bombay Dreams'
said in an interview to Savvy Magazine that it was Rahman's involvement
that finally made her accept and that his music was fabulous and as a
person he was intense yet unassuming. Rahman's sister Rehana, in an
interview to Kungumam magazine spoke in depth about her relationship
with
him, 'He's a born genius', we kept fighting with each other while we
were kids, the whole family lives for Rahman by doing everything we can
to support him, Rahman is also interested in photography but doesnt get
adequate time to explore it further." The music of Alli Arjuna finally
released on 19 December. The music was a rehash of songs from multiple
movies , '1947', 'Pukar' and 'One 2 Ka 4' and took Rahman to a new low.
Meanwhile the music if Kannathil Muthamittal and its Telugu avatar
'Amrutha' was eagerly awaited. Participating in a seminar organised by
the
Indian Performing Rights Society in Chennai on December 22, Rahman
spoke about the importance of valuing Intellectual Property Rights and
was
also felicitated by the IPRS on the occasion. Rahman received his
felicitation from Naushad.

2001 was every bit unlike what we have seen from Rahman thus far. He
had just one original release in Tamil, Paarthale Paravasam which was a
massive non-success. His other two releases Star and Alli Arjuna were
irresponsible rehashes of his earlier work. Coupled with the massive
success of other composers like Harris Jeyraj, Karthik Raja and Yuvan
Shankar , Rahman's stock in the Tamil industry probably touched its
lowest
level ever. People were questioning his commitment to the Tamil
industry. His forays in Bollywood were not particularly memorable
either.
Though no one can accuse him of being lackadaisical in his score for
One 2
Ka 4 , which was probably the best conventional Bollywood score from
Rahman so far, the fact that the movie was terrible took the music down
with it, calling into question Rahman's choice of films and filmmakers.
His score in Nayak, partly reused from Mudhalvan, was also torn to
shreds. Zubeidaa, the music of which released in 2001, received much
critical acclaim but did not attract attention independent of the film
itself
which was aimed at a niche audience. The saving grace for Rahman in an
abysmal 2001 was Lagaan. A film with massive expectations and lot of
hype that could have proved counter-productive. But Rahman delivered.
And
the music became a massive hit. But the appeal of the music was largely
in context of the film itself. By way of awards Rahman picked up the
usual bunch of Filmfare and assorted other awards. But without question
2001 was the most subdued and lacklustre year in Rahman's 10 year long
career, making one hope that all the attention Rahman was paying
towards
Bombay Dreams would pay off in the subsequent year.
THE YEAR - 2002
2002 began with everyone hoping that Rahman would firmly put a dismal
2001 behind him. The first significant event of the year was Rahman
receiving a double nomination for Lagaan at the annual Screen Awards.
Rahman was nominated for both Best background Score and Best Score
categories for 'Lagaan'. In reaction Rahman said, "My effort was to
combine
classical and folk to create period music. I think what has worked
about
the music of Lagaan is that all the departments—lyrics, background
score
and vocals—connected. Everyone gave their best. While composing, the
involvement with the script, cast and director makes a lot of
difference.
And in Lagaan I was involved in every aspect of the film. People like
Aamir Khan and director Ashutosh Gowarikar are the kind of people who
live a film. You look at the script through their eyes and you know
what
to do, and what not to do. " Director Pravinkanth took out a huge ad in
the newspapers on Rahman's 35th birthday on January and used the
opportunity to announce his next film 'Thullal' supposedly with music
by
Rahman making one seriously question Rahman's wisdom in continuing his
association with the director. Some newer reports spoke of Rahman
actually
doing Nasser's Popcorn which was supposedly based on the life of
Illayaraja.

Even as Parthiban put off 'Yelelo' came in the news that Karunanidhi
was writing a song with the Pongal festival as its theme for the film.
January 11th saw Rahman taking the Zee Cine Awards for Best Composer
for
'Lagaan', the first awards of the year. January 12th marked the first
release of the year for Rahman, the much awaited Kannathil Muthamittal,
his seventh outing with Mani Ratnam. Much was expected from the
combination and in keeping with the demands of the film Rahman turned
out an
appropriate score that went down well with his fans but not so much
with
the masses at large. Rahman was nominated for the music of Lagaan at
the 48th Filmfare Awards on January 17th. In a strange incident the
quirky Bal Thackeray announced that he was declaring a ban on
synthesisers
since it was spoiling Indian culture and music and vented his ire on
Rahman describing his music as the sound of washing vessels. On January
18th, Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy bagged the Screen Award for their peppy score
in
Dil Chahta Hai beating Rahman who was nominated for Lagaan.

Several tamil newsmagazines reported that Rahman had signed

K.Balachander's next to be directed by his assistant Selva inspite of
the debacle
of Paarthale Paravasam. The Times of India also reported that Pakistani
Sufi singer Abida Parveen was supposed to record a song for 'Saathiya'
but was unable to make it to Chennai for the recording because of the
prevailing political climate between India and Pakistan. Kamal Hassan
also announced plans for his next film with K.S.Ravikumar now titled
'Panchatantram'. There were reports that he was planning to approach
Rahman
to score for the movie. Outlook magazine published a snippet that the
Delhi based health products company Morepen Labs was in the final
stages
of negotiations with Rahman to compose a 'Health Anthem' for their
upcoming ad campaign. Dinmani newspaper reported that Rahman had asked
for
gists of a few important prose/ poetry from classical tamil literature.
Lyricist Ilayakamban had given such a collection to Rahman. Rahman
planned to use them in subsequent movies. Rahman dashed to London to
be
present at the official launch of Bombay Dreams on February 7th. The
glittering function was attended by several dignitaries and several
encomiums were showered on Rahman. Remarked Webber, " In Rahman I met
someone
who I believe could carry the torch of musical theatre into a new
dimension". IN a question by the BBC on what the he felt the difference
was
in composing in India and London, Rahman remarked that back in India he
got Mom's food while in London he had to live on tinned food. The
musical would premiere in London's Apollo Victoria theatre on May 31
and
have regular shows from June 19.

Rahman apparently met director S.J.Surya on a flight from Mumbai to

Chennai and gave the nod to compose for his next film 'New'. Meanwhile
Kamal Hassan put his project with Rahman, Naran, on hold and went ahead
with 'Panchatantram' for which he signed Deva. Rahman gave the green
signal to the makers of a T.V. serial based on noted Tamil literateur
Kalki's epic Ponniyin Selvan. To be produced by a Singapore based
company
Hebron Image Makers the serial was to be directed by T.V.Raja starring
M.N.Nambiar, Vijayakumar and K.R.Vijaya among others. The serial was to
be screened on Sun T.V. Vairamuthu is to pen the lyrics. Meanwhile it
was also clarified that Kannathil Muthamittal was held up only because
of
censor issues and not any delay on the part of Rahman. Several critics
praised Kannathil Muthamittal's music as reflecting a 'new found
maturity' in his music. Rahman's films for Vashu Bhagnani and Ahmed
Khan
converged with Vashu Bhagnani launching his next production starring
Kareena Kapoor, Tusshar Kapoor and Abhishek Bachchan directed by Ahmed
Khan.
Rahman hit back by bagging his 14th Filmfare Award for 'Lagaan' which
he received at a glittering ceremony in Mumbai on February 16th.
Women's
magazine Femina once again named Rahman in a list of men women like -
"The small, humble man for his soul-stirring music and for making us
sing ‘Vande Mataram’ again.

On February 12th Lagaan became only the third Indian film to be

nominated to the Oscars thus providing Rahman another platform to
deliver his
music from. Sony made plans to promote the music of the film as well.
Says Shreedhar Subramanium, managing director, Sony Music:
“Internationally the album is being released as a mainstream album.
We’ve modified
the product, included the song book and made it multilingual. We’re
also
tying up with Columbia Tristar and selling the music at the venue,
retailing at theatres.” Being a period film, the music has been
marketed
differently. The background score has also been added to the album.
Though the main target is the Indian community, the hype spills over to
the
international media." Kannathil Muthamittal finally released on
February 15th and was unanimously acclaimed as Mani Ratnam's best movie
to
date. Mani had consciously diluted the importance of the songs in the
movie. There was some criticism about Rahman's background music being
inadequate. The movie featured a sequence where Amudha, the lead
character
carries a purse with her that always contains the photograph of Rahman.
Producer A.M.Rathnam widely publicised 'Enakku 20 Unakku 18', the Tamil
dubbed version of his Telugu film 'Nee Manasu Naaku Telusu'.

After a prolonged wait of three years Rajnikanth finally announced a

new film titled 'Baba' scripted by himself. Rahman gave the nod to
compose the music of the film. On March 12th Rahman was nominated twice
in
the Best Music category for 'Zubeidaa' and 'Lagaan' at the 3rd
International Indian Film Academy Awards to be held in Malaysia on
April 6th. The
Arjun starrer 'Ashoka' was revived as 'Chanakya' and the film directed
by Shaji Kailas went on the floors again. Rajnikanth's 'Baba' too went
on the floors on 24th March in a low profile launch. Sony Music
released a new double cassette of Lagaan with the dialogues and a new
song Zin
Kinak Zin which was not picturised in the film on the same day.
'Lagaan' failed in its quest for an Oscar when it was pipped to the
post by
Bosnian film 'No Man's Land' but Rahman had his moment under the
Hollywood sun when O Re Chhori was played during the listing of
nominated films
at the awards ceremony. Rahman made a tour of Landmark and Music World
stores in Spencer Plaza, Chennai to interact with listeners, in March.
In its April 2002 edition, Filmfare magazine wrote about Rahman thus,
"A.R.Rahman was his usual humble self. After receiving his award he
quietly sat with the Times of India employees in the wings so that the
latecomers could get front seats. Rahman tujhe salaam!"

In a resounding testimony of Rahman's growing stature as a global

artiste, London based music group the Bollywood Brass Band announced
that
they were coming out with an album titled, 'Rahmania', a tribute to
Rahman containing 16 of Rahman's tracks mixed and played by the band.
The
album is to release in June. Said Mark Allen, manager of the group
"A.R.
Rahman is a wonderful composer, and has also led a revolution in
production quality using modern digital techniques. Musically he brings
in a
lot of South Indian vocal and drum styles, but he seems to listen to
everything from everywhere, so you could say he is a world music
artist".
On the 6th of April, Rahman was awarded the IIFA for Best Music for
'Lagaan' at the 3rd International Indian Film Academy Awards in
Malaysia.
On the 7th The Guardian newspaper of England carried an interview with
Andrew Lloyd Webber in which Webber described Rahman as being in the
league of Paul McCartney. In keeping with the attention that Bombay
Dreams was generating, this was followed up by an article on Rahman in
the
London tabloid THe News of the World. The article spoke of him having
sold more records than Madonna and Britney Spears put together.

For the umpteenth time reports spoke of the long-stalled 'Engineer'

being revived. But there appeared no concrete moves on the same.
Rajinikanth roped in former Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Karunanidhi to
write a
song for his 'Baba' thus making it the second time Rahman was composing
a
song penned by the Kalaignar, the first time being in 'Yelelo'. The
Bollywood Brass Band's Rahmania released on April 15. On April 25,
Rahman
appeared at the launch of ImagineAsia, an eight month long festival in
London meant to showcase cinema from the Indian sub-continent.
Bollywood was showcased at the Selfridges store in London with Rahman
music
playing in the store throughout the festival. Speaking to the Press
Trust
of India, Rahman revealed that he had been offered two Hollywood
projects by Sony's Columbia Pictures but refused to divulge any more
details.
Director S.J.Surya confirmed that Rahman would be scoring the music for
his forthcoming film 'New' expected to go on the floors in the latter
half of the year. Rahman was nominated in the Best Music category for
'Lagaan' at the 3rd Annual Zee Gold Bollywood Awards. Rahman was also
invited to be part of the Indian delegation at the prestigious Cannes'
Film Featival to be held in late-May. With the impending release of
Bombay
Dreams, the publicity for the musical was touching a feverish pitch
with every mainstream publication and newspaper according extraordinary
coverage to the musical. It was supposed to have 70% new compositions
and
the rest were reworked from Rahman's earlier compositions.

Meanwhile an article in Dhina Bhoomi newspaper spoke of Rahman setting

one of A.B.Vajpayee's poems to tune for a compilation album planned by
Director Priyadarshan. The music of 'The Legend of Bhagat Singh'
released in early May and perhaps for the first time , a composer
shared as
much space on the inlay card as the lead artiste when Rahman's mug shot
got the entire bottom half of the inlay card of the film's CDs and
cassettes. A report in the Dinamani newspaper said that Rahman would
compose the music for a short film to be made by Director Priyadarshan
for
this year's Independence Day and would star child artiste Keerthana and
the Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee. A report in the
Economic
Times on the highest tax payers in the past year from the entertainment
industry listed Rahman at No. 27, the highest tax paying
composer/musician in the country. Rahman apparently paid taxes to the
tune of Rs. 60
lakhs in 2001-2002.

The publicity for Bombay Dreams touched a feverish pitch with Webber
managing to get nearly every publication of note to do a feature on
Bombay Dreams. The first preview held on May 31 also received a
favourable
response. 'Shakalaka Baby' which was released as a single also became
an
instant chartbuster. The British press hailed Rahman as the 'Asia
Mozart'. Amidst all these glowing reports came in news that
Rajanikanth's
baba was getting delayed because of Rahman. The Legend of Bhagat Singh
was released on June 7th and Rahman was hailed for his music and
background score while the movie itself was described as 'close to a
masterpiece'. The songs picked up with the release of the film. Sony
Music
announced that it had picked up the rights for the Bombay Dreams
soundtrack
and a forthcoming Instrumental album of Rahman. In an interview to The
Hindu veteran Malayalam composer Isaac Thomas Kottukapally revealed
that
he had a long standing association with Rahman and Rahman's first ever
independent music composition was a jingle for an ad film made by Mr.
Isaac in Cochin in 1987.

The much awaited musical Bombay Dreams has its soundtrack released on
the 17th of June and two days later the show itself was premiered at
the
Apollo Victoria Theatre in London. Speaking about Rahman the show's
producer, Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber said "ARR is the best composer I've
heard in my lifetime." Lyric writer Don Black said, "Rahman is a
genius. It
has proved a weird, if uplifting, experience. You can't compare Rahman
to any other composer - for a start he is very religious. He sits down
and improvises for about an hour and I say 'I love that' and he
develops those bits. In a way, I'm a song detective." There are other
benefits. Normally when you write with a composer it is hard work. But
with
Rahman being a spiritual person, it is very much 'it will happen when
it
happens'. If you are in the middle of a song and it gets difficult he
is
quite happy to leave it. The other thing is he has a wholly different
attitude to deadlines in the creative process from the Western one,
which I'm obviously used to. His approach is the song will come when it
comes, which is a bit nerve-wracking to start with, but — along with a
bit
of prompting from me regarding deadlines — it eventually seemed to
work."

Director Steve Plimlott says, "Rahman is a melodic genius, and I don't

use the word 'genius' very often. In India, people say he's their
Mozart, and it's sort of true." The star studded premiere show was
attended
by Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber, his wife Madeliene Webber, socialite Ivana
Trump, director Shekhar Kapoor, pop star Bob Geldof, actor Sir Michael
Caine, TV personality Sir David Frost, Shahrukh Khan, Juhi Chawla,
Naseeruddin Shah, Subhash Ghai from Bollywood, musicians Talvin Singh
and
Nitin Sawhney, Industrialist Laxmi Mittal, former Miss World Diana
Hayden among others and ended with a standing ovation being accorded to
Rahman and Webber.The critics, fans and the press were almost unanimous
in
their praise of Rahman's music in Bombay Dreams. The CD rose to No. 6
on Amazon's sales charts.

Said a fan, "This album encapsulates the essence of Bollywood, from the
first sweeping strings to the breath taking dance numbers. I was not a
fan of asian music, but this album has certainly made me change my
mind. A R Rahman's ground breaking music fuses ethnic indian with
western
beats. The songs are simply stunning and lyrical. IN a review in
Mid-day, South Asian film expert Naman R S wrote, "Rahman can now take
his
rightful place as one of the greatest living composers on the planet.
From
tender ballads to rambunctious foot-stompers to a satisfyingly
percussive background score, he pulls out all the musical stops and
creates a
work that showcases his unique talent." The BBC wrote " It was
inevitable with any 19 track album to have a mixed bag of hit and miss
songs,
some were amazing others forgettable, but all in all a remarkable
achievement." Times Online opined "it's incredibly catchy, full of
soaring
ballads and — when the drums stop pounding — gilded with beguiling
instrumental colour."

But there were a couple of dissenting opinions as well. The Independent

wrote, "A R Rahman has written a few pleasant tunes, but the overall
sound is more background than foreground, and a lot of the music is
routine "oriental" stuff, the sort of thing one would hear in an old
movie."
And This is London mag said, "The music by the famous Indian composer,
AR Rahman, played by a tiny, 10-strong orchestra, falls blandly between
two worlds. Far too often it sounds more western than Indian. The mix
is dull. So the chance of hearing a fresh score scarcely materialises."

The show itself received a mixed response with descriptions that ranged
from "disappointing" to "refreshing". Reuters summed up the reaction of
the British Press as,"British critics gave theatre impresario Andrew
Lloyd Webber's latest musical adventure, an extravagant version of
Bollywood love story Bombay Dreams, a qualified thumbs up on Thursday
after
its London premier." The Daily Mail said "Once you enter the spirit,
the
show, cannily produced by Andrew Lloyd Webber, is a delight.And it
brings to a mainstream audience the astounding musical talent of AR
Rahman,
the 36-year-old "Asian Mozart" from Madras who has sold more records
than Madonna and Britney Spears combined." The Daily Express wrote
"Great
fun, great costumes, and a refreshing change from every other West End
show." But the Independent was very critical, " It's a shame that this
potentially thrilling subject is crippled by formula and mediocrity.
Bombay Dreams may have the right ingredients, but the whole samosa is
less than the sum of its parts." Back in India The Hindu said that
Bombay
Dreams opened to a disappointing response but added, "The only winner,
according to critics, is A.R.Rahman's music and even if Bombay Dreams
fails to take off, as seems likely, his own popularity would only
soar."

On June 29th Rahman appeared at the annual Bollywood Movie Awards in

New York to receive the Best Composer Award for 'Lagaan'. Daxco
Digital,
a leading acoustics firm announced that it had been selected by Rahman
to equip a new state-of-the-art studio that he was building in Chennai.
To be spread over a area of more than 5000 sq. ft. area Rahman's famed
Panchathan Record Inn would move here on completion. Slated to be
completed by end-2002 it will house a recording studio as well as a
film mix
stage . The studios will not only house a full-blown Recording Suite
but also a Film Mix Stage where final mix-downs will take place. The
Acoustic Design & Architectural plans for the studios were made by
Studio
440 , acoustic architects from CA, USA who have designed studios for
Interscope/ Universal Music Group , Warner Brothers , Burbank ,
California
and Saban Entertainment , just to name a few. The studio is expected to
be one of the best in Asia.

Bombay Dreams, which had a slow start, went on to become a major hit
through word-of-mouth publicity and its run was extended by more than
year. A relieved Andrew Lloyd Webber announced plans to take Bombay D
reams to Broadway in 2003-2004. Bombay Dreams ended up becoming the
biggest
West End hit of the year. The music of Bombay Dreams was released to
wide spread publicity in India in mid-july with Rahman making an
appearance at Planet M in Mumbai and Music World in Chennai to release
the
music. The British press crowned him with the title 'Mozart of the
East'.
In India too, the Bombay Dreams score turned into a chart-topper,
hitting the number one spot for five continuous weeks on MTV India
World
Chart Express the list includes top albums from the US and Australia.
And
Sony Music, which had the rights to the music, said it had a hit on its
hands and had already sold 150,000 copies despite the fact that it was
priced at a premium like other international numbers and was in
English. Webber summed up, "In Rahman, I met someone who I believe
could carry
the torch of musical theatre into a new dimension."

Recounting his experience of working with Rahman on Bombay Dreams,

lyricist Don Black said, "Rahman is a genius, but as he comes from such
a
different culture, working with him took a bit of time getting used to!
You'd be chatting about a song, and suddenly he's get up and leave the
room. Before I got to know him well I thought, 'Has he gone to the loo?
Is it something I said?' but what he actually does is just get up, go
out, and pray. He's a very spiritual man. he has a wholly different
attitude to deadlines in the creative process from the Western one,
which
I'm obviously used to. His approach is the song will come when it
comes,
which is a bit nerve-wracking to start with, but along with a bit of
prompting from me regarding deadlines it eventually seemed to work."

July 27th marked a momentous day in the history of contemporary Indian

music. It was ten years to the day that the music of Roja was released.
In the 10 years that followed this occasion Rahman had brought about a
sea change in Indian music and taken it international. And it was only
rhe beginning. The icing of the cake was the announcement of the award
of the National Film Awards for the year with Rahman bagging the Best
Composer award for Lagaan, this being his third national award, a feat
unmatched by any of his contemporaries. The much awaited music of Baba
released in early August to a tepid response. The music did not have
the
mark of Rahman in it and was greeted by disappointment by both Rahman
and Rajni fans. The music was widely proclaimed to be the worst of the
Rahman-Rajni partnerships. With the movie also flopping, Baba added to
Rahman's recent streaks of flops in Tamil cinema. Rahman signed
debutant
director Ranjith's 'Swami' which was the Tamil version of the bilingual
film titled 'Nandanam' in Malayalam. Rahman also signed director
S.J.Suryah's 'New'. The movie was launched at a gala ceremony on August
15th
with Rahman being prominently featured in all the publicity material.
'New' was to be remade in Telugu with Mahesh Babu as 'Naani'. In an
interview to Gulf News Rahman said that he was exploring the
possibility of
a concert in Dubai in 2003. August 15th marked the 1oth anniversary of
the release of Roja, a day that heralded a metamorphosis of Indian film
music. Rahman announced plans for a concert tour of the USA and Canada
in early 2003.

In its edition dated August 18th, India's leading business magazine,

Business Today carried feature on India's most Global corporate brands.
one of which was Rahman. 16% of all people surveyed across the globe
said that they had heard of Rahman. "The numbers tell the story of Alla
Rakha Rahman's standing in India: 107 million albums sold.
International
recognition has been nudging him for some time. With Andrew Lloyd
Webber's Bombay Dreams, though, Rahman may have arrived. Miramax is
taking
the show to New York, and the buzz in Chennai (Rahman's base) is that
he
has signed on for a couple of Broadway musicals. The man himself is
busy working on one of the five films he does every year", wrote the
magazine.

On August 16, it was announced that India's leading telecom services

company Bharti Teleservices had signed up Rahman as Brand Ambassador
for
its wireless service Airtel. The news was significant as it market the
return of Rahman to where he started his career - advertisements.
Rahman would not only compose the jingle for a series of ads, he would
actually star in the ads promoting the Airtel brand. In addition Rahman
would also compose five exclusive ringtones for Airtel customers. Of
the
five ring tones, two will be from the ad film itself, for which Rahman
has composed the music, another two will be youth oriented while the
third one will be akin to a lullaby. "We will spend Rs 100 crore as
part of
our marketing initiative on AirTel brand in the fiscal 2002-03 and are
planning to involve Rahman in our corporate campaign for 'Bharti' as a
mother brand," Bharti Enterprises joint managing director Ranjan Bharti
Mittal said.

He said the new brand campaign delivered AirTel's new positioning 'Live
Every Moment' in a simple yet real fashion. On association of the
renowned music composer with the brand, Mittal said the new AirTel TV
campaign celebrates a person's inherent need to communicate
simultaneously
and grab that moment to live it completely. "Rahman reinforces the
leader-innovator and Indian cum international dimensions of AirTel," he
said.
This marked a new career move for Rahman. Rahman was reportedly paid a
whopping Rs. 20 million, according to industry sources. This was the
first time that Rahman has associated himself with any brand anywhere
in
the world although he had endorsed Filmfare in a print campaign
earlier.

Said Rahman, "Just like AirTel, the concept of bridging emotions,

distances and cultures is a concept that I often try to reflect through
my
music as well. I am pleased to feature in the AirTel ad campaign. In
fact, I began my career by doing ad jingles so its like going back to
my
roots. The adfilm is directed by my friend Rajiv Menon and is shot both
in Chennai and London. Let’s hope people like this commercial, God
willing. However, I am not sure whether I will endorse other brands in
the
future." "The Airtel ad actually was a true account of what once
happened while I was recording I chanced upon a tune and had it played
back
to my studio on the mobile. So when Bharti approached me with the
creative I was quite surprised. I was apprehensive about how I would
look
before the camera, but I think the reactions and response show that I
haven’t been too bad after all."

The ad directed by long time Rahman friend and reknowned ad-film maker
and director Rajeev Menon for ad agency Rediffusion debuted on August
30th across major Television channels and became an instant success.
The
ad featured Rahman arriving at the airport to see a sobbing child.
Rahman pulls out his harmonica and composes a tune to placate the
child. He
calls up his studio over the Airtel mobile phone and plays the tune for
them to record. Enroute to a concert performance Rahman ropes in
assorted musicians from the street and records the complete song over
the
mobile phone and makes it just in time for the concert. The jingle was
a
major hit and was heard ringing from every mobile phone in town for
several weeks. If the figures are to be believed, the ad had a
sledgehammer-like impact. The company’s brand tracking research shows
that top of
the mind recall for the Airtel brand has gone up from 73 per cent of
customers interviewed to 78 per cent.

On 17th September Mani Ratnam and the producers of Roja announced that
Roja would be relaunched for an international release. Rahman appeared
at the press conference. An article in Ananda Vikatan spoke of Rahman
composing for director Bharatiraaja's new venture, 'Kangalal Kaidhu
Sei'. Rumours that Subhash Ghai was wooing Rahman to compose for his
next
directorial venture were floating around in the press. Rahman recorded
a
song for Ahmed Khan's directorial venture with girl band Viva. The
Arjun starrer Chanakya was renamed yet again, as 'Parasuram'. Rahman
released the debut title of Mandolin Srinivas' brother Anil Srinivasan,
'Into
the Light'. Reports spoke of Rahman having broken away from the
traditional one-time payment system of Indian music composers to a
royalty
based fee system.

Business Standard, a leading Indian business newspaper carried an

article on Rahman going international. The article spoke of Bombay
Dreams'
success and Rahman being the only bankable star in the film industry.
Amit Khanna, chairman, Reliance Entertainment and also a lyric writer:
"He’s not imitative, he spaces himself out unlike other directors who
sign up whatever they can get and are looking at quantity rather than
quality. As a result, in 60 per cent to 70 per cent of the cases he
delivers." Harish Dayani, executive director of Saregama HMV, which
released
Sapney: "He is the most bankable star of all and I wouldn’t hesitate to
pay a premium of as much as 50 per cent to him compared to other music
directors."The article sang glowing praises of Rahman. "The music
maestro has also cleverly marketed himself as a recognisable brand.
Rahman
has also played his financial cards with reasonable skill. He is one
music director who prefers to be paid royalty rather than a one-off
lumpsum amount.Rahman’s popularity is undoubtedly incredible especially
at a
time when the music market is facing hard times. "

Rahman was repeatedly asked in numerous interviews if he was quitting

the Indian film industry and moving to London, following the success of
Bombay Dreams. Rahman said that he had turned down offers to compose
for five new musicals. He said that making music for the Indian film
industry continues to be his passion. "These are the songs that made me
important. I will never leave the industry for better opportunities".
In
10 years Rahman had made a successful transformation from a shy studio
composer to a suave and savvy public figure. In an interview Rahman
remarked, Making music today, believes Rahman, is now more challenging.
"I
think there is more pressure now, the audience taste is much more
elevated and they are more demanding. But it's good for us. They are
much
more open to new things. I am scared of meeting people, because I can't
say no to them. I usually end up saying yes even when I want to
refuse."

The music of the delayed Kadhal Virus was finally released on October
12. The music was released by Sony Music which was venturing into
regional music for the first time. The music saw some amazing new
compositions from Rahman and met with a good response. The Amir Khusro
Sangeet
Academy conferred the title of 'Sangeet Nawaz' on Rahman and received
the
award from Ustad Bismillah Khan, the shehnai exponent at a ceremony in
Chennai. Rahman signed Shyam Benegal's ambitious bio-pic on Subhash
Chandra Bose, 'Netaji - The Last Hero' which was to be a international
project.. On October 21, Rahman recorded the first song for Subhash
Ghai's
new venture and the film was formally announced on October 24. The film
would be launched on December 24th. Rahman released 'Ashtaruchi' an
album of Carnatic classical music produced by Bharat Kalachar.

On October 25th, Airtel released the five exclusive ringtones composed

by Rahman. The five ringtones were ‘Dream’ - the ability to dream, the
confidence to achieve; ‘Desire’ - the passion & spontaneity of the
moment; ‘Buddy’ - the spirit of friendship; ‘Sizzle’ - the togetherness
of
fun & frolic; ‘Little One’ - the joy of the moment with your child.
With the release of these ringtones Airtel's network was jammed for
hours
with customer's rushing to download them. In an interview to India
Today, Shekhar Kapur revealed that Rahman would score the music for his
next film 'Pani' a story on water wars in India in future. The music of
'Saathiya' the remake of Alai Payuthey was released on October 29th. 7
songs were reused from the original while two songs were new
compositions. On October 31, Queen Elizabeth II graced a special Red
Cross charity
show of Bombay Dreams and commended Rahman. On November 3rd it was
reported that Rahman could possibly perform at an international
conference
for NRIs to be organised by the Government of India on January 9, 2003.

His forthcoming films include 'New', 'Ashoka/Chanakya/Parasuram',

'Engineer', 'Mudhal Mudhalaaga' , 'Udaya', 'Theekul Viralai Vaithal',
'Prashanth', 'Yelelo' , 'Robot', 'Boys', '9-30 to 10-00', 'Thullal',
'Swami', 'Kangalal Kaidhu Sei' and Selva's untitled next in Tamil and
'Rashq', 'Ittefaq', 'Waqia', 'Neecha Aasmaan', 'Do Kadam Chal Ke
Dekho',
'Dil Ne Jise Apna Kaha', Ada', 'Ganga', 'Tehzeeb' , 'Awaaz/Samjhauta
Express', 'Netaji The Last Hero', Shekhar Kapoor's 'Pani' and Subhash
Ghai, Ahmed Khan, Javed Jaffrey's untitled ventures in Hindi,
A.M.Rathnam's 'Nee Manasu Naaku Telusu' in Telugu and Priyadarshan's
'Kancheepuram' in Malayalam, and 'Taj Mahal-The Great Indian
Experience', 'The
Rising', 'The Return of the Thief of Baghdad', 'The Last
Revolutionary'
and 'Water' in English and the non-film 'Ekam Satyam', 'Listen'.
Besides
this he also has the serial 'Ponniyin Selvan' and Instrumental album of
his hits for Sony. He is also,reportedly, currently working on his next
non-film project, where he is tuning the poems of the famous Tamil poet
and freedom fighter Subramania Bharati alias 'Bharatiyar'. His future
plans include a private album with singer Asha Bhonsle.

EPILOGUE:
The man behind the music is still much of an enigma. "If a music
artiste wants to blossom into a full-pledged person, it's not enough if
he
knows only classical music; nor it's enough if he's well-versed only in
raagaas and techniques. Instead, he should be a knowledgeable person
interested in life and philosophy. In his personal life there should
be,
atleast in some corner of his heart, a tinge of lingering sorrow," he
says.

When asked if turning religious helped his work, he says "After a

point, it is energy which comes from above and removes your insecurity.
Then
you can go ahead. The world can abuse you but your confidence cannot be
shaken. You want fame, but once you get it you lose your head. So just
leave it to God and carry on with your work. It makes it all easy. If I
put it in my head that I did it, then I fall flat because I can't take
the next step. When asked why there is so much back-biting about him,
he says "See, you can never be a better person to everyone,'' he says
ingenuously. "To achieve something you have to offend someone. I am
doing
five films and someone says, do mine too. I say no. And he goes around
saying, "Rahman? Bullshit!'' because I'm no longer useful to him.
Besides, so much is happening outside, you need to hang on to something
peaceful''. When asked if he is scared of disappointments he states
frankly
"Disappointments? Failures? The holy book says they test you. A few
years down the line you see the setback was a good thing, it stopped
disaster''. He wants to be like a boat on a river without a sail, the
currents having freeplay. 'I am like a boat in the river, I go where
ever it
takes me', he says. Rahman's visits to dargahs and long prayer sessions
have been criticised as unprofessional interruptions of his
schedule."If there's no mental peace, what schedule? I need that
spiritual
cleansing, I meet the friends of God who have learnt so much and helped
so
many.'' He sees dargahs as beyond religious conflicts. The Sufi way of
love answers his need. Rahman discloses also that with that gain in
confidence, he has become more considerate towards others.

If all this reveals a man mature beyond his years, he responds by

saying " I have been with older people since I was eleven.Only when I
saw my
photograph in the newspaper while scoring for Roja did I discover I
didn't have grey hair, why, I was quite young!'' He continues "I know
there is no point in all this success. I remember father, I remember
how he
suffered. And I learnt the hard lesson. When a musician is in demand
everyone flocks around him... otherwise he's abandoned like a shirt
that
is torn and tattered. I've seen the callousness of the world with my
very own eyes at a young age. Today, I know that success doesn't last
forever. It could disappear suddenly one day. In fact,I feel every new
film that I take up will be my last one. If I'm wanted today, I could
be
discarded tomorrow. they'll simply say, 'look this boy has failed and
he thought he was in a position of advantage.' " He adds, "Each movie
is
like a child to me. If the child is beautiful, its a matter of pride
for me."

Rahman, for whom music is not just a profession but 'a spiritual
experience', completed 9 years in the film industry on August 15th
2001. In
this short span he changed the very face of film music in India and
touched heights that no music director ever had previously. He has
built up
a repertoire of scintillating scores that anybody would kill for. He
has become a national icon. He is also arguably the most well known
Indian composer of popular music internationally. He has successfully
taken
popular Indian music international. He has fans not just among
expatriate Indians but also among natives of places like Brazil, Sweden
and
Australia. He changed the image of a music director from being a
paan-chewing, harmonium-clutching copycat to that of a technology-savvy
person.
He took Tamil music global and established the universal appeal of his
music, whatever the language the lyrics be in. He set the standards by
which music came to be rated in India. The benchmarks set by him were
what others aimed to achieve. The soundtracks of his unsuccessful
scores
sold more than the soundtracks of the successful scores of other
composers. He also collected inumerable accolades for his work - a
Padmashri,
14 Filmfare Awards in 10 years (9 years on the trot in Tamil and 5 in
Hindi), 3 National Awards, 6 Tamil Nadu State Awards and numerous
others
- a feat unparalleled and not likely to be overhauled in the
foreseeable future. Every director of repute yearns to work with him
and every
actor hopes to dance to his tunes, literally.

At the age of 35, when many others are just starting out, Rahman has
garnered achievements that many others cannot in a lifetime. He has
already worked with internationally reputed artistes like Nusrat Fateh
Ali
Khan, Michael Jackson, Jean Michel Jarre, Sir Andrew LLoyd Webber, Deep
Forest, Apache Indian, Zakir Hussain, Dominic Miller, L.Shankar, David
Byrne, Kadri Gopalnath, Vikku Vinayakram, Ustad Sultan Khan and Pandit
Vishwa Mohan Bhatt among many others. On a recent trip to India, David
Byrne met Rahman and was so impressed that he went on to record some
sessions with Rahman for a projecthe is currently completing (as yet
unreleased). It can be safely said that the current modern era will be
considered as to have been greatly influenced by the 'Rahman School of
Music'. Rahman lists among his musical favourites Bach, Mozart,
Beethoven,
Carpenters, Carnatic, Rock and fusion and among film composers Naushad,
S. D. and R. D. Burman and in Tamil K. V. Mahadevan and
Vishwanathan-Ramamoorthy.

When asked what music means to him, he says "Many things. Its hard to
define: bread and butter, peace, happiness, and devotion. When you are
working on a piece and it turns out to be good its like a moment of
magic. It gives you a lot of happiness when you think that millions are
listening to your music. Its also a whole process- making it likeable
to
myself first andthen taking it towards perfection. Music is beyond
description and without boundaries. We have to keep expanding our
horizons
and make room for new things. take a small butterfly or insect - if you
look at it closely you discover so many new things. When I do
something, I want to be original. I sit, just blank my mind and pray.
and I come
up with something. Mostly its good and gets approved. It could be so
simple and even a child could have composed it, but to give it soul
that's what's important. Music is a spiritual thing not a formula. "If
a
music artiste wants to blossom into a full-pledged person, it's not
enough
if he knows only classical music; nor it's enough if he's well-versed
only in raagaas and techniques. Instead, he should be a knowledgeable
person interested in life and philosophy. In his personal life there
should be, atleast in some corner of his heart, a tinge of lingering
sorrow."

"I'm inspired any time I watch a good musician playing. When I'm
programming my music on my own, I always think of some great drummer or
some
great bass guitarist. When I'm playing on the keyboards, I think of how
beautifully another musician plays the instrument. And that inspires me
to play." "When I see Mughal-e-Azam I feel the whole sound track has
been produced with a continuous, intense feeling. No cracks, no jerks.
It
took Naushad two years of concentration, as if he couldn't see anything
else''.

When asked if dealing with constant pressures of delivering somthting

different would lead to a burnout, Rahman says, "I believe that a
burnout occurs when one is not happy with what he is doing. Probabaly
he's
doing it out of family pressures or financial hassles. But not for the
passion of it. But I am in this profession because I thoroughly enjoy
doing what I do, and wouldn't want to do anything else. That's the
reason
why I have never felt overworked or then felt like taking a break from
my work. At times, all I want to do is absorb the things happening
around me and study more about music. But everything that I do has to
be
related only to music. So, there's no concept of a burnout occuring in
my
life. God forbid." "Above all I am a strong believer in destiny. I also
believe that destiny can be changed by prayers."

"I am surprised when good things happen. I am cool when something bad
happens, also. I trust God and in that way helps me to get rid of
unnecessary things like jealousy, greed and all that stuff. Although
I'm not
fully out of it, at least I am almost at the surface of getting out of
it. These things kind of give me a security for doing music. I don't
have to worry if whether I'll be good, if I'll be successful, I'll be a
failure or if I'll be thrown out or anything like that. Your almost
like
a vacuum, straight about everything. Which gives you a completely
sublime, lonely feeling apart from others."

Never one to boast or brag about his accomplishments, he credits all

his inspiration and success to Allah. "I am whatever because of my
parents' prayers to Allah. I am whatever I am because the prayers I
pray
conscientiously, sincerely and with full faith five times a day. I will
be
whatever I am only because of Allah, I know it. He has given me
everything. He can take everything away and I accept His decision
without any
questions, without a murmur. Allah is my everything. I am just an
infinitesimal creation of His. He has created me for a specific
mission. I
will be committing a sin if I don't fulfil that mission. That's my only
belief. That's the only thing that matters to me. I don't care for all
the other temptations of the world. I am born for music. I live for
music. I will live for music till the very end. That's Allah's will.
That's all I Know", Rahman says. "The problem is, you can create only
as
long as you have the gift, only as long as the almighty wishes. After
that, you can stand on your head, it still won't come. If God wills it
so,
it may happen to me too. I can take that. I belive that every
individual, even an atom, can move only with the will of God. I don't
take
credit for doing all this. If I did, then I would fall flat. ''
"Destiny has
been the biggest influence in my life. Without the will of God I would
have never reached where I have. That's why I believe I am like a boat
in a river without a sail and a firm destination".

Apart from the Almighty he credits all his success to his mother who
encouraged him to take up music when his interest lay in electronics.
His
maxim is that only total dedication and concentration to one's
profession can help in producing good work. Rahman is certain that this
dedication must increase with fame. Rahman makes his presence felt
again
despite maintaining a low profile in public life. It is well known that
he
is seldom seen at social gatherings, film parties or functions. "Fans,
VIPs wanting to meet you, functions, parties - the moment you stop
making good music all will stop. The only formula is - yes, we are back
to
it - total concentration on the work." All this success has not
uprooted
him from his roots, "Beyond what people achieve and strive for the only
things that are really important are - personal values, family and
friends." Ever the great improviser he never stops till he is fully
satisfied. "If an album is to please all age groups, go beyond current
fads,
it must have a couple of memorable melodies. 'Hai rabbas' don't satisfy
me. They make hits but are soon forgotten. You want to do something
that lasts.''

Rahman treats his compositions with a Sufi's dedication. When a tune

comes to him he ceases to function normally. "When music comes to me,"
he
confessed in an unguarded moment, "I stop sleeping. I continue to work
on spontaneously at nights for seven to eight hours at a stretch. When
I finally pop off to sleep early in the morning I have these dreams
that people are waiting for me. I can't even complete these dreams ."

In response to all the acclaim he has received, he says "It's a great

responsibility. I am trying my best to combine traditional and
contemporary styles. But sometimes the result isn't in my hands at all.
It
depends on the film and the director. Trends come and go but I have to
keep
doing my own thing.". "You have to learn from the inside out. None
can teach you, none can make you spiritual. There is only teacher and
that is your soul.

For Rahman, who eats music, thinks music, breathes music and lives
music, the bottomline is that his music should reach out to the soul of
humankind. "I know there are many people who say I don't know what
music
is. There are so many who say that what I create is not music. But I
know the people are with me. The people love my music. I know Allah is
with me all the time while I am creating and with Allah by my side I
know
nothing can go wrong. My music comes from somewhere deep within me. I
could have created any kind of music but I create only that kind of
music that comes from within my being. My music has a mission. It has
to
reach the bodies, the souls of the millions for whom I strive to create
my music, music that springs from deep within me. I am a within man
more
than without. It is the language of the heart and the soul together
that makes my music. And I don't have to make great efforts because my
kind of music does not come by force or necessity. It has to flow from
within me. That's the only way I know how to create. There's no other
way.
Let the people who don't like my music say what they want, I say again
and again. Allah be with them. It is this music which he helps me
create which appeals to both the body and the soul that is going to be
one
of the greatest forces that will help people from all over the world
come closer, become one in body and soul in the millennium to come. I
am
working on that music for the future."

Amidst all this heady success, Rahman remains unchanged. He is as

humble, modest, shy, low profile, unassuming, self-affacing, devout and
down-to-earth as he was at the beginning of his career. A man of few
words
he believes in letting his work do all the talking. He prefers to save
his energies for his work instead of fighting out numerous
controversies. His personality is summed up in his favourite prayer
which goes thus
"O God, if I worship thee for fear of hell, burn me in hell, and if I
worship thee in hope of Paradise, exclude me from Paradise, but if I
worship thee for thy own sake, grudge me not thy everlasting beauty."
The
man has given immense pleasure to millions of music lovers world-wide
with his compositions, music that brings a cheer to one's face and
helps
in forgetting one's troubles. It is probably these very divine
qualities that made him the great man he is and the same will hopefully
help
him touch greater heights and touch newer glories and keep millions
enchanted with his blissful music for years to come.