Mohammed Rafi recording a song
Musical maestro Mohammed Rafi is a household name in the country and beyond. He doesn't need an introduction. If the song 'Gulabi Aakhein' starts playing, people from varying generations will start humming and grooving, indicating how his fans are not limited to a specific age group or era and immense love from his fans is what makes him immortal. On his birth centenary, we have brought a list of lesser-known facts about the maestro:
Rumour has it that the legendary singer has voiced twenty-six thousand songs but researchers have found only 7,405 songs till now. In reality, there's a different story. The fact that he has sung more than 26,000 songs is incorrect. During a concert abroad, while introducing Rafi, the host announced that he had sung twenty-six thousand songs. Considering Rafi's mettle and singing prowess, everyone believed it without any doubt and no one fact-checked the statement. Rafi Sahab himself believed it to be true.
Besides singing, Rafi Sahab also displayed his acting skills in the movies, Laila Majnu and Jugnu. Both the films were commercially successful.
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Mohammed Rafi's first public performance came at the early age of 13 when he sang at a concert of the legendary KL Saigal.
Rafi was a philanthropist and a kind hearted person. He used to send money to his widowed neighbour via money order. After Rafi's death, the money stopped coming and the widow went to enquire in the post office. It was only then that she came to know about the real sender of that money order.
In an interesting turn of events, once Mohammed Rafi and Kishore Kumar challenged each other unknowingly. RD Burman was the one who manipulated events for this to happen. For the 1969 movie Pyar Ka Mausam, he made both of them sing the melodious song Tum Bin Jaun Kahaan. The song needed two different singers' voices as two different characters in the film would sing them in unrelated situations. Rafi's voice was used for Shashi Kapoor's character, while Kishore Kumar's voice was used for Bharat Bhushan's character. However, Rafi's version gained more popularity.
