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Indian film composer Bappi Lahiri, who combined the melodrama of Bollywood films with the flamboyance of the disco electronic orchestral sound and started a pop craze in India that earned him the nickname “Disco King”, died in Mumbai on February 15. He was 69 years old.
His son, Bappa, who is the arranger, manager and bandmate, said the cause was obstructive sleep apnea.
Mr. Lahiri was an up-and-coming pop musician when he traveled to the United States in 1979 to perform a series of concerts for an Indian-American audience. While there, he toured nightclubs in San Francisco, Chicago, and New York, and has caught American disco fever in recent months. In New York, he bought a Moog synthesizer, multiple drum machines, and enough other musical equipment to fill two taxis.
Back home, his experiments with these instruments resulted in a career-making soundtrack for the hit movie “Disco Dancer” (1982). It was a disco musical—soaring horns and insistent bass lines under strings—and a declaration of love for the genre. In one scene, a frenzied crowd and the protagonist, a superstar disco musician, spell and chant the word “disco.”
Tracking the rise of a young street urchin named Jimmy and his fights with a family of rogue plutocrats, “Disco Dancer” became the first Indian movie to earn 1 billion rupees (about $30 billion in today’s dollars) and a soundtrack. It fueled the disco craze in India.
It also fueled the career of sad-eyed, puffy-dressed star Mithun Chakraborty and produced two of the most catchy dance tracks in Indian pop history, “I Am a Disco Dancer” and “Jimmy Jimmy Jimmy Aaja,” each sung onscreen by Mr. Chakraborty.
These songs have been in existence in India long after the movie was released in theaters. At weddings, they’ve been known to inspire everyone from older aunts to friends of the groom to boogie down on the dance floor.
Mr. Lahiri backed most of his disco songs with a recognizable Indian melody and soon realized he had hit a winning formula, leading to 1980s hits. “I’m A Street Dancer” “Super Dancer” and “Disco Station Disco.” In 1987 alone, he was included in the Limca Book of Records, which recorded the worldwide success of the Indians by recording the soundtracks for 37 films.
She also developed the fashion sense of a mega-celebrity inspired by her childhood homage to Elvis. The look included colorful sunglasses worn indoors and outdoors, velvet sweatpants, and shiny jackets that swaddle her pillow-like torso, and an array of gold jewelry dangling from her neck.
I remember once a man refused to admit that I was Bappi Lahiri. said Times of India, “because I was wearing a coat to protect myself from the cold and he couldn’t see my gold chain.”
Bappi Lahiri was born on November 27, 1952 in Kolkata (now Kolkata). His parents, Aparesh Lahiri and Bansur (Chakravarty) Lahiri were singers who met while performing for the public broadcaster All India Radio. As a child, Bappi demonstrated his ability to play the tabla, a traditional Indian drum, and on the advice of the popular singer Lata Mangeshkarworked with table master samta prasad.
His family moved to Mumbai (now Mumbai) when he was young to further Bappi’s career. There, he found a strong ally in the family’s spiritual guru, Amiya Roy Chowdhury, who gave him an introductory letter to the Bollywood star. Giant Anand.
Mr. Lahiri’s decades-long composing career spanned more than disco but also Indian classical forms such as ghazals. In total, he is believed to have composed about 9,000 songs that have appeared in as many as 600 movies. At his peak, he would book four studios in a single day and use up to 100 musicians for a song.
In addition to his son, Mr. Lahiri is from his wife Chitrani (Mukherjee) Lahiri whom he married in 1977; its mother; daughter Rema Bansal; and two grandchildren.
While interest in disco waned in the United States when Mr. Lahiri rose to fame, it became a central part of the disco phenomenon elsewhere, notably in the Soviet Union. “Disco Dancer” was among the most popular movies in the USSR and Mr. Lahiri’s songs are still used as music. standards in musical performances on Russian television.
A journalist from the Indian Express News Service during the 2018 World Football Cup in Russia to create The country is full of “Jimmy” fans.
“Everybody knows where I got it from,” said a local fan, identified only as Yuri, pulling out her phone. “Let me show you which of his songs is my favourite.”
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