Making his debut in 1992 with Mani Ratnam’s Roja, A.R. Rahman won the National Award for his soundtrack. Time magazine listed it in their ‘10 Best Soundtracks’ of all time.
2008 was a year of crowning glory for Rahman, with his winning two Oscars for Danny Boyle Slumdog Millionaire. The album also won the BAFTA, the Golden Globe and two Grammys.
Three years later, A.R. Rahman made the trip to the Oscars again, this time for a nomination for 127 Hours, another Danny Boyle film. His soundtrack was nominated for the BAFTAs and the Golden Globes too.
Gentleman was his second soundtrack that won the Tamil Nadu state award. It was also the beginning of the collaboration between Rahman and Shankar, a duo who have worked on ten films so far.
1993 was also the year that marked the start of Rahman’s journey with veteran director Bharathiraja. Kizhakku Cheemaiyile was an album that was a marked departure from Rahman’s earlier work — his first rustic soundtrack.
The second film in Mani Ratnam’s ‘terror trilogy’ was Bombay. And this soundtrack got a place in The Guardian’s ‘1,000 Albums to Hear Before You Die.’ The ‘Bombay Theme’ has been featured in many international compilation albums too.
His first-ever Hindi album was Rangeela for Ram Gopal Varma. It was an overnight hit, with songs that are evergreen.
Minsara Kanavu fetched Rahman his second National Award. The song ‘Ooh La La La’ was re-edited by the maestro and used for Andrew Lloyd Webber’s stage production Bombay Dreams.
In 2001, A.R. Rahman won his next National Award for a film that made it to the Oscars in the foreign language category — Lagaan. The film brought him international attention, along with having a highly popular soundtrack.
Working with Mani Ratnam again, Rahman created the soundtrack for Kannathil Muthamittal, a film set in war-torn Sri Lanka. This album won him his fourth National Award.