There will never be another Bappi Lahiri. The singer-composer-politician, 69, died due to OSA (obstructive sleep apnea) today. He was admitted to Mumbai’s CritiCare Hospital, where he was being treated for almost a month for health-related issues. He had been discharged on Monday but was brought back to the hospital again on Tuesday after his health worsened. His last song for a Bollywood film was Bhankas from the 2020 film Baaghi 3. In the same year, Bappi Lahiri sang the track Rum Pum Bum for Ravi Teja’s Telugu film, Disco Raja. He was last seen on television on Salman Khan’s reality show Bigg Boss 15. He promoted his grandson Swastik’s song Baccha Party on the show.
Bappi Lahiri, fondly called the Disco King of Bollywood, gave us several memorable songs – some were disco-style while others were melodious – in the late 1970s, 1980s and early 1990s.
In the loving memory of the great singer, let’s take a look at some lesser-known facts about Bappi Lahiri:
1 – The singer composed music for 12 super-hit silver jubilee movies in which Jeetendra played the lead roles from 1983 to 1985 and created a history.
2 – Bappi Lahiri was just 3 when he began to play the tabla. He was trained by his parents Aparesh Lahiri and Bansuri Lahiri, who were both trained Bengali singers in classical music.
3 – Bappi Lahiri wrote a song titled Come Closer for the Hollywood movie Lion, which starred Dev Patel. For Come Closer, the singer took inspiration from Imagination’s 1981 song Body Talk.
4 – What inspired Bappi Lahiri for disco-style songs was Rupa Biswas’s 1982 album Disco Jazz.
5- Bappi Lahiri made a record when he vocalized a duet with late singers Kishore Kumar and Mohammed Rafi. The duet titled Nothing Is Impossible was for the 1975 film Zakhmee.
