Bappi Lahiri

Some Lesser Known Facts About Bappi Lahiri

• Bappi Lahiri was an Indian singer and music composer. He died on 16 February 2022 due to OSA (obstructive sleep apnea).

• He was a nephew of the legendary Indian singer Kishore Kumar.

  

• Since childhood, he was interested in music. At the age of 3, he started playing the tabla and later, he learnt other musical instruments, like piano, drums, guitar, saxophone, bongos, and dholak.

• He got immense popularity as a music composer with the Bollywood film ‘Zakhmee’ (1975).

  

• He composed music and sung songs in many Bollywood films, including ‘Chalte Chalte’ (1976), ‘Disco Dancer’ (1982), ‘Namak Halaal’ (1982), ‘Sharaabi’ (1984), ‘Dharma Karma’ (1997), ‘Taxi No. 9211’ (2006), ‘The Dirty Picture’ (2011), and ‘Badrinath Ki Dulhania’ (2017).

• He composed songs in different languages, including Hindi, Kannada, Telugu, and Oriya. Out of his more than 5000 songs, some of his popular songs are ‘Yaar Bina Chain Kaha Re’ from ‘Saaheb’ (1999), ‘I Am A Disco Dancer’ from ‘Disco Dancer’ (1982), ‘Aaj Rapat Jaayein’ from ‘Namak Halaal’ (1982), ‘Raat Baaqi’ from ‘Namak Halaal’ (1982), ‘Dede Pyaar De’ from ‘Sharaabi’ (1984), ‘Tamma Tamma’ from ‘Thanedar’ (1990), and ‘Ooh La La’ from ‘The Dirty Picture’ (2011).

• He also gave music in many Kannada films including ‘Africadalli Sheela’ (1986), ‘Krishna Nee Begane Baro’ (1986), ‘Police Matthu Dada’ (1991), and ‘Guru’ (1989).

• He composed music for many Telugu films like ‘Simhasanam’ (1986), ‘State Rowdy’ (1989), ‘Rowdy Inspector’ (1992), and ‘Punya Bhoomi Naa’ (1995).

• He is also known for his music in many Tamil films including ‘Apoorva Sahodarigal’ (1983), ‘Paadum Vaanampadi’ (1985), and ‘Kizhakku Africavil Sheela’ (1987).

• He worked as a dubbing artist too. In 2016, he dubbed in Hindi for the character of ‘Tamatoa’ in the animated film ‘Moana.’

• His another film as a dubbing artist is ‘Kingsman 2: The Golden Circle’ (2017) in which he dubbed in Hindi for Elton John’s character.

  

• He held the Guinness Book World record for doing 33 films in a year.

• He received many awards for his contribution to the music industry. In an interview, he said,
  

  I was the first Indian music composer to win the China Gold Award for Jimmy Jimmy from Disco Dancer. Adam Sandler repeated the song in his film Zohan. Disco Dancer is historical, as are Sharaabi and Namak Halal. In the 1980s I started disco with Mithun Chakraborty’s film Suraksha where he danced like John Travolta. I’ve also worked with Apache Indian and Boy George. I gave Samantha Fox her Bollywood break opposite Govinda.”

• He held a record of making music for 12 super-hit silver jubilee films from 1983 to 1985.

• In 1996, he met the world-famous singer and dancer Michael Jackson in Jackson’s first live show in India.

• In 2002, the American R&B singer ‘Truth Hurts’ used a few lines of Bappi’s song ‘Thoda Resham Lagta Hai’ in his song. The copyright holders of the original song, Saregama India Ltd., sued the distributors, Interscope Records, and its parent company, ‘Universal Music Group,’ for more than $500 million as no credit was given to Bappi Lahiri or Saregamapa in Truth Hurts song’s credit list. Later, Bappi’s name was added to the credit list of the song. ^[5]Rediff

• He co-judged the popular singing reality show “Sa Re Ga Ma Pa L’il Champs” on Zee TV in 2006, “Sa Re Ga Ma Pa Challenge” in 2007, and “‘K For Kishore” on Sony TV.

• In 2008, he gave the music for Shah Rukh Khan‘s “Kolkata Knight Riders” team in the Indian Premier League.

• He joined the BJP on 31 January 2014 in the presence of the then-national president of the Bharatiya Janata Party, Rajnath Singh. In 2014, he contested for the 2014 Lok Sabha Elections from Srerampur (Lok Sabha constituency) but lost to Kalyan Banerjee of the All India Trinamool Congress.

• In 2018, he was awarded the Filmfare Lifetime Achievement Award at the 63rd Filmfare Awards.

  

• He was a gold lover and loved to wear sunglasses. He often quoted ‘Gold is my God.’ In an interview, he talked about his love for gold, he said,
  

  My mother gave me this Hare Krishna Hare Ram medallion after my first picture hit. The locket around my throat is to protect my throat. In Hollywood, famous singer Elvis Presley used to wear gold chains. I was a huge follower of Presley. I used to think, if I become successful someday, then I will build a different image of mine. By the grace of God, I could do it with gold. Earlier people used to think, it is just a way to show off. But it is not so. Gold is lucky for me.”