Today, if Bollywood can dream of going global, the reason, to a large extent, is a phenomenon called AR Rahman.
He is the best fusion of art and science in music. He is a great man, inspired and blessed by God above. I don’t mind changing all my nights to days to work with him. He creates fresh tunes in the night and sleeps during the day. That’s how all great men are.
Subhash Ghai, filmmaker
He is a milestone in Hindi film music. He has single-handedly changed the sound of music in the movies, breaking the mukhda-antara-mukhda scheme of composition and replaced the traditional patterns of tuning.
Gulzar, lyricist-filmmaker
I admire three things about Rahman. Among the young composers he probably is the most original. He has a strong sense of melody and his harmony is unbeatable. Finally, he gives his music a rich tonal colour through his combination of instruments.
Shyam Benegal, filmmaker
Rahman is known to record only during the night time. But he records with me during the daytime... when my voice is fresh. I don’t like recording at night. And he does not take long over his recordings. Jiya jale was recorded in just 40 minutes.
Lata Mangeshkar, playback queen
I find him an all-rounder. He knows Indian classical as well as folk music, he is in touch with western music and he has really studied western classical also. He knows Middle Eastern music as well. No wonder you see so many different colours in his songs.
Javed Akhtar, lyricist
These are established facts ~ as also the well known signposts of his career: learning to play the harmonium at the age of four, early apprenticeship under Dhanraj Master, assisting southern composer Illaiyaraja as a keyboard player since age 11, playing on the orchestra of M.S.Vishwanathan, accompanying tabla maestro Zakir Husain on his world tours and performing with local rock bands like Roots, Magic and Nemesis Avenue. He is a school drop-out, but had picked up a diploma in western classical music from Trinity College. Somewhere along the way, he slipped into advertising and in five years composed around 300 radio and television jingles. It was while collecting an award for a jingle on a well known coffee brand that he met filmmaker Mani Ratnam in 1991. A year later, Roja was unleashed!
