As the Indian music industry is growing, the profits of play back singers and other stars are also increasing. Many popular singers charge Rs 20 lakh and more for a song. However, the singer who charges the highest fees charges Rs 3 crore for a song.
The singer we are talking about started his career at the age of 9 and now he has become an international star and has a huge fan following. He is none other than AR Rahman. AR Rahman was born AS Dilip Kumar in 1967 in Madras, Tamil Nadu. His father RK Shekhar was also a film score musician for Tamil and Malayalam films. Rahman was fond of music since childhood. He started learning piano at the age of 4. He lost his father at the age of 9. He was deeply shocked by this and his family had to face financial crunch.
At that time, Rahman left his studies to focus on music and took up the burden of household responsibilities. He used to play piano professionally to support his family. A few years after leaving school, he got admission in college but then he left college to pursue a career in music. After leaving college, he formed his own band and then also wrote jingles for many ads. It is said that Rahman had written jingles for about 300 ads.
AR Rahman had said in an interview that till the age of 25, he had suicidal thoughts and wanted to end his life. “Till the age of 25, I thought about suicide. Most of us feel that we are not as good as we should be. Because I had lost my father, there was this emptiness,” he told PTI in an interview. …A lot of things were happening. It made me more fearless in a way. Death is a permanent thing for everyone. Because everything created has an expiry date so why be afraid of anything?”
He got his first break in films from the Tamil film ‘Roja’. The public liked his songs in this film a lot. Once he started writing songs for films, AR Rahman’s career started gaining momentum. He won an Oscar Award for his songs in the 2008 film Slumdog Millionaire. He also gave music for Dil Se, Taal, Rang De Basanti, Swades, Jodha Akbar, Jaane Tu…Ya Jaane Na and other Bollywood films.
His childhood was spent in extreme poverty but now he is the highest earning singer in India. He is the winner of six National Film Awards, two Academy Awards, two Grammy Awards and a BAFTA Award. According to reports, AR Rahman charges Rs 3 crore for a song and his total property is Rs 1748 crore which makes him richer than some young actors in the industry.
