AR Rahman

He was writing jingles when Mani Ratnam heard something in his work and talked him into scoring Roja — Rahman's said he figured that would be his one and only film. Instead he ended up winning two Oscars in a single night for Slumdog Millionaire, first Asian composer to pull that off, plus a couple of Grammys and a Padma Bhushan along the way. From the classical-fusion 90s scores to whatever he's doing now, it's basically all here.