Bappi Lahiri’s Hollywood connect: Elvis Presley to Akon, Lady Gaga, he had links with these celebs

Singer-composer Bappi Lahiri had a successful career in the Hindi film industry. He was the man who introduced India to disco, and rightfully bagged the title of India’s first ‘Disco King’. With a gleaming career spanning over four decades, Bappi Da, as he was fondly called, also held a Guinness World Record. While a lot is already known about his career, some may not know about his association with the western film industry -Hollywood.

Bappi Lahiri was not only a renowned music composer back home in India, but was also known in Hollywood. In fact, his popular song ‘Jimmy Jimmy Aaja Aaja’, which featured Mithun Chakraborty, made it to Adam Sandle’s 2008 film ‘Don’t Mess With The Zohan’. The song was re-arranged by Julius Dobos and was also used by the singer M.I.A who used it for her album Kala’s single track ‘Jimmy’.

In the year 2002, singer Truth Hurts had also used a riff of Bappi Lahiri’s song ‘Kaliyon Ka Chaman’ which was sung by Lata Mangeshkar. Later, when Dr Dre copied Bappi Da’s Jimmy Jimmy song, the latter sued him for copyright infringement and even won the case.

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Another song of Bappi Lahiri ‘Come Closer’ from Mithun Chakraborty’s 1984 movie ‘Kasam Paida Karne Wale Ki’ was selected for Hollywood’s award-winning film ‘Lion’ which featured Nicole Kidman and Dev Patel. The hindi trailer of Gardians Of The Galaxy 2 has used Bappi Da's song 'Jhoom Jhoom Jhoom Baba' in its trailer, rights of which were acquired by Disney India.

These are not just the only works of Bappi Lahiri that go him famous internationally. In the year 2019, Bappi Lahiri worked with pop-star Lady Gaga and recorded two songs with her. He also collaborated with Akon and posted a picture with him on his Instagram account and wrote: “Disco king Bappi Lahiri and pop star Akon in recording mood.”

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Bappi Lahiri was also the first Indian to have been made as a part of the Grammy jury in the year 2012. He also held nominations at the 2017 Oscars Awards and Golden Globes Awards for Moana and Lion in the Best Animated Film and Best Film categories, respectively.

Bappi Lahiri had also once considered giving his lucky gold chain with Lord Ganpati’s locket to legendary singer Michael Jackson when the latter came to Mumbai. MJ had liked Bappi Da’s chain when he had met him. But he did not give his chain since it was lucky to him. Furthermore, Bappi Lahiri had also once revealed that his love for gold chains was inspired by Elvis Presley who too used to wear gold chains.

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