The Lesser Known Facts About AR Rahman

The Lesser Known Facts About AR Rahman

Rahman, one of the world's all-time best-selling recording artists, is celebrating his 49th birthday today. Therefore, we bring you a list of some lesser known facts about the artist:

Mozart of Madras

The singer-songwriter-composer , AR Rahman was born on January 6, 1966 in a Tamil middle class family. A R Rahman is not only a renowned face in Bollywood but is a well known face in the world of music internationally. He also better known as 'Mozart of Madras'.

Qadiri Islam

Rahman was introduced to Qadiri Islam when his younger sister was seriously ill in 1984. He converted to Islam with other members of his family in 1989 at age 23, changing his name from R. S. Dileep Kumar to Allah Rakha Rahman (A. R. Rahman)

Awards

The music mastro bagged two Academy Awards - Best Original Music Score and Best Original Song - Jai Ho, for critically acclaimed film Slumdog Millionaire. Other than that he has also won two Grammy Awards, a BAFTA Award, a Golden Globe, four National Film Awards, fifteen Filmfare Awards, thirteen Filmfare Awards South and many more.

Padma Bhushan

Rahman has also been accoladed by one of the highest honors of India 'Padma Bhushan'. Not only this in the year 2011 he was listed one of the 'Tomorrow's World Music Icons' by UK based world music magazine, Songlines.

White House

During his 7 May 2012 acceptance speech of his honorary doctorate from Miami University in Ohio, Rahman mentioned that he received a Christmas card from the family of the President of the United States and an invitation to dinner at the White House .

Ontario

There is a street named after Rahman, in Markham, Ontario, Canada.

Wil.i.am

On 21 May 2014 Rahman announced that he has partnered with former Black Eyed Peas' Will.i.am to recreate an early popular track 'Urvashi Urvashi', track named 'Birthday'.