Did You Know AR Rahman Was Born As Dilip Kumar & Later Converted To Islam? Music Maestro Once Revealed Being Named By A Hindu Astrologer: “I Never Liked My Name”

AR Rahman is a profoundly popular musician who is known all over the world for his magical creations. However, did you know that the music composer was born into a Hindu family but changed his faith and name after meeting a Sufi? In a throwback interview, the music maestro opened up about the same and talked about his journey of following Islam. Scroll below to find out!

For those who don’t know, Mr Rahman was born as Dilip Kumar. Yes, that’s right. However, after Sufi treated his father, he and his mother felt they needed to adopt a different faith, and that is how their journey began. AR Rahman has given one after other hits irrespective of the language of the industry, and we are all in debt to his creations, be it Roza or Dil Se or Slumdog Millionaire.

Back in 2000, while talking to Karan Thapar for his BBC show, AR Rahman talked about what made him choose a different faith. He shared, “There was a sufi who was treating him towards the end days before he died. We later met him after 7-8 years and that’s when we led another spiritual path which gave us peace.” Later, in Nasreen Munni Kabir’s AR. Rahman: The Spirit of Music, the music maestro said, “My mother was a practising Hindu. She had always been spiritually inclined. We had Hindu religious images on the walls of the Habibullah Road house where we grew up. There was also an image of Mother Mary holding Jesus in Her arms and a photograph of the sacred sites of Mecca and Medina.”