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Robert Alexander is a credentialed Senior Correspondent recognized by the United States Press Agency (USPA) and German Daily News.
There’s nobody who doesn’t know A.R. Rahman.
More so, there’s are very few who remain unacquainted with his mastery over music. Danny Boyle’s Slumdog Millionaire (2008) — Jai Ho in particular — undoubtedly cemented his name on the global stage, what with the trail of Oscars that followed. But his legacy spans much more massive territory.
In a rare chat with Dawn, he opened up about how he was not always ‘AR Rahman’ — he was actually born Dilip Kumar. Rahman and his family changed changed their faith, embracing Islam after his father’s death.
He shared, “The truth is I never liked my name. No disrespect to the great actor Dilip Kumar! However, somehow my name didn’t match the image I had of myself”, adding, “Sometime before we started on our journey on the path of Sufism, we went to an astrologer to show him my younger sister’s horoscope because my mother wanted to get her married. This was around the same time when I was keen to change my name. The astrologer looked at me and said, ‘This chap is very interesting.’ “
The astrologer in question proceeded to suggest two names Abdul Rahman and Abdul Rahim. No points for guessing which resonated with him more.
He said, “I instantly loved the name Rahman. It was a Hindu astrologer who gave me my Muslim name. Then my mother had this intuition that I should add Allahrakha (protected by God), and that’s how I became AR Rahman.”
Speaking of his association with Hindi as a language, in a separate chat with NDTV Good Times, Rahman had reflected how his poor command over Hindi had at one point, left him feeling “humiliated”, especially when he would read poor translations of his Tamil songs. This is what drove him to master the language.