Born as A. S. Dileep Kumar in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, Allah Rakkha Rahman lost his father at the age of 9. His family converted to Islam from Shaivite Hinduism in the late 1970s. Rahman and trained in music under Master Dhanraj and learned the keyboard and piano, the synthesizer, the harmonium and guitar quite early. At age 11, he joined the troupe of Ilaiyaraaja as a keyboardist besides accompanying Zakir Hussain, Kunnakudi Vaidyanathan and L. Shankar on world tours. Rahman later obtained a scholarship to Trinity College of Music in London, where he graduated with a degree in Western classical music.

In 1991, Rahman started the Panchathan Record Inn, his own music recording and mixing studio, where he began his advertising stint composing music jingles for advertisements, television channels and documentary scores. In 1992, at an advertising awards function, Rahman was approached by film director Mani Ratnam to compose the score and soundtrack for Ratnam's Tamil film Roja, which won Rahman the Rajat Kamal award for Best Music Director at the National Film Awards, the first time ever by a debuting film composer. Since then, Rahman has picked up the award thrice again for Minsaara Kanavu in 1997, Lagaan in 2002 and Kannathil Muthamittal in 2003, making it the most times a composer has won this award.

Rahman is renowned the world over for his soundtracks, namely his Bombay Theme (Bombay),
Rangeela, Dil Se, Taal, Sangamam, Iruvar, Kandukondain Kandukondain, Alaipayuthey, Swades and Rang De Basanti. His collaborations with film directors, especially with Mani Ratnam have all yielded hits, as well as his work with S. Shankar in films like Gentleman, Kadhalan, Indian, Jeans, Mudhalvan, Nayak, Boys and Sivaji.

Among his other works, Rahman scored the Mandarin movie, Warriors of Heaven and Earth in 2003, and co-scored the Shekhar Kapoor movie, Elizabeth: The Golden Age in 2007. You can even find his compositions on Hollywood OSTs like Inside Man, Lord of War and The Accidental Husband.

Rahman also released Vande Mataram in 1997 on India's 50th anniversary of Independence. In 1999, together with choreographers Shobhana and Prabhu Deva Sundaram, Rahman performed with Michael Jackson in Munich, Germany, for his Michael Jackson and Friends Concert. He also worked with Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber on a musical called Bombay Dreams in 2002, besides working on the music for The Lord of the Rings theatre adaptation.

His first soundtrack Roja was listed in TIME's Top 10 Movie Soundtracks of All Time" in 2005. Rahman has also been conferred the Padma Shri from the Government of India, besides picking six awards for Best Music at the Tamil Nadu State Film Awards and eleven awards for his scores at the Filmfare and Filmfare Awards South each. "