AR Rahman: 10 lesser known facts about the musical maverick
A street in Markham, Ontario, Canada, has been named in his honour
"The Mozart of Madras" and a double Oscar winner musical composer, AR Rahman has a way of enamouring the hearts of millions with his soulful music and breathtaking voice. The music composer has been an inspiration to many and his work is a window of his rollercoaster journey.
The 53-year-old music legend is a popular name in both Bollywood and Hollywood but still, there's a lot about him that not many people know about.
Here are some interesting facts about the internationally acclaimed music composer:
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1. Before AR Rahman stepped into the world of the entertainment industry, he made his first appearance in Doordarshan's "Wonder Balloon" program where he shot to fame for being the only child who could play 4 keyboards at once.
2. Mani Ratnam was the first one to spot the talent in Rahman and began film scoring for Ratnam's Tamil film Roja in 1992. He got a sum of 25000 rupees for the project, and he became the recipient of the National Film Award along with huge success, popularity, and admiration.
3. A street in Markham, Ontario, Canada, has been named in his honour in November 2013.
4. AR Rahman is the first Asian to have won 2 Oscars in the same year for 'Slumdog Millionaire'. The Padma Bhushan and Padma Shri recipient has also won 4 National Awards.
5. Rahman married Saira and his three children namely- Ameen Khatija and Rahima. Interestingly, his son, Ameen shares the same birth date, which is 6th January.
6. Apart from Slumdog Millionaire, Rahman has also composed great scores for other Hollywood films like 127 Hours and Lord of War.
7. AR Rahman joined hands with Mick Jagger, Dave Stewart, and Joss Stone to introduce a completely different kind of music under the name SuperHeavy. Stewart termed SuperHeavy as a 'mad alchemist type experiment'.
8. The Oscar-winning song "Jai Ho" was initially composed for the Salman Khan starrer- Yuvraaj
9. Airtel's signature tune, composed by Rahman, is the world's most downloaded mobile music with over 150 million downloads.
10. The French TV commercial for Volvic starring Zinedine Zidane in 2000 featured a sample from Rahman's theme song from the movie 'Bombay.'
