On February 16, the whole nation woke up to the shocking news of famous Bollywood composer and music director Bappi Lahiri passing away just before midnight on February 15, 2022. He was 69 years old and his death comes days after the passing of his mentor and singer Lata Mangeshkar.
Born Alokesh Lahiri on November 27, 1952, Bappida, as he was fondly called, is known for bringing the disco revolution in Indian film music and for his music given to actor Mithun Chakravarthy’s movies in the 1980s.
Renowned singer Kishore Kumar and his brothers Ashok Kumar and Anup Kumar were maternal uncles of Bappi Lahiri, while Bharat Ratna singer Lata Mangeshkar was one of his mentors.
Apart from his music, he was also known for his appearance and fondness for gold ornaments, as he always wore several gold chains, golden embellishments, velvety cardigans, and sunglasses.
Some of his most notable works are Chalte Chalte, Lahu ke Do Rang, Disco Dancer (which propelled him into stardom), Himmatwala, Namal Halaal, Sharaabi (for which he won his only Filmfare Award for Best Music), Saaheb, Prem Pratigya, Ghayal, amongst others.
He also sang for his movies and other music composers as well. He was awarded the Filmfare Lifetime Achievement award in 2018.
Lahiri was unwell for the past few days and was admitted to Juhu’s Criticare Hospital, where he breathed his last at 11:45 pm on February 15. The cause of death was a lung infection caused by obstructive sleep apnea.
"Lahiri had been admitted to the hospital for a month and was discharged on Monday. But his health deteriorated on Tuesday and his family called for a doctor to visit their home. He was brought to the hospital. He had multiple health issues. He died due to OSA (obstructive sleep apnea) shortly before midnight," Dr Deepak Namjoshi, director of the hospital, told PTI.
Though he is gone, his legacy will always remain alive through his amazing compositions and the Indian cricket fraternity took to Twitter to pay tributes to the music maestro.
Here are the tweets:
