Winner of two Academy Awards and two Grammy Awards, the 45-year-old Rahman is first musician to be feted with a Lifetime Achievement award at DIFF and also the youngest recipient of the award.

Rahman will receive the award during DIFF to be held from December 7 to 14. "A R Rahman is an inspiration for countless musicians and composers, and has brought a fresh infusion of talent to the Indian film industry. Through his international foray, working with some of the world's most accomplished musicians, he demonstrated the power of music to cross all barriers and connect with a global audience," said Abdulhamid Juma, the festival's chairman.

"We are honoured to present Rahman with the DIFF Lifetime Achievement Award."Rahman's 'Slumdog Millionaire', which was screened at DIFF 2008, won the musician two Academy Awards for Best Original Music Score and Best Original Song, while his score for '127' Hours, which screened at DIFF 2010, won him Golden Globe, BAFTA and Academy Award nominations.

Most recently, Rahman joined forces with Rolling Stones legend Mick Jagger on 'SuperHeavy', a supergroup also featuring Joss Stone, Dave Stewart and Damian Marley. An Honorary Fellow of the Trinity College of Music, Rahman is a recipient of the Padma Bhushan, and was named as one of the 'World's Most Influential People' by Time in 2009.

Previous Lifetime Achievement honourees at DIFF include Omar Sharif, Adel Imam, Morgan Freeman, Sean Penn, Amitabh Bachchan, Shah Rukh Khan, Daoud Abdel Sayed, Youssef Chahine, Rachid Bouchareb, Souleymane Cisse, Nabil El-Maleh, Oliver Stone, Danny Glover, Terry Gilliam, Yash Chopra, and Subhash Ghai.