On October 8, 2023, Ron Gunnell meets Academy Award Winner, A. R. Rahman at his home in Chennai, India.

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On October 8, 2023, Ron Gunnell met Academy Award Winner, A. R. Rahman at his home in Chennai, India. Indian composer whose extensive body of work for film and stage earned him the nickname “the Mozart of Madras.” A beautiful hour at his home, and as his guest the following night at his Concert attended by over 65,000 people.

British composer Andrew Lloyd Webber heard some of Rahman’s soundtracks and asked the composer if he would be interested in writing a stage musical. Working with lyricist Don Black, Rahman composed the score for Bombay Dreams, a colourful satire of Bollywood films, and the show opened in London’s West End in 2002 without much fanfare. Rahman was already well known among London’s large Indian population, however, and ticket sales were strong, which prompted the launch of the Broadway version of the show in 2004. Rahman’s next stage project, a musical version of The Lord of the Rings, premiered in Toronto in 2006. Budgeted at $25 million, the production teamed Rahman with the Finnish folk ensemble Värttinä to compose a musical score that captured the otherworldliness of J.R.R. Tolkien’s creations. While the play met with harsh reviews in both Toronto and London (where it opened in 2007), it proved to be a moderate success with audiences.

Rahman continued his work for the screen, scoring films for Bollywood and, increasingly, Hollywood. He contributed a song to the soundtrack of Spike Lee’s Inside Man (2006) and cowrote the score for Elizabeth: The Golden Age (2007). However, his true breakthrough to Western audiences came with Danny Boyle’s rags-to-riches saga Slumdog Millionaire (2008). Rahman’s score, which captured the frenzied pace of life in Mumbai’s underclass, dominated the awards circuit in 2009. He collected a British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) Award for best music as well as a Golden Globe and an Academy Award for best score. He also won the Academy Award for best song for “Jai Ho,” a Latin-infused dance track that accompanied the film’s closing Bollywood-style dance number. Rahman’s streak continued at the Grammy Awards in 2010, where he collected the prize for best soundtrack and “Jai Ho” was again honoured as best song appearing on a soundtrack.