AR Rahman

Piano lessons began for AR Rahman at four. His father, R. K. Shekhar, composed and conducted music for Malayalam films, and the boy, born Dileep Kumar in Madras, played keyboard in his father's studio. Before films he played keyboards and arranged for bands including Roots, and founded the Chennai rock group Nemesis Avenue. Working from his own studio, Panchathan Record Inn, he scored his first film, Mani Ratnam's Roja, in 1992; it won him the National Film Award for Best Music Direction. The composer, record producer, singer and multi-instrumentalist works mostly in Tamil and Hindi, with occasional international projects. Gentleman, Kadhalan and Bombay were among his Tamil scores of the 1990s, and his Hindi work includes Lagaan, Rang De Basanti, Guru and Rockstar. Slumdog Millionaire (2008) won him the Academy Awards for Best Original Score and Best Original Song, for "Jai Ho", and two Grammy Awards came later. He holds seven National Film Awards, a BAFTA, a Golden Globe and the Padma Bhushan, conferred in 2010. In 2017 he debuted as writer and director with Le Musk. In Malayalam, he composed the music for Aadujeevitham - The Goat Life (2024). Ahead is the Hindi epic Ramayana: Rise of a Legend (2026); at the film's Chennai event, Yash said he had learnt Tamil through Rahman's songs.