Rashtriya Lata Mangeshkar Sammaan from the Madhya Pradesh Government for 2004-2005 has been awarded to A.R.RAHMAN this year. This is one of the 15 National and 3 State level awards instituted by the state to felicitate excellence in different artistic activities.
The award has been instituted in 1984 and the jury this year comprised Suresh Wadkar, Anupam Kher and noted journalist Jayprakash Chowksey from Indore. A.R.RAHMAN has been chosen for his special ability to merge traditional melody with Western music.
While Naushad won the first Rashtriya Lata Mangeshkar Sammaan award, the later winners have included Kishore Kumar, Jaidev, Manna Dey, Khayyam, Asha Bhosle, Laxmikant-Pyarelal, Yesudas, R.D.Burman, Sandhya Mukherjee, Anil Biswas, Talat Mehmood, Kalyanji-Anandji, Jagjit Singh, Ilayaraja, S.P.Balasubramaniam, Dr Bhupen Hazarika, Mahendra Kapoor, Ravindra Jain and Suresh Wadkar.
The 1966-born A.R.RAHMAN made his debut in 1992 with Roja whose dubbed version was also a huge hit in Hindi. Thiruda Thiruda, Kaadhalan, Bombay, Indian and Padiyappa have been among his Tamil hits while in Hindi he has scored Rangeela, Dil Se?, Taal, Lagaan, Saathiya, Swades and Rang De Basanti.
