On the occasion of the composer's 56th birthday, we give you some super-cool facts and unseen pictures from his personal album.

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Happy birthday AR Rahman: 50 'cool' facts about the Mozart of Madras

From Roja to Vendhu Thanindhathu Kaadu, Rahman has come a long way to woo the hearts of multiple generations of fans

Team CE

Published:16th Aug, 2019 at 2:16 AM

As a kid, Rahman was seen in Doordarshan's Wonder Balloon, where he got popular for being the kid who could play 4 keyboards at once.

In his early teenage, ARR wanted to become a computer engineer.

A street in Markham, Ontario, Canada, has been named in his honour in November 2013.

Rahman and his son, Ameen share the same birth date, that is 6th January.

Apart from Slumdog Millionaire and 127 , ARR has provided the background score for the Hollywood film, Lord Of War.

In the Limca Book of Records 2007, Rahman holds “Indian of the Year for Contribution to Popular Music” Award.

The keyboard that he played as a teenager is on display in his studio in Chennai.

ARR has won 6 national awards, 15 Filmfare awards and 16 Filmfare awards south, as of 2019. In fact, out of a total of 142 award nominations, he has won 121.

The French TV commercial for Volvic starring Zinedine Zidane in 2000 featured a sample from Rahman's theme song for the film, Bombay .

AR Rahman was GQ's Legend of the Year in 2011.

In 2009, Rahman's soundtrack for Laagan was ranked at No. 45 on Amazon.com's 'The 100 Greatest World Music Albums of All Time' list.

In 2005, film critic Richard Corliss listed Rahman's debut soundtrack for Roja in TIME's '10 Best Soundtracks' of all time

In 2012, Rahman revealed that he had received a Christmas card from the family of the President of the United States and dinner invitation at the White House.

In 2009, Time magazine added him in its list of World's Most Influential People

Airtel's signature tune, composed by Rahman, is the world's most downloaded mobile music with over 150 million downloads.

In 2006, AR Rahman launched his own music label KM Music.

At the age of 23, ARR met his spiritual guru, Qadri Islam, who ultimately influenced his mindset and principles.

ARR joined hands with Mick Jagger, Dave Stewart and Joss Stone to introduce a completely different kind of music, named SuperHeavy. Stewart termed SuperHeavy as a 'mad alchemist type experiment.

Rahman, who trained under veteran Master Dhanraj, joined Ilaiyaraaja as a keyboardist at the age of 11, two years after his father passed away

A.R Rahman was a keyboard player and was part of a band (Roots)with his childhood friends Sivamani, John Anthony, Suresh Peters, Raja and JoJo. They made a rock group in Chennai named Nemesis Avenue.

The Oscar winning song 'Jai Ho' was initially composed for the Salman Khan starrer, Yuvraaj.

Hollywood movie “Inside Man”, starring Denzel Washington, used Rahman’s song “Chaiyya Chaiyya” for the opening credits. The remix was titled 'Chaiyya, Chaiyya Bollywood Joint' .

AR Rahman first's salary for a single was 500 rupees. His salary for his debut film, Roja, was 25000.

Impressed with Rahman's jingle works, Ratnam visited his studio and listened to a tune ('Tamizha Tamizha') that he had composed long back on the Kaveri river dispute . He signed ARR up for Roja.

ARR's debut film album sold over 3 million units, with the Tamil vers. selling over 200,000 units and the Hindi vers. selling 2.8 million units. The Hindi version alone earned 7.5 cr (46 cr in 2019)

'I have rubbed many a producer the wrong way by disturbing the schedule, but it has paid off' ARR has been quoted as saying

ARR was awarded the Padma Bhushan, the third highest civilian award, in 2010 by the Government of India

Rahman's film career began in 1992 when he started Panchathan Record Inn, a recording studio in his backyard. It would become the most-advanced recording studio in India, and arguably, in Asia.

Yoddha, a Malayalam film starring Mohanlal and directed by Sivan's brother Sangeeth Sivan that released in September 1992, was ARR's second film after Roja.

The soundtrack for Bombay sold 15 million copies worldwide,

The 'Bombay Theme' would reappear in his soundtrack for Deepa Mehta's Fire. It was featured in the 2002 Palestinian film Divine Intervention and the 2005 Nicolas Cage film Lord of War.

Rangeela, directed by Ram Gopal Varma, was Rahman's Bollywood debut.

Rahman scored the Mandarin-language film Warriors of Heaven and Earth in 2003 after researching and using Chinese and Japanese classical music.

His score for his first Hollywood film, the 2009 comedy Couples Retreat, won the BMI London Award for Best Score.

In 2018, Rahman got national award for the background score of Sridevi's Mom.

The Finnish folk-music band Värttinä collaborated with Rahman on the Toronto production of The Lord of the Rings.

Since 2004 Rahman has performed three successful world tours before audiences in Singapore, Australia, Malaysia, Dubai, the United Kingdom, Canada, the United States and India.

In summer 2012 Rahman composed a Punjabi song for the London Olympics opening ceremony, directed by Danny Boyle, part of a medley showcasing Indian influence in the UK.

In 2012 Rahman and Shekhar Kapoor launched Qyuki, a networking site and a platform for story writers to exchange their thoughts. It's wing 'Melange', especially, focuses on indie music content.

Rahman introduced 7.1 surround sound technology to South Indian films.

Rahman's younger sister, Fathima, heads his music conservatory in Chennai.

Born Hindu, Rahman converted to Islam when he was 25, after being disillusioned with Hinduism.

On 24 October 2014 Rahman was awarded an honorary doctorate from Berklee College of Music during a concert paying tribute to his music featuring an international cast of students.

Qutub-E-Kripa is the national award-winning ensemble of young musicians of Rahman's KM Music Conservatory, who have been co-credited alongside ARR for the background scores of many films like 24, OKK

'All My Life I Had A Choice Between Hate And Love. I Chose Love, And I'm Here' - On his Oscar winning speech.

Studied Western classical music as a student at Oxford University in the UK.

The Broadway debut of Bombay Dreams took place on March 28, 2004 at the Broadway Theatre in New York City.

AR Rahman got the 2500th Filmfare Trophy at the 57th Filmfare Awards, 2011.

ARR is Also known as the John Williams of the Indian Film Industry.

In 1994, ARR gave music to the unreleased shelved film, Waqia, starring Sanjay Kapoor, Karishma Kapoor, & directed by Shivendra Singh. This would had been his debut in Hindi in 1995. (Before Rangeela)

On Aug 15 1997, ARR's Vande Mataram was released simultaneously across the world in 28 countries, and Rahman himself performed in New Delhi to a packed audience.

Sister Ishrath Rahman has sung in Tamil films, Mettukudi and Pokkiri.

Rahman is the only Indian to have got two Oscars in the same year.