How A R Rahman brought Bollywood music to the West

With record sales of more than 200 million albums worldwide, A R Rahman has composed the soundtracks for over 100 Indian films and is credited with more or less single-handedly revolutionising Indian film music.

On Aug. 15, Rahman performed a one-off “greatest hits” show at the O2 arena in London. He has brought Bollywood music to the Western world—with a style that is both new and familiar at the same time.

The son of a film music composer and conductor in the Tamil and Malayalam film music industries, Allah-Rakha Rahman got his big break as a music director doing the songs and background score for the Tamil film, Roja. In India, film music reigns supreme, and Rahman’s soundtrack took the country by storm.