He is India's favourite music director, a reluctant youth icon and one of the highest selling artists of the world. Once criticised for his predictable style, the man has long overcome the phase and manages to surprise his fans with a varied palate of musical offerings. Almost every album he comes up with now is refreshingly unique.

From the satin, soulful rhythms of Roja to the very foot-tapping, uber-cool patriotic beats of Rang De Basanti , he has made a nation swing to his tunes all along his journey to the Numero Uno spot.

Whatever his style or influence, one thing is for sure: Allah Rakha Rahman rarely, if ever, disappoints. Be it signature tunes for Airtel or ad jingle for Titan watches, Rahman has managed to catch the imagination of everyone from eight to 80.

A R Rahman was born as A Sekhar Dileep Kumar to a Tamil family on January 6, 1966. His father worked as a music arranger for Malayalam films. At the age of nine his father died and his family began renting musical equipment to make ends meet.

It was during those tough times that a Muslim Sufi saint took young Dileep under his tutelage and converted him to Islam - hence the name Allah Rakha Rahman. It's perhaps this spiritual connection that manifests itself as subtle Sufi influences in popular Rahman numbers like Main Albeli (Zubeidaa) and Piya Haaji Ali (Fiza) .

At 11, Rahman joined legendary Indian composer Ilayaraja's troupe as a keyboardist. He later joined the orchestra of popular musicians, including M S Vishwanathan and tabla maestro Zakir Hussain, on world tours. The exposure helped him to obtain a scholarship to the Trinity College at Oxford University, Britain, where he received a degree in Western classical music.

But Rahman's big date with cinema came in 1991. Ace Tamil movie director Mani Ratnam was on the lookout for a new composer for his films. At an awards function, he chanced upon the 24-year-old who received the award for the best ad jingle for Leo Coffee brand.

Hooked to his music, Mani Ratnam signed him for Tamil film Roja (Rose) released in 1992 and later dubbed into several languages. The soundtracks of the Hindi version became an instant hit and catapulted him to big league.

That was 14 years ago. Since then, Rahman has brought to Indian cinema a whole new genre of music. But criticism, too, began to pour in. Rahman was criticised for taking his own time in composing music, something that reportedly forced Mani Ratnam to drop a song from Bombay to release the already delayed film on time.

Rumours were rife that Mani Ratnam had dropped him from his next project, too, but they were proved to be unfounded. Rahman, however, made no bones about it and said that he was “no machine that could churn out scores on an assembly line endlessly”. The misunderstandings were soon resolved and Rahman-Ratnam duo has worked wonders.

“What is really a relationship? A relationship means the first good experiences, like first love and you always remember that. He picked up the best out of my work and said, ‘This is you'. He was the first one who gave me a good work. For us, it's been a challenge to cross each thing from Bombay to Iruvar ,” Rahman says about Mani Ratnam in an interview to CNN-IBN.

His compositions are absorbing, a deliberate yet careful blend of digital instruments and traditional sounds like flute, mridangam and natural sounds. His Choti Si Aasha in the film Roja , with its blend of traditional tune and distinct reggae beats, went on to be a cult hit.

His latest Rang De Basanti is an exuberant mix of jingoist bhangra pop with a hint of sufiana influence.

So, how does Rahman manage to accomplish this? It's no doubt a master at work, infusing modern technology into music and some brilliant orchestration.

With no inhibitions and restricted by no one genre or style, Rahman experiments with everything - Indian classical, Western classical, and fusion too.

“Sometimes I've worked from the scratch using my own voice. Like in Dil Se , Mani said why don't you sing it in your own voice. Or when I did Ye Jo Des . Ashutosh Gowarikar suggested that I should be singing this song. Initially, I was supposed to sing Ek Taara but it didn't match Shah Rukh's voice,” Rahman says.

In 2000, Rahman's annual income was estimated to be around $4 million from worldwide endorsements and royalties dating back to Roja (1992). His Tamil album Kandukondain Kandukondain was sold for a record sum of Rs 22 lakh. The record remains unbeaten.

With Rang De Basanti being the current rage among the youth of the country, Rahman continues to lead Bollywood's music brigade.

Fourteen years and many chartbusters later, Rahman shows no sign of slowing down. In fact, he has begun living life in the fast lane and is taking up more projects than ever before.

The Rahman fans are obviously not complaining. He's here to stay, so just let the music play!