Bappi Lahiri, the veteran singer and music composer, passed away on Wednesday morning at the age of 69, at the Criticare Hospital in Mumbai’s Juhu area. According to hospital sources, he was discharged from the hospital on Monday after undergoing treatment for a month. To honour the legacy of the great singer, let’s take a look at how he got his first big break.
Bappi Lahiri, fondly referred to as the Disco King of Bollywood, was born on November 27, 1952, in Kolkata, Bengal. Bappi Da was the son of Apresh Lahiri and mother Bansari Lahiri, two great composers of their time. He once revealed that when he was 11 years old, he composed his first song and decided to become a music director like his parents. So, following his dream at the age of 19, in 1971, he came to Mumbai.
While talking about the person who gave him the first break he said, “Mercifully Shashodhar Mukherjee, a very big producer of those times, knew my father. So on his insistence, his son Shomu Mukherjee decided to give me his film called Nanha Shikari.”
He further added that getting a chance was not that easy as Shomu made him compose 25 songs of different varieties and finally let him become the music director with Nanha Shikari.
Bappi Da sang two songs in the film Nanha Shikari with Mohammad Rafi and Kishore Kumar. In an interview, Bappi Da recalled those times and said, “After this film, I said to myself, come what may, I will never leave music at any cost.”
Interestingly, after this film, he soon got Zakhmee and Chalte Chalte. However, Bappi da credits Zakhmee as his major success to the song he sang, ‘Jalta hai jiya mera bheego bheego raton mein.’ The song became a major break for him and helped him achieve his first major success.
Bappi won the Filmfare Lifetime Achievement Award at the 63rd Filmfare Awards. May the legend rest in peace.
