Slumdog Millionaire Wins 2 Music Oscars (Best Picture And Best Direction, and and...)

LOS ANGELES (Top40 Charts) A.R. Rahman won two Oscars awards on Sunday, but he was prepared as the Indian film composer has written the perfect tune for the occasion: "Jai Ho" ("Be Victorious"), the celebratory ode sung during "Slumdog Millionaire's" feel-good Bollywood-style song-and-dance finale.

The film's rags-to-riches fairy tale plot might seem improbable, but Rahman's victories in both Original Song and Original Score are now quite true. Rahman also performed his two Oscar-nominated songs, "O ... Saya" and "Jai Ho" before a global audience at Sunday's Academy Awards ceremony. A deeply spiritual man, Rahman believes that music and film have the power to "bring people together" across boundaries of caste, religion, nationality and race.

Rahman, who has already won Golden Globe and British BAFTA awards for his score, said an Oscar was a "big dream" to be shared with his millions of fans in India and elsewhere. They have made him one of the world's best-selling recording artists on a par globally with Madonna and the Rolling Stones.

With nominations for best song and original score, Rahman equaled in one night the total number of golden statuettes taken home by Indians in the Oscars' 80-year-history. Costume designer Bhanu Athaiya won for "Gandhi" in 1982 and arthouse director Satyajit Ray received a lifetime achievement award in 1992.

Rahman hope his victory will make Western audiences more aware of contemporary Indian film music.

Here is the winning song:

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