Article by Kavitha Shetty on A R Rahman debut and rise in the film industry

When 26 year-old A.R. Rahman, says, "cool scene man", the Tamil film industry stops to listen. After all the youngest music director to hit the Tamil screen has made history recently with the record breaking audio cassette sales of his debut film. Roja, with over two lakh tapes sold in Tamil alone.

Though he has only five films to his name, two of which are still unreleased, Rahman's name sells. He was paid Rs 7 lakh for his last film, while Ilayaraja, the brilliant composer for 500 films, gets only Rs 3 lakh more. Today, any Rahman composition is expected to sell one and a half lakh tapes. Ghanshyam Hemdev, the head of Pyramid Audios, calls him "the phenomenon that changed the face of the industry".

Rahman has come a long way since the days he played with rock bands in Madras. Sitting, in his room filled with Rs 1 crore worth of computer gadgetry. he has created a new synthesised sound which makes even Ilayaraja's folk-classical-western mix seem painfully passé. "I graduated to film music," he says, "after, having tried out different kinds of music, from rock to adverting notes. I think my music combines all these influences.

His career took off with director Maniratnam first noticing him when he was playing keyboard in llayaraja's orchestra. What perhaps helped the director decide in favour of Rahman was the speed at which he delivered. Most music directors take a few days to compose a tune after a scene has been explained to them. Not Rahman. Five minutes after mani Ratnam explained the scene of Chinna Chinna Aasai in Roja, Rahman had the tune ready.

In a short span, Rahman. has considerably broadened the film music spectrum in Madras as well as Bombay. After the stunning sales of Roja in Hindi he has been signed by Mahesh Bhatt and the Compact Disc India company for an untitled Hindi film. With his originality and hi-tech equipment, Rahman is sure to have the film industry swaying to his tunes.