Rehman - He-Man Of Indian Music Industry

What drew me strongly to write this post, is this someone called Naresh Iyer. What a break for this talented youngster, who got rejected from the last 25 finalists for Channel V Super Singer contest. But that disappointment turned into joy, and of great hope, with A.R Rehman, the co-judge for that competition offering Naresh a chance to sing for his next movie.

Now, this singer, who is ruling the roost in Tamil Films, has made another achievement. And what a feather in his cap, apart from the R.D Burman Filmfare award for emerging singing talent ! He bagged the National Award for the best singer at the 53rd National Film Awards, results of which were announced yesterday. Honestly, I was really surprised that he did win the award, not because he isn't talented. But for someone so new, to win the award is still a rarity! Unnikrishnan the now famous singer in Tamil movies also bagged the National Award in his first song itself for , "Ennavale" for the Tamil movie Kaadhalan . Guess who the music director was ? A.R Rehman.

A.R Rehman's contribution to the number of emerging talented playback singers is incredible. In fact, when Kumar Sanu was all over the Bollywood Movies with his own style of nasal crooning (tad different than the now popular nasal twang of Himesh"Da"), no awards seemed to be coming the way of Udit Narayan. Unfortunately for Kumar Sanu, his honeymoon with Bollywood got over by 2000, and he became a struggling singer, and sang for hardly a couple of songs for A.R Rehman. But Udit was Rehman's choice, very often, and Udit came out with award winning songs like Mitwa, and Yeh Tara, both of which had music direction by A.R Rehman. Kumar Sanu has had to be satisfied with a world record, 28 songs recorded in a day and an unprecedented 5 Filmfare awards in a row.


Other talented singers Rehman has unearthed are Gayatri Iyer, Mahalaxmi Iyer, Hariharan and most inspiring was reviving the fortunes of Sadhna Sargam who was struggling in an Alka Yagnik domiated Bollywood female playback singers' industry in the 90's (remember, Pehla Nasha ?). A list of the contributions by Rehman towards National Award winning singers, gives a fair idea of his knack of giving melodious tunes and talent.

Read as: Year,Singer,Song,Film,Language

2005, Udit Narayan ,Yeh Tara ,Swades, Hindi
2002, Udit Narayan, Mitwa ,Lagaan ,Hindi
2001, Shankar Mahadevan, Yenna Solla Pogirai, Kandukondein, Tamil
Kandukondein
1997, S. P. Balasubrahmanyam, Thanga Thamarai, Minsaara Kanavu, Tamil
1995, Unnikrishnan, Ennavale, Kadhalan, Tamil

This, apart from the awards Rehman has won for his own music direction. Let's look at that too !

Read as: Year,Movie,Language

2003 A. R. Rahman Kannathil Muthamittal Tamil
2002 A. R. Rahman Lagaan Hindi / English
1997 A. R. Rahman Minsaara Kanavu Tamil
1993 A. R. Rahman Roja Tamil

That means in his 15 years in the Indian Film Industry, Rehman has contributed to national awards in 7 years no less. That is an amazing achievement, even without considering the mind boggling list of other awards like Filmfare etc. Rehman is still so young, one wonders where all this music wizard can go. He is one person who can take Indian Music places, and he already has been. It almost seems tough to imagine an Indian Music industry without Rehman. It is indeed a privilege to be in the same era as his, and getting to listen to amazing, Indian music which is in sync with modern tunes.