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Born as A.S. Dileep Kumar in a musically affluent family in Chennai on 6 January 1966, he changed his name to Allah Rakha Rahman after his family converted to Islam in the late 1980’s.

Rahman was forced to shoulder the responsibilities of his family at the age of nine after his father R.K. Shekhar, who was a composer, arranger and conductor for Malayalam movies, died due to illness. The music genius came to the limelight with his music for a Bombay Dyeing ad and Leo Coffee in 1980’s which became very popular.

“We’ve been waiting for this for 80 years,” said Rahman recently in The Hindu, the Indian daily newspaper. “I think it will create a bridge between Western and Indian audiences, and lead to more people exploring Indian music.”

While Rahman first came to the attention of Western audiences with his film music for Elizabeth: The Golden Age (2007) and stage shows Bombay Dreams and The Lord of the Rings, his already stellar profile will go into overdrive should he win. Numerous Hollywood offers have been coming his way since the film’s release.

Just as in a Bollywood film, in Slumdog Millionaire the music is almost as important as the imagery and the narrative, and is central to its ambience of grit and grandeur. “We wanted it edgy, upfront. Danny [Boyle, who directed] wanted it loud,” says Rahman.

Until now, the 43-year-old Rahman was often seen as a kind of Indian Andrew Lloyd Webber, inventive and full of melodic facility, often veering into the middle of the road. Lloyd Webber compares Rahman to Paul McCartney.

The honour bestowed on the maestro has brought much cheer to the Indian film industry.”The Golden Globe is a coveted award and it is a rare honour for an Indian music director. By winning it, competing with composers from around the world, Rahman has not only proved his worth, but has also conveyed to the world that, given a chance, an Indian music director can deservedly vie with any composer in the world,” fellow composer Anu Malik told.

Rahman won the prestigious award for his musical score in the song “Jai Ho”, for which Gulzar penned the lyrics. The song is a typical Rahman number and the composer stuck to his signature style while composing it.

Sukhwinder Singh, who has sung the song, told “Rahman has churned out treat songs even in the past but he did not get an award so I feel that he truly deserves this one. I am very happy for him and when he comes back to India, I will meet him.