Sneak peek into the life of Bappida

Bappi Lahiri or Bappida as he is affectionately known, pioneered the use of disco music in Indian cinema, while retaining its Indian flavour. He was especially very popular in the 1980's with films like Disco Dancer, Namak Halal among others.

Bappi Lahiri was born in Calcutta, West Bengal into a family with a rich tradition in classical music. His father, Aparesh Lahiri was a famous Bengali singer and his mother, Bansari Lahiri was a musician and a singer who was well-versed in classical music and Shyama Sangeet. He began to play the tabla at the tender age of three.

Bappida bagged his first opportunity in a Bengali film, Daadu (1972) at the age of 19. The same year, he came to Mumbai and bagged his first hindi film, Nanha Shikari. The turning point of his career was Shomu Mukherjee's Hindi film, Zakhmee, for which he composed music and doubled as a playback singer. He himself sung a duet with Mohammed Rafi and Kishore Kumar called Nothing is Impossible for the same film. The songs of his next film, Chalte Chalte, became a rage. With Ravikant Nagaich's Surakshaa, his singing and music became even more popular. In 2004, he brought out his album 'Bappi Magic - The Asli Baap Mix', featuring popular numbers such as Gori Hai Kalaiyan and Jimmy Jimmy, all remixed in the trademark Bappi style. It attained great popularity. In 2005, he composed the background score for the Jahnu Barua film, Maine Gandhi Ko Nahin Maara, thus reaffirming his identity as a very versatile composer. In 2006, he lent his voice to another composer for the first time. The song was Boombai Nagariya which he sang for Vishal-Shekhar for the movie Taxi Number 9211. The song turned out to be an instant hit due to Bappi's singing and the musical arrangement. Of late, he has once again lent his voice to the title track of the film 'Guru', in which the music has been composed by A.R.Rahman. He has also recorded songs for the movie 'Level Crossing' produced by actor Jayaprada.