A.R.

Rahman - Biography
Early Days-
A.R.Rahman or Allah Rakha Rahman was born actually A. S. Dileep Kumar on the 6th of
January in the year 1966, 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 11, 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.

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.

Working as keyboard player:

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.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' (KaNmaNi PoongA/Wonder
Balloon -Madras DD produced Thamizh/English serial for kids) 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(1986)' Starring
Delhi Ganesh ,Kamal Hassan,Rekha,Revathi and Srvidya.

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."

Trinity College Of Music at Oxford University -

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 and Roxygen 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. 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.''

Entering into the world of jingles

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.
First Break
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.

TV Commercials-
Continuing with his stint in the advertising world Rahman did a lot of popular ads here are
the List .He had composed over 300 ad films

1. Asian Paints directed by rajeev menon

2. Cinthol featuring Arvind Swami dircted by rajeev menon!
3. Leo Coffee featuring Arvind swami
4. Leo Springz Mineral Water
5. Titan watch directed by Rajive Menon
6. Remanika Sarees -thrissur,kerala
7. Premier Pressure Cooker sung by sujata
8. MRF Tyres Directed by Bharatbala
9. Garden sarees
10. Boost featuring Sachin Tendulkar and Kapil Dev
11. Parry's Kasthuri Tea
12. Tilda Basmati
13. Jeenic Choclates
14. Murugan textiles
15. Hero Puch
16. The Hindu Young World
17. Allwyn's Trendy watches
18. Nestle Sunrise Cofee directed byRajeev Menon
19. butterfly home appliances
20. Bru cofee
21. Shriram chit funds
22. Tata chola tea directed by Bharatbala
23. MGM Dizee world
24. John's umbrellas
25. BSA Cycles
26. Bavens Studio in Kerala

He also scored the title music for television channels like JJTV, Sun TV pongal, and
Asianet and later NDTV. 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."

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.

 Sun TV pongal
 Asianet
 NDTV
 Spirit of Unity Concerts

Two Albums-
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 for Asianet

Converting To Islam-
Around this time, in 1988, one of his sister 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 11 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.

Panchathan Record Inn-

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....Read More) 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.

AM Studio-
Now Studio renamed as A.M.Studio was inagurated by Lata Mangeshkar in 2006

Entering into the Film World-

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.

1992-
Roja
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. (later Ismail Darbar also won national award for his first film
HDDCS)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." And the movie dubbed to many languages
and become an all india success!

Yodha(malayalam)

He got this offer from santhosh sivan who was the cameraman of roja.Yodha was a film
inspired from "golden child" starring malayalam super star mohanlal and madhubala!it was
directed by sangeeth sivan,younger brother of santosh and santosh himself take the role of
cameraman.the music did not do well except one peppy number "padakali" sung by KJ
Yesudas and MG sreekumar.the film have 3 songs and an instrumental version.the BGM
music was awsome!
"For the songs of 'Yodha' , I did a lot of research in Nepali and Chinese
music" but songs and movie released before "Roja".so many things Yodha
is his first movie!one of the song he reused in tamil film "Pavithra"

Fulltime to Films
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"

1993-
The following year, 1993, saw a lot of new releases that made him more popular. His third
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'. and two films in Telugu titled
'Super Police' and 'Gangmaster', all of which were moderate successes. But his Telugu films
have remained relatively unknown till date, inspite of having the classic Rahman touch in
them.

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'. 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.
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.

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. '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 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'.Later
Bombay theme music fetured in an hollywood film "lord of war" and "volvic mineral water
ad feat Zidane"

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.

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 three
major releases, 'Indian', '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. . '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 three 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.

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'.

Critics on Rahman

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.

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' 'Maanpoove' from 'Yodha' as 'Chevaanam' in 'Pavithra'. 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',, 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.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.

Other filmmakers, whose offers he turned down spread rumours about him. he turns down
so many offers even when he is offered stacks of tempting money.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'. Rahman himself insists on good
poetry for his songs.

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."also he uses so
many different voices in a film, irespective of whether they suit the character or not

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', 'Uzhavan', etc.

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'. He also brought to the mainstream Sreenivas and let him
prove his worth after being a chorus singer for a long time.

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.

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.

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'by Rajive Menon.
'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
Priyadarshan's '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."
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."

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.

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.

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. 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.

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's Lakeer 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.

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' directed by mani ratnam 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.

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 for Bavens Studio.

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.

(-Compiled by Harsha)