Los Angeles, Feb 1 (IANS) Indian music maestro A R Rahman has bagged two awards at the 52nd Annual Grammy Awards ceremony that took place at the Staples Centre here Sunday.
The double Oscar winning composer was honoured for his compositions in Danny Boyle's rags-to-riches film "Slumdog Millionaire", which is a screen adaptation of Indian author and diplomat Vikas Swarup's novel "Q & A", getting the awards for best compilation soundtrack for a motion picture and "Jai ho" being the best motion picture song.
"This is insane, god is great again," Rahman said as he accepted his second award.
Rahman Shares Laurels with Lyricists Gulzar, Tanvi Shah
Rahman shares the Grammy award for the best motion picture song "Jai ho" with veteran lyricist Gulzar and Tanvi Shah who wrote the Spanish lyrics for it.
"Jai ho" has been sung by Sukhvinder Singh, Tanvi Shah, Mahalaxmi Iyer, Vijay Prakash and Rahman himself. This is the first time Rahman has been nominated for a Grammy. He joins other Indian music greats like Pandit Ravi Shankar, Zakir Jussain, Vikku Vinayak and Vishvamohan Bhatt who have won a Grammy in the past.
Rahman's rivals in the soundtrack category included Steve Jordan for "Cadillac Records," Quentin Tarantino for "Inglourious Basterds", and the producers of "Twilight" and "True Blood."
In the best song category Rahman's beaten rivals included Bruce Springsteen for his song "The Wrestler", from the Oscar-nominated movie of the same name.
'Jai ho' Brings Bouquet of Global Awards for Rahman
The composition in the film has won Rahman the most prestigious international awards including, the Oscars, the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA), Critics Choice Award, The Golden Globe and now the music industry's biggest honour - the Grammys.
Winning Awards "a Way of Life"
"It's a good start of the year. It was Rahman's birthday on Jan 6 and now he wins Grammys. It's a way of life now since he has won so many," Reihana told NDTV after her brother won the award.
"When he was going for Golden Globes last year, he was doubtful about his win and so were we, but after he got that, it has been awards and awards for him so we were quite sure that he will get the Grammy as well," she added.
Back home he was recently honoured with the Padma Bhushan, the third highest civilian award.