A. R. Rahman was born in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India to a musically affluent
Mudaliar Tamil family.
[10] His father
R. K. Shekhar, was a film music composer and conductor for
films in Malayalam language. Rahman used to assist his father during recordings and play
keyboard for the songs. Rahman lost his father at the age of 9 and his family had to rent out his father's musical equipment as their source of income.
[11] Rahman was raised by his mother Kareema (born Kashturi).
[12] During these formative years, Rahman served as a keyboard player and an arranger in bands such as "Roots", with childhood friend and percussionist
Sivamani, John Anthony,
Suresh Peters, JoJo and Raja.
[3] Rahman is the founder of the Chennai-based rock group, "Nemesis Avenue".
[13] He mastered various music instruments like
Keyboard, Piano, Synthesizer,
Harmonium and Guitar. His curiosity in Synthesizer in particular, increased because, he says, it was the "ideal combination of music and technology".
He began early training in music under Master Dhanraj.
[14][15] From the age of 11, he started playing musical instruments in the orchestra of
Malayalam composer and a close friend of Rahman's father,
M.K.Arjunan.
[16] Soon he started working with other composers such as
M. S. Viswanathan,
Ilaiyaraaja,
Ramesh Naidu,
Raj-Koti[15] and also accompanied
Zakir Hussain,
Kunnakudi Vaidyanathan and
L. Shankar on world tours and obtained a scholarship with
Trinity College, London, board of the
Trinity College of Music.
[12] Studying in Chennai, he graduated with graded examinations and a diploma in
Western classical music via the college.
[17] He was introduced to
Qadiri Islam when his younger sister fell severely sick in 1984. Subsequently, Rahman along with other members of his family converted to Islam in 1989, when he was 23 years old. He changed his name from A. S. Dileep Kumar to A. R. Rahman or Allah Rakha Rahman
AR Rahman has already completed a song which has lyrics by Kabilan and has been rendered by Vijay Prakash. Shankar said that I is going to be a romantic thriller and contrary to what has been reported it is not about politics or elections. Shooting will begin from mid July. I is clearly off to a good start and we can expect great things from this amazing team
