A.R. Rahman

Allah Rakha Rahman (born Friday January 6, 1967 as A.S. Dileep Kumar in Chennai, India) is a popular Indian film music composer. He made his debut in 1992 with Mani Ratnam's Tamil movie, Roja (Rose), which was subsequently dubb

Allah Rakha Rahman (born Friday January 6, 1967 as A.S. Dileep Kumar in Chennai, India) is a popular Indian film music composer. He made his debut in 1992 with Mani Ratnam's Tamil movie, Roja (Rose), which was subsequently dubbed into many languages. Ram Gopal Verma's Rangeela (Colorful) (1995) was the first Hindi movie to have Rahman as the music director. He is a recipient of the Padma Shri.

Rahman is the only son of R. K. Sekhar, who was an arranger and conductor for Malayalam films. His father died when Rahman was nine years old and his family used to rent out musical equipment to make ends meet. At the age of 11, Rahman joined the troupe of Indian composer Ilayaraja as a keyboard player. He later played on the orchestra of M.S. Vishwanathan and Ramesh Naidu, and accompanied Zakir Hussain and Kunnakudi Vaidyanathan on world tours. The experience allowed him to obtain a scholarship to the Trinity College of Music at Oxford University, where he received a degree in Western classical music.