A R Rahman wins 2 Oscars

In the Best Original Score category, Rahman faced tough competition from other nominees that included Alexandre Desplat (The Curious Case of Benjamin Button), James Newton Howard (Defiance), Danny Elfman (Milk) and Thomas Newman (Wall-E). But the composer from Chennai emerged victorious for his score in Slumdog Millionaire , which combined musical influences from many parts of the world.

Accepting the award, Rahman said: “Before coming, I was excited and terrified. The last time I felt like that was during my marriage…There's a dialogue from a Hindi film called "Mere paas ma hai," which means "I have nothing but I have a mother," so mother's here, her blessings are there with me. I am grateful for her to have come all the way. And I want to thank the Academy for being so kind, all the jury members. I want to thank Sam Schwartz, I/D PR, all the crew of Slumdog, Mr. Gulzar, Raqueeb Alam, Blaaze, my musicians in Chennai and Mumbai. And I want to tell something in Tamil, which I normally say after every award, which is – ‘God is great’. Thank you.”


There was hardly any competition in the second category, Best Song, in which Rahman had two nominations for “O Saya” and “Jai Ho”. The only other contender was “Down To Earth” from ‘Wall-E’.

And expectedly, Rahman won the second Oscar for “Jai Ho”, which, interestingly, he had composed for a Bollywood movie before using it in ‘Slumdog’.

In his acceptance speech, Rahman said: “I just want to thank again the whole crew of Slumdog Millionaire, especially Danny Boyle for giving such a great opportunity. And all the people from Mumbai. The essence of the film which is about optimism and the power of hope in the lives, and all my life I had a choice of hate and love. I chose love and I'm here. God bless.”

The other Indian who won was 36-year-old Resul Pokutty for Best Sound Mixing for ‘Slumdog Millionaire’. Pokutty shared the Oscar with Ian Tapp and Richard Pryke.

We can't wait for Rahman and Pokutty to get back home. They'll sure get a hero's welcome.


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