AR Rahman announces memoir Rahman: A Renaissance: 'A new chapter begins'

Dubai: AR Rahman has announced a memoir. Rahman: A Renaissance will be co-authored with writer Rupa Chakravarty, and the composer confirmed it on social media on Monday alongside a photograph of the pair at a piano.

"A new chapter begins," Rahman wrote, describing the book as a closer look at the music, ideas, challenges, influences and creative journey that have shaped his world.

What he says it will cover

The framing suggests something closer to a study of how he works than a career retrospective.

"My music comes from the constant evolution of my mind," Rahman said in a statement. He described the challenges, aspirations, dilemmas and tests he goes through as interconnected with the brotherhood he experiences, with psychological turmoil, and with faith, and said all of them end up inside the music he makes.

His stated hope is to share the moments, influences and ideas behind the journey rather than catalogue the output.

Not his first book, but his first as author

Rahman has been the subject of a book before. Notes of a Dream: The Authorised Biography of AR Rahman, written by Chennai-based author Krishna Trilok and published by Penguin Random House India, was launched in Mumbai in 2018, with a foreword by Danny Boyle.

At the time, Rahman said the process had taken him into corners of his life that had long stayed private.

Notes of a Dream was written about him, built from interviews and anecdotes gathered from people around him. Rahman: A Renaissance carries his name as co-author, which puts him inside the telling rather than beside it.

Rupa Chakravarty

Chakravarty joins as co-author, and the announcement positions her as bringing her own storytelling voice to the collaboration rather than acting as a ghostwriter.