Rise of a Legend
From Ashes to Achievement
Every Phoenix need some ashes to fly. Yes, A R Rahman also had a past with dark shades. R K Sekhar, father of AR Rahman, died when he was only 9 years old.As a result of which his childhood was not so fun filled but was a hard one. But he transformed his hardships into achievements, reaching a pinnacle that his father wasn’t able to make it.
A.R Rahman was born as A.S Dileep Kumar in Chennai, Tamil Nadu. Rahman’s father, R.K. Sekhar, was a prominent musician who composed and conducted scores mostly for the Malayalam and Tamil film industry, and Rahman began studying piano at age four.
As a young child Rahman used to visit the studios with his father and that perhaps sow the influence of music in him. The boy’s interests lay in electronics and computers. And his father’s serendipitous purchase of a synthesizer allowed
him to pursue his passion and to learn to love music at the same time.
Sekhar’s demise imbalanced the family and With no source of income Rahman’s family rented out the musical equipments of his father to earn money and by the age 11 he was playing piano professionally to help support his family. Rahman was raised by his mother, Kareema which made him to learn the music with a more passion.Rahman’s achievements is not only the talent gifted by his father but also the incredible support by his mother. She never pushed Rahman to earn wages for family even though they were struggling.Unlike usual parents his mother didn’t forced Rahman to complete his studies without his will, but she constantly helped him in many other ways so that nothing comes to his way of success.
He had worked with many South Indian musicians especially M.K Arjunan master who was his father’s close friend helped him a lot on his hard times. He cultured his early training in music from Master Dhanraj. Slowly and steadily Rahman became multitalented by gaining an expertise over synthesizer, piano, guitar, keyboard and harmonium etc. He believed that it was the ideal combination of technology and music. Rahman focuses on his talent and he got an excellence in it.
From 1984-88 Rahman was part of a band called “Roots”, Later he became part of a rock band called “Nemesis Avenue”,where he worked as producer arranger and also performed for a concert “Jive live”. He started accompanying accomplished musicians such as, Zakirhussain, L. Shanker, Kunnakudi Vaidyanathan and others on world tours and earned a degree in western classical music from Trinity School of Music.
He dropped out of school, but his professional experience led to a scholarship to study at Trinity College, Oxford, where he received a degree in Western classical music.
In 1984 rahman was introduced to Qadiritariqa (an islam sufi order) due to his sister’s severe illness and thus he along with his family decided to get converted to islam after his sister felt a magical relief out of her severe illness from the blessings of a pirqadri called sheik abdul qadir jeelani. So finally in 1989, at the age of 23, he changed his name from A.S Dileepkumar to A.R Rahman.
Rahman’s career initially started with the composition of jingles, advertisements, documentaries etc and he got first break in his composition In the year 1987 by composing jingles for Allwyn company’s new range of watches and Titan watches.He wrote more than 300 jingles and would later say that the experience taught him discipline because jingle writing required delivery of a powerful message or mood in a short time.
Two years later Rahman started a small studio in the backyard of his house with the name Panchathan record inn. Now it is India’s most well equipped and advanced sound recording studios.
The Phoenix of Indian Music
