AR Rahman has reportedly been paid Rs 28 crore to be a youth icon for Motorola? If this is true the Indian music maestro becomes among highest paid celebrities in the world.
With this astronomical sum he also becomes one of the biggest Indian names who can claim to be true international youth icon.
Since his Jai Ho song in super duper successful film Slumdog Millionaire won accolade and he won two Oscars, he has become one of the most talked about music directors from across the world. He was rumoured to be in talk with Bond director for composing music for the film.
If he gets Motorola endorsement it will be big boost to his world wide image. Motorola is a big brand. It has been at the forefront of communication inventions and innovations for nearly 80 years. It has achieved extraordinary accomplishments along the way — such as making the equipment that carried the first words from the moon and leading the cellular communication revolution with the development of the world’s first handheld portable cellular phone, the DynaTAC (DYNamic Adaptive Total Area Coverage). It the first to bring Push-to-Talk over Cellular to market. More recently, Motorola delivered the first all-digital high-definition television (HDTV) technical standard and demonstrated the world’s first WiMAX 802.16e mobile handoff.
Today, Motorola develops a portfolio of technologies, solutions and services — including wireless handsets, wireless accessories, digital entertainment devices, wireless access systems, voice and data communications systems, and enterprise mobility solutions — that make mobile experiences possible. With the rapid convergence of fixed and mobile broadband Internet and the growing demand for next-generation mobile communication solutions, our mission is to lead the next wave of innovative products that meet the expanding needs of our customers around the world.
Rahman has won all the known awards for his music. He is the 1995 recipient of the Mauritius National Award and the Malaysian Award for contributions to music. He was nominated for a Laurence Olivier Award for his first West-End production. A four time National Film Award winner and conferred the Padma Shri from the Government of India, Rahman has received six awards for Best Music at the Tamil Nadu State Film Awards and eleven awards for his scores at the Filmfare and Filmfare Awards South each. In 2006, he received an honorary award from Stanford University for contributions to global music. A 2008 Critics Choice Awards winner for Best Composer, Rahman became the first Indian national to win a Golden Globe, winning for Slumdog Millionaire in the category of Best Original Score AR Rahman was born actually as Dileep Kumar on the 6th of January in the year 1966 in Chennai. His father was a known musician but dies the day when the first film he had composed hit the theatres. AR was only 11 years at that time.
His early days were one of struggle and hardships. At the age of 11, his father passed away following a mysterious illness with rumours abounding that he was the victim of black magic practised by his rivals. Unfortunately R. K. Shekhar passed away the very same day his first film as composer was released. It was at this time that Rahman’s belief in God first took a beating. Much of his time was filled with hospital visits, pain and anxieties. It is an issue that Rahman outrightly refuses to discuss even today. After his father’s death the pressure of supporting his family fell on the young Dileep. At first the family subsisted by lending out his father’s musical instruments.
It was his mother who encouraged the young Dileep Kumar to follow in his father’s footsteps and fully supported him in his vocation. But all this had an adverse effect on his formal education. Infrequent attendance and an unaccommodative management forced him to shift schools from the prestigious Padma Seshadri Bal Bhavan to the Madras Christian College and finally he dropped out of school altogether when he was doing his 11th grade.
Later he was able to get a full scholarship to the famed Trinity College of Music at Oxford University from where he obtained a degree in Western Classical Music. He came back with a dream to bring an international and contemporary world perspective to Indian music.
Dileep converted to Islam from Hinduism in 1989 merely years before his first Bollywood blockbuster Roja was released. He converted to Islam along with his family after a personal experience with a Sufi Pir.
When asked what prompted him to convert to Islam, he says “I remember my father suffering. He was taken to eight to nine hospitals, including the CMC hospital in Vellore and the Vijaya hospital in Madras. I saw him suffering physical pain… I remember the Christian priests who would read from the Bible beside his hospital bed… I remember the pujas and the yagnas performed by the pundits… by the time, the Muslim pirs came , it was too late. He had already left us. After my father passed away, for some years when I was a teenager I believed there was no God. But there was a feeling of restlessness within me. I realised that there can be no life without a force governing us… without one God. And I found what I was looking for in Islam. I would go with my mother to durgahs. And pirsaab Karim Mullashah Qadri would advise us. When we shifted to this house, we resolved to stick to the faith.”Rahman became a very religious and devout Muslim. After this period his career graph began to take the upward path. More and more advertising offers came his way.
In Bollywood he came through famous Tamil and Bollywood producer Mani Ratnam. He was introduced to Mani Ratnam by one of Ratnam’s cousins. He was interested to learn about his music and one day dropped at AR’s studio.
The 24 year old lad played out a tune that he had been pushed into composing by his school friend G.Bharat alias Bala when they both had been greatly disturbed by the socio-political tensions in South India over the Cauvery river waters issue. Listening to the tune that was played, Mani was hooked instantly. Without a second thought he signed on the composer to score the music for his next film. That film did not work out but Mani signed him on for a new film which was to be produced by the veteran Tamil director K.Balachander for his respected ‘Kavithalayaa’ banner. That film was ‘Roja’. That tune would become the song “Tamizha Tamizha” in ‘Roja’. The music of the film would be a phenomenal success that would revolutionise modern day Indian film music. The name of the 25-year old composer was A. R. Rahman. And the rest, as they say, is history.
Source: http://www.khabrein.info/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=21330&Itemid=70&limit=1&limitstart=0