In a glittering ceremony held in New Delhi, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh presented Rahman the award.

Rahman was also declared the recipient of the CNN-IBN Indian of the Year 2009 in the Entertainment category. He was awarded for his manifold achievements for putting India on the global entertainment map with his wins at the Golden Globe and Oscar Awards 2009.

Legendary sitar artist and composer Bharat Ratna Pt Ravi Shankar was honoured with the Lifetime Achievement award, for his truly global musical spirit and unparallel achievements that have risen above cultural and national barriers, finding millions of admirers.

Another important highlight of the event was the Special Achievement award that was given to veteran actor Kamal Haasan for being India’s most versatile, and arguably one of the greatest actors on the Indian screens in a career spanning 50 years.

The Special Achievement award was also given to the Indian Test Cricket team for becoming the world’s best test team and achieving unprecedented consistency in their performance in all three forms of the game. Representing the Indian team, some of its brightest stars, including three former captains Anil Kumble, Rahul Dravid and Sourav Ganguly who have substantially contributed in achieving the number one status, were present on the occasion along with VVS Laxman.

A young politician who combines charisma, vision and political astuteness that belies his youth, Rahul Gandhi won the title of CNN-IBN Indian of the Year 2008 – Politics. He has been recognised for his consistent effort to give a new vision to politics in Uttar Pradesh and being the chief architect of the Congress Party’s victory and inspiring youth to join politics.

Displaying passion and commitment for corporate brand India and setting out to achieve a task that many considered to be impossible, the Satyam Revival Team consisting of Kiran Karnik, Deepak S Parekh, C Achuthan, Tarun Das, T N Manoharan and S Balkrishna Mainak was the unanimous choice for CNN-IBN Indian of the Year 09 in Business Category.

Badminton ace, Saina Nehwal, emerged as the winner in the Sports Category for her consistent wins in some of the most prominent international tournaments and fuelling the ambitions of sporting excellence and achievement in millions of Indians.

Pratham, the largest NGO working to provide quality education to the underprivileged children of India, was the proud recipient of the prestigious CNN-IBN Indian of the Year 09 award in the Public Service Category

Rahman’s chartbuster ‘Jai Ho’ from Slumdog Millionaire has been nominated for ‘Best Song written for Motion Picture, Television or Other Visual Media’ while the second nomination for the music maestro is under the category ‘Best Compilation Soundtrack Album for Motion Picture, Television or Other Visual Media.’

This is the first time that the Musical Genius has been nominated for the prestigious Grammys. The Grammy awards will be presented on January 31st 2010 at the Staples Centre in Los Angeles. We hope and pray that Rahman emerges victorious once again and brings home the Grammy.

The five minute song — `Hum Seema Suraksha Bal… Veeron ka hai ye dal (We are the Border Security Force… it is the force of the brave)’ — composed by Rahman praises the strength and valour of the force which is responsible for guarding the Indo-Pakistan and Indo-Bangladesh borders.

“The credit for the song goes to Meghalaya governor R S Moosahary, who is a former director-general of the force. He helped us get in touch with Rahman, who composed the song without charging any money for it,” BSF chief M L Kumawat told reporters on the occasion of the force’s investiture ceremony here on Thursday.

After being formally released on the occasion, the song, which also captures the emotional tribulations of a jawan guarding the border while leaving his family behind, comes with a video — titled `Borderman’ — showing BSF men in action along the border, undergoing training and the famous `change of guard’ ceremony at Wagah border.

Kumawat said: “The song and the video capture the true spirit of the force. Rahman has also promised to come and spend time with our men to boost their morale.”

On the occasion, the BSF chief also announced that the force — which will soon begin the process of raising its strength by recruiting 29,000 more personnel — would also undertake a massive modernisation project costing over Rs 6,000 crore in the next five years.

The plan will also see the construction of 509 new border outposts along the Indo-Pak and Indo-Bangla borders, nine new sectors and three more frontier headquarters.

Source:Times of India

The super success of Oscar winner Slumdog Millionaire has been so overwheming that the lucky pair of Danny Boyle and A R Rahman are being flooded with offers.

Grapevine has it that Danny Boyle has been asked to direct James Bond’s 23rd film. And since Rahman composed such great music for Slumdog Millionaire, it might just be that the music maestro also gets roped in for the project.

According to unconfirmed reports, Barbara Broccoli, producer of the next James Bond film has approached Danny Boyle for the project.

“Danny’s intense involvement with the motifs he drops on his script papers is unbeatable by any of the contemporary filmmakers. For sure, he would offer a new-dimensioned James Bond and it s something about turning spotlights of the entire globe if Danny is there in Bonds family,” says a source.

While rumours may be running rife about Rahman being a part of the Bond project, one thing is certain – if Rahman does it, the next James Bond soundtrack would surely be a super duper hit. Jai Ho!

Shot in Mumbai, the film tells the heart warming story of an 18-year-old orphan from the slums of Mumbai who goes on to win a staggering Rs 20 million ($420,000) on India’s “Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?” game show.

It won six other awards, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Editing, Breakout on Camera (Dev), and Best Performance by a Youth – Male (Ayush) from the Phoenix Film Critics Society.

Dev plays the protagonist Jamal as a teenager, while Ayush plays Jamal in his childhood.

The film, which has been named in Time magazine’s list of Top Ten Films of 2008, won Best Picture and Best Director awards from the Dallas-Fort Worth Film Critics Association as well as Best Director and Best Screenplay from the Houston Film Critics Society.

The St. Louis Film Critics Association gave it the Best Director and Best Foreign Language Film awards, while the Southeastern Film Critics Association chose it for Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay.

It has also earned six nominations for the Chicago Film Critics Awards, including Picture, Director, Adapted Screenplay, Cinematography, Score, and Most Promising Performer (Dev).

A good news is in store for all the independent bands across Asia, who desperately needed a sound platform to showcase their talent. In an upcoming reality series, a joint venture of famous Music Director of Bollywood, A R Rahman together with the Music company Phat Phish Records, will give an opportunity to the bands to release their albums as well as to perform live on stage worldwide.

Rahman who was in Delhi to promote the series said, “We are really excited to expose the hidden talent in these places, especially India.” The Director who will be judging the artist promises to give an outlet to the creations which are original, innovative and moves the soul as he also added, “We are planning to give the selected bands opportunities like never before.”

The series will be telecast on Doordarshan and the bands across the subcontinent can send in their entries until the next one month. Entries of all age groups and genres are allowed and will be scrutinized under three categories. First category will be the remake of a popular folk song or any mainstream music, the second will be the rendition of any of the music of Rahman for the series and the last will be the band’s original composition. For registering and for further details one can log on to www.phatphishrecords.com.

source:topnews.in