A. R. Rahman: from session keyboard player to two Oscars

A childhood around instruments

A. R. Rahman was born on 6 January 1967 in Madras, now Chennai. His birth name was Dileep Kumar. His father, R. K. Shekhar, was a composer and conductor who worked on Malayalam and Tamil films.

His father gave him his first music lessons, and he began learning piano at about the age of four. As a child he spent hours at the harmonium and preferred it to playing outside. He also helped out in his father's studio.

When Rahman was nine, his father died at the age of 43. To support the family, his mother rented out her husband's musical instruments. Young Rahman's work was to set up the keyboards for the musicians who hired them. After about a year, those musicians bought their own equipment and the rentals stopped.

“My father did not leave me a castle or anything, but he did leave me some musical instruments.”

— A. R. Rahman, via Gulf News

Working as a keyboard player while still a boy

At around 11 or 12, Rahman took his first job as a keyboard player with the Malayalam composer M. K. Arjunan, for a token salary of 50 rupees. From then on he carried responsibility for his family.

For roughly the next ten years he worked as a session musician, playing for many music directors, including Ilaiyaraaja and the duo Raj–Koti. He also toured abroad with artists such as Zakir Hussain. When work started to clash with school, he left his studies to focus on music.

He played in bands too, including one called Roots and a rock group named Nemesis Avenue. He was drawn to the synthesizer because it brought together his two interests, music and technology. As a boy he had once wanted to become a computer engineer.

Formal training, jingles and a home studio

Rahman also earned a diploma in Western classical music from Trinity College London, which he studied for through a scholarship.

From 1987 he began composing jingles for advertisements. This work added to his income while he kept playing for films.

His mother sold jewellery that had been saved for his sister's wedding so that he could buy his first 16-track recorder. He set up his own studio and kept composing in his spare time, saving the tracks he made. In 1989, he and his family converted to Islam, and he took the name Allah Rakha Rahman.

Roja, and then the world stage

Film director Mani Ratnam visited Rahman's studio and heard the music he had been saving. That meeting led to Rahman's first film score, the Tamil film Roja, released in 1992.

In 2009, at the 81st Academy Awards, Rahman won two Oscars for the film Slumdog Millionaire: one for Original Score and one for Original Song, for Jai Ho, written with lyricist Gulzar. The same year he won a Golden Globe for the film's music.

In 2010 he won two Grammy Awards, again for Slumdog Millionaire, and the Government of India honoured him with the Padma Bhushan. He is also the founder-principal of the KM Music Conservatory in Chennai, which teaches music and runs an orchestra for children from underprivileged backgrounds.

The skills and habits that made the difference

Long hours with an instrument, from a young age. His father taught him early, and he chose the harmonium over outdoor games. By the age of 11 or 12, he was playing well enough to be paid for it.

Learning on the job. About ten years of session work meant playing for many different composers, including Ilaiyaraaja. He learned by working alongside them.

Mixing music with technology. Rahman was curious about electronic gadgets and synthesizers. Owning a recorder and a small studio let him experiment, record his ideas and keep them ready. When the right listener came, he had finished work to play.

Formal study on top of practice. Even after years of paid work, he went back to structured learning in Western classical music.