AR Rahman's Mother Kareema Begum Passes Away In Chennai

AR Rahman was only nine years when his father passed away and his mother raised him singlehandedly. Read on to know more details.

Image courtesy - AR Rahman (Instagram, Twitter)

New Delhi: Music maestro AR Rahman lost his mother Kareema Begum due to ill health. She breathed her last in Chennai earlier today. Rahman was only nine years when his father passed away and his mother raised him singlehandedly. The ‘Slumdog Millionaire’ composer was very close to his mother and he also mentioned her in his Oscar-winning speech.

AR Rahman took to his Twitter and shared a picture of his mother. The post was not accompanied by any text. Take a look at the tweet here.

Rahman’s mother Kareema was a practising Hindu. Distressed by her husband’s illness, she visited various temples and churches, consulted various astrologers and holy men but none could help his father live longer. It was then she met a Sufi preacher who left a huge impact on her. A few years after her husband’s death, the entire family embraced Islam and she renamed the Oscar award-winning composer as Allah Rakha Rahman from Dilip Kumar.

A.R. Rahman's father, Rajagopala Kulashekhara Shekhar, was also a very talented musician. Before passing away, he worked on over 100 movies, primarily in Malayalam films.

Meanwhile, Rahman started composing music for movies during the early 1990s with the Tamil film ‘Roja’. Initially, the ‘Rang De Basanti’ composer used to compose music for carious documentaries and jingles for advertisements before setting off his foot in the film industry. The ‘Bombay’ music composer is the recipient of 6 National Awards, 2 Grammy Awards, 2 Academy Awards (Oscars) and many more. Rahman has also been awarded with the third-highest civilian award in the country, Padma Bhushan. A.R. Rahman made his debut as a director and writer with the 2017 movie ‘Le Musk’. Follow this space for more updates.