AR Rahman beat Ilaiyaraaja by just one vote to win his First National Award

Let's look at the interesting incident where A.R. Rahman won the National Award by getting one more vote than Ilaiyaraaja.

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Ilaiyaraaja vs AR Rahman :

Awards are a recognition for film personalities. And if there is one award that many Indian film personalities want to win, it is the National Award given by the Central Government. There are veterans who have not won this prestigious National Award even once. Especially, top Kollywood actors like Rajinikanth, Vijay, and Ajith have never won a National Award.

The same is the case with most Tamil cinema music composers. Talented music composers like Yuvan Shankar Raja, Anirudh, and Vidyasagar have missed out on winning the National Award by a whisker. So far, only two music composers from Tamil cinema have won the most National Awards. One is Ilaiyaraaja and the other is A.R. Rahman.

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Ilaiyaraaja has won 5 National Awards so far and A.R. Rahman has won 7 National Awards so far. There is a small story behind A.R. Rahman's first National Award. Roja was the debut film of A.R. Rahman as a music composer. This film was directed by Mani Ratnam. All the songs composed by A.R. Rahman for this film became super-duper hits. A.R. Rahman gave a new route to Kollywood directors who had relied only on Ilaiyaraaja till then.

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Ilaiyaraaja competed with Rahman for the National Award

While A.R. Rahman was nominated for the National Award for Roja, the cult classic film Thevar Magan, composed by Ilaiyaraaja, was also in the competition. The music of both films was greatly celebrated by the fans. This made the jury, who were responsible for deciding who to award the National Award to, confused.

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Ilaiyaraaja missed the National Award by one vote

The jury had cast 6 votes each for both films. Finally, the famous director Balu Mahendra, who was a jury member at the time, had to cast one vote to decide the winner. Since he cast that one vote that decided the winner to A.R. Rahman, Ilaiyaraaja missed the National Award by one vote. Balu Mahendra has said this information in an old interview.