S. D. Burman

Some Lesser Known Facts About S. D. Burman

• Sachin Dev Burman is a legendary singer and music director of Bollywood.

• He was born in the Royal family of Tripura.

• He got initial training in music from his father. Later, he took formal training in singing from K.C. Dey, and learned to play various musical instruments from the experts.

  

• He was a popular football referee and centre forward player. He also played cricket for the YMCA club. He loved playing Tennis, but his guru asked him to choose between Tennis and singing. So he selected singing over his favourite game.

• Once, S.D. Burman was travelling with his friends on a train, and they did not have enough money to pay the fare. So, the ticket inspector took them to the lockup. One of his friends suggested him to sing ‘bhajans,’ incase inspector got impressed by his songs, he will let them go. And he was right! they liked his songs and released them soon.

• He used to roam in jungles after his father’s death, and there he used to learn more about regional music from the localities of Bengal.

• He started his professional career in 1932, as a singer in the Calcutta radio station. He released almost 131 songs in Bengali in the next few years.

• The music lovers from different regions used to call him by many names. People from Kolkatta called him ‘Sachin Karta’, for Mumbians he was ‘Burman Da,’ for Bangladeshians and radio listeners of West Bengal he was ‘Sochin Deb Burman’. This tells how popular he was in every region.

• In 1930, he set up a music school ‘Sur Mandir’. Amid all his students, was Meera Dasgupta, he used to like the simplicity of her and soon they both started liking each other.

  

• In 1938, he got married to her. There were some complications in their marriage. The reason was that she did not belong to a royal family, although, she was from a respectable and educated family. Therefore, she was not welcomed by her in-laws, this made S. D. Burman very upset, and he decided to break the ties with the royal family.

  

• After marriage, he went to Mumbai but failed to get recognition in the music industry. So, he decided to go back to his hometown. But, Ashok Kumar stopped him and insisted him to take a last chance with the movie ‘Mashaal’ and after the release, if he still wanted to leave, he can. He gave his best and the music was a great hit.

  

• During this time he met Dev Anand, and together they worked for the movie ‘Baazi’ which was again a hit.

  

• He believed that for the movie ‘Baazi’ he made notable changes in his singing: which was directed by Guru Dutt. The first change was that he was singing with Geeta Dutt rather than Roy, and secondly, the gazal ‘Tadbir Se Bigri Hui Taqdeer Bunale’ was to be sung in western style.

  

• During 1930-1940, as a music composer, S. D. Burman made a great contribution to the Bengali films and Hindi films.

  

• In  1939, they welcomed a baby boy in the family- R. D. Burman (Rahul Dev Burman), the legendary singer and music composer, who later, got married to Asha Bhosle.

  

• In 1950, he teamed up with Dev Anand‘s production to give music in the movies Taxi Driver (1954), Munimji (1955), Paying Guest (1957), Nau Do Gyarah (1957), and Kalapani (1958).

• He also composed the soundtrack of the epic movie Devdas (1955). His music for Guru Dutt‘s hit movies: Pyaasa (1957) and Kaagaz Ke Phool (1959) is still reminded.

  

•  In 1958, he was awarded ‘Sangeet Natak Akademi Award,’ and he is the only music director to receive such prestigious award.

• His son R. D. Burman, and Nasir Hussain got classical music training from him. He also prepared Asha Bhosle, Kishore Kumar and Hemant Kumar as singers.

  

• Earlier, there was some tiff between S.D. Burman and Lata Mangeshkar, but later they started working together. He used to say that just give me the harmonium and Lata and we will create the best music.

  

• Later, in his career, he refused to lent his voice to the actors for lip-syncing, but he did bardic commentary in the movies.

• The tune of the song ‘Allah Megh De’ (Guide, 1965) was initially recorded in the 1940s by the Bengali singer-composer ‘Abbasuddin Ahmed’ for the renowned music company Saregama. This song became very popular, and S.D. Burman decided to use this song in the movie Guide.

• The lyrics were composed by Shailendra and S.D. lent voice for it. This was such a big hit that further its various versions were released by Laxmikant-Pyarelal in the film Palkon Ki Chhaon Mein (1977), and  Bappi Lahiri’s song ‘De De Pyar De’ from the movie Amaanat (1994) is a variation of it.

  

• S. D. Burman was very fond of Kishore Kumar and considered him as his second son. Their duo has given many hit songs to the Bollywood. Even when he was on his death bed, he wanted Kishore Kumar to record the song for the movie Mili, which was composed by him.

  

• Sachin was a big fan of football and used to support the East Bengal team. He used to stop eating and cry when his favourite team lost. When he was in comma, one day, he opened his eyes on hearing the news that East Bengal has won.

• He was the one who launched actor Danny Denzongpa and Anuradha Paudwal as singers.

• He used to make the tune first and then lyrics, it was his own style of creating music.

• He was very fond of Paan and had some favourite vendors at Khar Station (his bungalow) “The Jet” and Bharati Vidya Bhavan.

• After a stroke, he went in a coma and left this world on 31st October 1975, in Bombay (now Mumbai).

• Sachin Tendulkar‘s grandfather was a big fan of S.D. Burman. So, he decided to keep his grandson’s name as Sachin.

• His contribution to the regional and Hindi music industry is still reminded. On 1 October 2007, on his 101st birth anniversary, Indian Postal Department released his commemorative postage stamp in Agartala.

  

• In the book, ‘SD Burman: The World of His Music,’ author SK Raychaudhuri revealed that S. D. Burman was unhappy with the fact that his son started creating music which was contrary to his father. When he heard the song ‘Dum Maro Dum’, he got up and left the studio.

  

• Many books have been published on the life of S. D. Burman mainly- S.D. Burman: The World of his Music, S.D. Burman: The Prince- Musician.

  

• In 2011, his first English biography ‘Incomparable Sachin Dev Burman’ written by H. Q. Chowdhury was published.

  

• In 2012, there was a news that Bangladesh Prime Minister ‘Sheikh Hasina’ would convert the ancestral property of S.D. Burman to a folk cultural institute-cum-museum.

  

• It is said that Sachin’s wife was leading a very unhappy life after his death. She was shifted to old age home-‘Sharan’ by daughter-in-law Asha Bhosle. She was unhappy but decided not to leave that place, and she ultimately died in the old age home.

  

• In 2018, there was a news that full-length statues of legendary music composers and singers, S. D. Burman and Kishore Kumar, will be installed by a fan club in Kolkatta.  These statues have been installed near to R. D. Burman’s statue. The location which they have selected is South End Park, where S. D. Burman used to live with his wife in the early 1950s, before, coming to Mumbai. It was inaugurated by Kishore Kumar’s son- Amit Kumar.