Raja of Roja becomes Osc'AR Rahman'
24 Feb 2009, 0107 hrs IST, Kamini Mathai, TNN
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CHENNAI: As A R Rahman tapped his feet to `O Sayya' and belted out `Jai
Ho!' for the audience in
Hollywood<http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/India/Raja-of-Roja-becomes-OscAR-Rahman/articleshow/4179838.cms#>,
the transformation was complete. The
<javascript:openslideshownew('/slideshow/4180490.cms?imw=460','541')>
<javascript:openslideshownew('/slideshow/4180490.cms?imw=460','541')>
Music composer AR Rahman wins two Oscars for Best Original Song and Original
Score for 'Slumdog Millionaire'. (AP Photo)
More
Pictures<javascript:openslideshownew('/slideshow/4180490.cms?imw=460','541')>
shy, nervous Dilip Kumar who never spoke, the boy who never looked up, the
boy who used to turn out the lights before he sang in front of anyone, had
morphed into an international star.
He always knew he wanted to be famous. He dreamt — and told his friends too
— that he wanted his music
<http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/India/Raja-of-Roja-becomes-OscAR-Rahman/articleshow/4179838.cms#>to
be played all over the world. But it was a dream that took a long time to
realize. As a young boy of 11, Rahman, then known as Dilip Kumar, saw his
father R K Sekhar, a music arranger and composer, die of cancer. He didn't
have time to mourn though, he had to pick up from where his father had left
off and earn for the family of five. While his three sisters focused on
academics<http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/India/Raja-of-Roja-becomes-OscAR-Rahman/articleshow/4179838.cms#>,
the young Dilip never managed to give books enough time. In the words of his
teachers in Padma Seshadri Bala Bhavan, the school he went to until the
ninth grade, ``He managed to scrape through.''
The young ARR spent all his time after
school<http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/India/Raja-of-Roja-becomes-OscAR-Rahman/articleshow/4179838.cms#>at
the recording studio, playing keyboards for composers (having got the
first set of job offers thanks to the goodwill of his father). There were
days when his mother would be seen waiting for him outside school in the
morning, uniform and breakfast in hand, according to his teachers. A studio
van would drop off the tired Dilip who would be fed and changed by his
mother before being rushed to school. The only reason the school remembers
him is that during all the school programmes they needed him to play the
keyboard — he was the best in school. He would also be called out of the
classroom whenever there was a recording because his family simply could not
afford to say no.
ARR had finally to drop out of Padma Seshadri in the ninth grade, and then
out of school altogether, midway through class XI because he could not cope
with both his
studies<http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/India/Raja-of-Roja-becomes-OscAR-Rahman/articleshow/4179838.cms#>and
work. ``When I was a teenager, I was spending most of my time with
50-year-olds and 60-year-olds. They were very sweet people, yes. I felt I
was one among them, it took a while to realise that I was actually much
younger,'' says Rahman about his early life as a musician in the film
industry<http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/India/Raja-of-Roja-becomes-OscAR-Rahman/articleshow/4179838.cms#>when
he played his keyboard for bigwigs of the Tamil industry such as
Ilayaraja.
``What I learnt from them were values and ethics. And then there were things
I learned not to do...I learned not to become complacent,'' he adds. ``And
to look beyond what you are forbidden to look beyond.''
A lot has changed in A R Rahman's life over the years in terms of his
personality as well as his music, but the two most important aspects of his
life remain constant — God and his mother. He doesn't just say it every time
he is on stage because it seems like the right thing to say. He truly
believes that the first is the driving force in his life, the reason he is
who he is. The second, quite simply, is the reason he is where he is.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/India/Raja-of-Roja-becomes-OscAR-Rahman/articleshow/4179838.cms
--
regards,
Vithur
