Mozart of Madras A.R. Rahman's father, R. K. Shekhar was from an Arcot Mudaliar family, was also a film-score composer and conductor for Tamil and Malayalam films. His father died when Rahman was nine years old and he was raised by his mother, Kareema Begum. But now, Rahman's mother has passed away in Chennai and the cause behind her death is still unknown. The singer-composer was quite close to her mother and now her sudden demise filled him with pain.

A.R. Rahman confirmed her mother's demise and shared a moving picture of mother Kareema Begum on Twitter. He didn't caption the tweet but her picture was enough to express his agony and suffering. Check out his tweet here -

pic.twitter.com/quQXlI65g4

— A.R.Rahman (@arrahman) December 28, 2020

At a young age, A.R. Rahman was very much into music and singing that is why he formed a band with his high school classmates. After discussing with his mother, he later dropped out of school to pursue a career as a full-time musician. So it was his mother who encouraged him to become a composer. Talking about the incident, the singer-composer said previously in an interview, "She has music instincts. For instance, her decision of making me take up music. She made me leave school in Class 11th and take up music. It was her conviction that music is the line for me."

Rahman initially composed scores for different documentaries, jingles for advertisements, TV shows and after that, he became a renowned name in the music industry. In 2010, the Indian government awarded him the Padma Bhushan, the nation's third-highest civilian award. He also won National Film Awards, two Academy Awards, two Grammy Awards, a BAFTA Award, a Golden Globe Award.