Being A R Rahman in 2003 means a few things:

• You are the unqualified superstar of the contemporary Indian film music scene;
• Your first collaboration with Andrew Lloyd Webber, the music for which you compose, turns out to be biggest money-spinner London's West End has seen in recent times;
• The very same musical, Bombay Dreams, will now head for New York's Broadway;
• You score the music for a Chinese film, Warriors Of Heaven And Earth;
• You get to perform with one of the Western world's biggest popstars, Michael Jackson, at Munich, for a charity event;
• You kick off your own first Unity of Light Concert that tours the US, UK, and Canada; and,
• A British company will wait a year for your okay to compose for the stage version of The Lord Of The Rings.

Reason enough for Indians to be proud of this talented artiste.

Text: Sita Menon