RTIwala Trending: We have all grown up listening classics like ‘Aye Dil hai mushkil, jeena yahaan’ and ‘Leke pehla pehla pyaar’, haven’t we? And no matter how much music has changed over the years, the roots of it date back to the 1950s. Well, now that we’ve left you reminiscing his soulful compositions, let us tell some really engaging facts about the ‘Rhythm King’ Late Shri Omkar Prasad Nayyar on his 92nd birth anniversary,
Also Read: Some Riveting Facts about Deepika Padukone
1] Late OP Nayyar was born in Pakistan
Nayyar Ji was born on 16th January, 1926 in Lahore (presently known as Pakistan).He made his debut at the age of 11 by playing piano on All India Radio in 1949. He soon relocated to Mumbai to quench his thirst for music and underwent music training. His family included his wife Saroj Mohini Nayyar, three daughters and a son when he passed away in Mumbai in 2007 on 28th January.
2] His love for music and victory as a debutante
[amazon_link asins=’B0087E5Q32,B005X6EM1O,B006DIVKO8,B0087B9CI0,B005X6F9SO’ template=’ProductCarousel’ store=’wwwrtiwalain-21′ marketplace=’IN’ link_id=’41ab05e5-fad3-11e7-9df6-ffa9010ec945′]
In Mumbai, Nayyar made his debut as a musical composer for Krishan Kewal’s ‘Kaneez’ and Dalsukh Pancholi’s ‘Aasmaan’. Later on, he was approached by a versatile personality producer-director and actor Guru Dutt, who made him compose for movies like ‘Aar Paar’, ‘Mr. and Mrs.55’ and ‘C.I.D.’, which also made a hat-trick of success. His early works were mainly performed by Shamshad Begum, Geeta Dutt, Mohammed Rafi, and Asha Bhosle.
3] His coming of age compositions took over classical Hindi Cinema
Breaking the bars of conventional and classical compositions, Nayyar teamed up with Asha Bhosle and created some bold and contemporary songs. Both of them did near about 60 film altogether in the late 50’s giving us some of their remarkably terrific songs of that decade. Nayyar found Asha Bhosle as his lucky manifesto as he became one of the highest paid music composers of the Indian film-making those days.
Also Read: Shah Rukh Khan: 10 Unknown Facts About the SRK
4] He never collaborated with Lata Mangeshkar
Back in the day, O.P. Nayyar was the only music composer who reached the top spot without having sung any single record for the legendary Lata Mangeshkar. Nayyar believed that Lata’s vocals did not match his compositions. And hence, he zeroed in on working with her sister, veteran singer Asha Bhosle.
[amazon_link asins=’0199454159,0544971256,1539957519′ template=’ProductCarousel’ store=’wwwrtiwalain-21′ marketplace=’IN’ link_id=’66c83647-fad3-11e7-95be-1584d9b0d932′]
5] He was amongst the top 3 music directors in that time
Nayyar became one of the earliest music directors to command Rs.1 lakh for a film. His arrogance and insistence on high remuneration were famous, a substantial sum of money in that time.
6] He strongly believed in his individuality
Nayyar was often labeled as being “individualistic”,”aloof” and a “maverick”, because of the peppiness in the rhythm of his dynamic and progressive form of music.
7] His peppy music even got banned
His bold compositions were too peppy to an extent that the state-controlled All India Radio banned his songs for being too westernized. He remained unafraid of this, continued his work and received national popularity.
8] Generosity towards newcomers
Apart from being a stubborn personality, Nayyar used to be very kind to the struggling newcomers who had been marginalized in the film industry.
Also Read: Ram Mukherjee Passes Away
9] No matter what it takes OP Nayyar always welcomed challenges
Nayyar sidelined with many of his colleagues Asha Bhosle, Geeta Dutt and even tried replacing Mohd. Rafi with Mahendra Kapoor for his musical experiments.
10] His king size life was too gracious
He had been an unapologetic straight talker at all times. He lived like a king and took pride in his work and thoughts. He will always be remembered for mesmerizing on his immortal and timeless melodies; the maestro always lived life on his terms.
The music maestro will always remain alive in his masterpieces. And we wouldn’t be wrong in saying that both Indian music and cinema will never ever be the same again….
