Allah Rakha Rahman was born as A S Dileep Kumar on January 6, 1967, in Madras (now Chennai), to a musically affluent Tamil Mudaliar family.
His father R K Sekhar was a composer, arranger and conductor in Malayalam movies.
When he was only nine, his father died of mysterious illness.
In order to earn a living he joined Illaiyaraja's troupe when he was only 11.
During this time, one of his sisters fell seriously ill and all conventional treatments were of no use.
The family had given up all hope when they met Sheik Abdul Qadir Jeelani or Pir Qadri as he was popularly known.
Moved by his sister's miraculous recovery, which they attributed to the Pir's prayers and blessings, the whole family converted to Islam.
Rahman was initially not interested in music. "I was not crazy after music. I was more interested in technology".
All that changed when his father bought a synthesizer from Singapore.
Education:
Padma Seshadri Bal Bhavan
Madras Christian College, and
Finally he dropped out of school when he was in his 11th grade.
Career graph:
Played on the orchestra of M.S.Vishwanathan, Raj-Koti and Ramesh Naidu
Accompanied Zakir Hussain and Kunnakudi Vaidyanathan on world tours.
Played the keyboard on a few popular music shows on television like 'Wonder Balloon'
Composed a few short pieces of music in Iliayaraja's films, a notable one being the theme music in K Balachander's 'Punnagai Mannan'.
Composed jingles for popular ads like 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
During one of his visits to Mumbai, music director Naushad Ali urged him to compose music for films. The break came when Mani Ratnam offered him the responsibility to compose music for Roja.
Rahman's D-Day arrived when Roja was released on August 15, 1992.
He 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 qawwalli from Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan".
Following closely on the heels of Humse Hai Muqabla and Bombay, Rahman's first original score in Hindi was for Rangeela.
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.
In 1995, he got married to Saira Banu, sister-in-law of Tamil actor Rahman and daughter of a Chennai-based businessman.
What music means to him:
"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."
"Music is beyond description and without boundaries."
"Music is a spiritual thing not a formula."
"It's not enough if he's well-versed only in raagas and techniques. Instead, he should be a knowledgeable person interested in life and philosophy. In his personal life there should be, at least in some corner of his heart, a tinge of lingering sorrow."
Image: A R Rahman performs at a concert entitled 'I believe ...a better world is possible' for the children in Mumbai.
Photograph: Sebastian D'Souza/AFP/Getty Images
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