‘Bappi Lahiri was a trail blazer, innovator who lived like a rockstar’

I am stunned. It is a great personal loss for me. How can I say how big a loss it is for the music industry? The vacuum can never be filled . Bappi Lahiri’s music and appearance was so different. He was a trend-setter, a trail blazer and definitely an innovator. He was a style icon. He brought in so many new styles of music, sound, computing and programing.

I still remember that during lunch breaks in between recordings he would always invite me and share the lunch. He used to bring a huge tiffin carrier stuffed with all the food cooked by his wife. He was a foodie and used to love fish.

We never met during the pandemic but he rang me up once and said that he had kept three songs for me to sing.

I said “ Wow! So, Bapi da please let’s do it (record the songs)”.

He asked me whether I was moving out during the Covid-19 pandemic and I told him that I was not moving out of Kolkata or even out of my home. I told him that he should not give the songs to anybody else and he said “How can I?” He always used to say that we were an unbreakable and inseparable jodi .

He has given me so many hit songs. Whatever song I sang for him was a hit. Be it ‘Ramba Ho’, ‘Uri Uri Baba’ and ‘Naka Bandi’ . Where would you get such a pair? In all my shows over the past 40 years or so I have always sung ‘Ramba Ho’, ‘Hari Om Hari’ and ‘Koi yahan, aha nache nache’.

I used to tell him that I don’t need many songs from him. I just need one song from him, once in six months and with that I would be able to do more than 700 shows. He would laugh a lot. I do so many shows because of Bapi da’s songs.

My gratitude, respect and humility would also be there for the work that he has put in. There are so many musicians, singers and dancers who perform in his songs. They are all earning because of his songs. He truly was the Disco King.

He believed that he was a rockstar and lived that life till his last day.

He always remained open to new ideas. He allowed me to sing the song just the way I wanted. Sometimes he left some of the lines of a song up to me in whichever way I wanted to sing it.

“Go and sing the song. Baas make it a hit song,” that was his only demand.

All his songs were so happy; that’s why they will live on for generations.

The audience would be enthralled when he used to enter the stage. It was his entire persona which made it so wonderful.

I feel a little pain in my heart when I remember that some people didn’t appreciate his work saying that it was disco music. I feel he wasn’t given his due. He should have got much more. I think that during his lifetime people didn’t take him seriously. It hurts me a lot because I took him seriously. I knew his music was really something else -- maybe because I come from a different kind of genre. Sometimes people would make fun of him over the way he dressed and the way he wore his jewellery. It didn’t bother him because he would still wear those wonderful jazzy jackets, gold chains, bracelets and rings. That was his style. Why should it bother anybody else? He made a success of that style.

I wonder whether he had a feeling that he would depart like this and whether the end would come so soon. I really don’t know. I rang up at least thrice. His wife took the calls and said that he was doing fine.

He was a simple, honest and joyous man who would laugh a lot. He was a family man . His father and mother were the inspirations in his life. He always wanted to promote his son and daughter. His son sings so well and his daughter is such a good musician. His foundation was very strong.

We have to bid farewell to everybody but his songs will always live on. The song is much bigger than the singer. Bye Bye Bapida, have a wonderful time up there with all your friends -- and the disco music.

(As told to Joydeep Thakur)

Usha Uthup is a popular singer and a Padma Shri awardee