If you are an AR Rahman fan, you cannot afford to miss the day! The man who took Indian music to global arena by winning double Oscars is celebrating his birthday! Galatta.com joins thousands of Rahman fans across the globe to wish him a happy birthday and a great year ahead.

Born in 1966 as A.S. Dileep Kumar to R.K. Shekhar, a composer, arranger and conductor for Malayalam films,  he has played in the music troupes of Ilaiyaraaja, Zakir Hussain, L.Vaidyanathan and Ramesh Naidu during his school days. Learning from all these varied and valuable experiences, Rahman graduated from Trinity College of Music, London in Western classical music. In 1991, he opened his recording studio in Chennai and began composing music for jingles and documentary films.
 
 It was ace director Mani Ratnam who introduced Rahman in his blockbuster film Roja. It is said that Mani Ratnam was very much impressed when Rahman played 'Chinna Chinna Aasai' during the auditions and immediately signed him. And the rest was history! He was awarded the Rajat Kamal award for Best Music Director at the National Film Awards for the film, the first time ever for a new film composer and since then, he never looked back. The film was also listed in TIME's Top 10 Movie Soundtracks of All Time.
 
When Rahman composed 'Jai Ho' for Danny Boyle's Slumdog Millionaire, little did we expect that the song will create international records. But it did. For his score of Slumdog Millionaire, Rahman won the Golden Globe Award for Best Original Score, the BAFTA Award for Best Film Music, and two Oscars for Best Original Music Score and Best Original Song. Rahman's speciality lies in his experimentation. His is a well-knit combination of technology and art. The songs he compose illustrate the distinctly rich aspects of music, yet carry many contemporary motifs. 
 
He has a huge list of awards to his credit inclusive of the two Academy awards, two Grammy awards, four National awards and more than a dozen Filmfare awards. Beyond his work, he has also proved himself to be a great humanitarian and philanthropist. 
 
We take immense pleasure in wishing our own AR Rahman on his birthday. We pray for his health, happiness and success. Happy birthday AR Rahman!