Happy Birthday AR Rahman: Special Moments and Less-Known Facts about Music Maestro [PHOTOS]

The legendary singer AR Rahman, who has marked success as an internationally acclaimed music composer as well, has turned 48 on 6 January this year.

From "Roja" to "Slumdog Millionaire", Rahman has composed and sung several songs and made them super hits. He has composed music for Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Malyalam, Kannada and Hollywood movies.

On his birthday, let us go through some of his special moments and little known facts about his life.

• The versatile singer has been given many names. First of all, his original name is AS Dileep Kumar, and then he changed it to Allah Rakha Rahman. He is also known as 'the Mozart of Madras' and 'Isai Puyal' by his Tamil fans.

• In 2009, TIME added his name in the world's most influential people's list. In 2011, he was GQ's Legend of the Year.
• The great star of India has won 117 awards out of 138 nominations – four National Awards, 15 Filmfare and 14 Filmfare South, as of last year.
• Rahman is the first Asian to get two Oscars in a single year.
• The Oscar winning track "Jai Ho" from "Slumdog Millionaire" was initially composed for Salman Khan's "Yuvraj". After that, the legend also provided music to Hollywood films – "127 Hours" and "Lord of War".
• In 2007, Rahman was awarded Indian of the Year for Contribution to Popular Music in Limca Book of Records.
• A street in Ontario, Canada, has been named in his honour in November 2013.
• Rahman, who wanted to be a computer engineer, became popular as a child when he used to come in Doordarshan's "Wonder Balloon" and played four keyboards at once.