Illayaraja's gift to Rahman March 02, 2009 Musicians of the film industry showed their solidarity in felicitating the Oscar award winner A.R. Rahman. The event took place at the Cine Musicians Auditorium on March 1st at 6 pm. On winning the coveted award, Rahman said, "It's the aspiration of all (the musicians)... God selected me to collect the award on their behalf."
The music director said that the seeds for his success were sown by his parents. He once again repeated his famous quote: "Ella pugazhum iraivanuke (All Glory to the Almighty)." [Illayaraja] Speaking of his experience in composing the music for Danny Boyle's Slumdog Millionaire, Rahman said that he completed composing music for the film within three weeks. Rahman stated that though he wondered why some great Indian talents did not make it to the Oscar he realized later that they did not require such an award. While maestro Illayaraja presented Rahman with a gold chain, Harris Jeyaraj gifted him a gold ring. Veteran director K Balachander said "Rahman is a rare genius. When other music composers make castles with their music, Rahman builds monuments." Incidentally, Rahman's debut venture Roja was produced by Balachander's home production. Those who took part in the event include M S Viswanathan, producer A V M Saravanan, S Janaki, Shankar Ganesh, Deva, Srikanth Deva, Yuvanshankar Raja, Karthik Raja, Vijay Anthony, D Imman, T M Soundararajan, L R Eswari, Karthi, Chinmayi, Thippu, Chitra, Swarnalatha, Mano, and drummer Shivamani. http://www.behindwoods.com/tamil-movie-news-1/mar-09-01/illayaraja-02-03\ -09.html <http://www.behindwoods.com/tamil-movie-news-1/mar-09-01/illayaraja-02-0\ 3-09.html>
