Alokesh Lahiri, known as Bappi Lahiri, was born on 27 November 1952 in West Bengal and died on 15 February 2022 in Mumbai, aged 69. He was a composer and singer, known as the “Disco King” of Hindi cinema. Both of his parents, Aparesh Lahiri and Bansuri Lahiri, were classical and Shyama Sangeet musicians.
He began composing for films in the 1970s. Zakhmee (1975) was the turning point of his career, and the songs of Chalte Chalte (1976) became hits. The film that made his name was Disco Dancer (1982), starring Mithun Chakraborty, whose songs “I Am a Disco Dancer” (sung by Vijay Benedict) and “Jimmy Jimmy Aaja” became hits in India and in the Soviet Union, where the film drew an audience of tens of millions.
In the 1980s he composed many of the era’s popular dance albums, including Namak Halaal (1982), Sharaabi (1984) and Dance Dance (1987). His later credits include “Ooh La La” in The Dirty Picture (2011), which won a Mirchi Music Award, and “Tune Maari Entriyaan” in Gunday (2014).
He was well known for wearing large amounts of gold jewellery, a look modelled on his idol Elvis Presley. He contested the 2014 Lok Sabha election as the BJP candidate for Sreerampur in West Bengal and lost to Kalyan Banerjee.
His disco-era compositions are still widely used in dance floors and remixes, which is why he remains closely tied to a particular sound of Hindi cinema.
Featured image: Bappi Lahiri in 2014 (cropped). Photo by Arthurm84, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
Leave a Reply