A. R. Rahman a Music Millionaire

A R Rahman is the first Indian to get three Oscar nominations for his works in British-Indian movie Slumdog Millionaire which also got the nod in seven other categories, including best film and best director. Rahman was nominated for best original score while both Jai Ho and O Saya were shortlisted for the best original song. The film also won nominations in cinematography, sound mixing, sound editing and film editing.



Music maestro A R Rahman created history by becoming the first Indian to win Golden Globe award for his music score for 'Slumdog Millionaire' at the prestigious award ceremony on Monday. Rahman's song 'Jai Ho,' penned by lyricist Gulzar, has won the coveted prize of Best Original Music Score at the Golden Globes. The film which depicts the story of a Mumbai underdog's rags-to-riches run, is on a winning spree and has so far bagged three Golden Globe awards – Best Original Music



'Slumdog' is based on a novel by Indian diplomat Vikas Swarup and stars Bollywood actors Anil Kapoor and Irrfan Khan in lead among others. The film has been shot at various locations in Mumbai, including the railway Victoria Terminus, which was targeted by terrorists on November 26, last year. Boyle's feel-good film depicts the moving story of a slum dweller Jamaal, who goes on to win USD 20 million on Indian reality show 'Who Wants to Be A Millionaire?' in a bid to win his love back.

A R Rahman ........



Born A.S. Dileep Kumar on January 6th, 1966, in Madras, India, Allah Rakha Rahman was exposed to music from the time he was a child, entered in classical piano studies by his parents at the age of four. At 16, he quit school and was following in his father's footsteps ,K.A. Sekhar a successful film musician, working full-time as a session musician on soundtracks under the popular South Indian composer Illaiyaraja. In 1989 Rahman planted the first seeds of his film career. That year, he began acquiring the equipment and organizing the sound library for his Panchathan Record Inn. When Sharada Trilok's ad for Leo Coffee (for which Rahman penned the music) won her an award, she introduced the young composer to her cousin, Mani Ratnam. Impressed with his work, the director signed Rahman to compose the music for K. Balachander's 1992 film Roja.

Rahman's score, a colorful, uncluttered combination of pop, rock, reggae, and his country's traditional music, reshaped the genre, winning him three awards for Best Music Director. Roja became the equivalent of an Indian crossover success. Originally filmed in South Indian Tamil, it was re-dubbed in Hindi, the language of North India's famous film center "Bollywood." His star on the rise, Rahman proceeded to compose music for six films in 1993 and nine in 1994 including the score for Ratnam's Bombay (1995), the story of a Hindu/Muslim marriage in a time of heated relations between the two cultures.



Rahman's score displayed a characteristic (and appropriate) disregard for the confines of culture, be they Eastern or Western, once again mixing traditional and modern elements. Bombay was hugely successful and the movie's theme was featured on Talvin Singh's Soundz of the Asian Underground compilation. Rahman became the first Indian artist to sign with Sony Music, negotiating a three-year contract in 1997. His premier release for the label, Vande Mataram , was a tribute to India, commemorating 50 years of the country's independence. The album reached record stores in 28 countries on August 15th of that year. Rahman finally seemed poised on the brink of the international success he desired. Performances were booked in Europe, Canada, and the United States during the final years of the century and a session was arranged with singer David Byrne . Andrew Lloyd Webber chose Rahman to compose the music for his Bombay Dreams, a musical based on the "Bollywood" film industry.

Chess = Viswanathan Anand

Viswanathan Anand (born 11 December 1969) is an Indian chess grandmaster and the current World Chess Champion.Anand won the FIDE World Chess Championship in 2000, at a time when the world title was split. He became the undisputed World Champion in 2007 and defended his title against Vladimir Kramnik in 2008. Anand is one of four players in history to break the 2800 mark on the FIDE rating list. He was at the top of the world rankings five out of six times, from April 2007 to July 2008.



He was taught to play chess by his mother. In his own words, "I started when I was six. My mother taught me how to play. In fact, my mother used to do a lot for my chess. We moved to the Philippines shortly afterward. I joined the club in India and we moved to the Philippines for a year. And there they had a TV program that was on in the afternoon, one to two or something like that, when I was in school. So she would write down all the games that they showed and the puzzles, and in the evening we solved them together. Of course my mother and her family used to play some chess, and she used to play her younger brother, so she had some background in chess, but she never went to a club or anything like that. So we solved all these puzzles and sent in our answers together. And they gave the prize of a book to the winner. And over the course of many months, I won so many prizes. At one point they just said take all the books you want, but don't send in any more entries."



Anand’s mother says that he has always had a photographic memory. She recalls how as a child of two he would pick up his favourite records and remember the songs in each to play on his father’s radiogram. He was a brilliant student throughout, and is a B.Com with honours from Loyola College in Chennai.



Anand was six years old when he first visited the Tal Chess Club in Chennai. Manuel Aaron, India’s first International Master would regularly play there and would hold classes for the members, basing his lessons on the tactics of the Soviet Grandmasters. Aaron says, Anand would regularly interrupt him and suggest alternative moves. “I looked upon him as a big nuisance because he wouldn’t allow me to complete my lectures.” Anand beat the legendary Aaron when he was only 13.



He has won the Arjuna Award and the Padma Shri, perhaps the youngest to do so. He has also been conferred with the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award. Anand, who lives with his wife Aruna in Spain’s Collado Mediano, is known as the ‘lightning kid’ on the Chess circuit. The standard time allotted to a Chess game is 120 minutes for 40 moves. He makes those moves in just half an hour! This nerve-wracking speed puts a lot of pressure on his opponents. Soviet Grandmaster Tukmanov once said of his lightning fast game, “ People play that fast in Coffee Shops!” He likes action films and loves Rock music.