Mohammed Rafi Death Anniversary: 10 unknown things about legendary singer that will blow away your mind

10 unknown things about Mohammed Rafi that will blow away your mind

It has been 39 years that Bollywood’s legendary singer Mohammed Rafi left us due to a heart attack. On 31st July 1980, the singer left us after he recorded a song for the film Aas Paas. The singer was feeling pain in his chest but didn’t tell anyone and went to work. Shortly after recording the song, Mohammed Rafi died of a heart attack. Mohammed Rafi, who was lovingly called Fico in his house, had an iconic Bollywood career and sang over 26 thousand songs in his life. The lyricist always wanted to be a singer but never ran behind the popularity. His songs like Kya Hua Tera Wada, Likhe Jo Khat Tujhe, Babul Ki Duayen Leti Ja and others still manage to evoke various kinds of emotions in people when they hear them. Mohammed Rafi was not just a singer, but he had the ability to touch every heart with his soulful music. On his 39th death anniversary, let’s have a look at Mohammed Rafi’s life and 10 unknown facts about him.

Mohammed Rafi got married at the age of 13 but the world didn’t know about it. The singer got married to his uncle's daughter Bashiran Begum and only their housemates knew about their wedding. However, after a few years of marriage, the two got separated.
Few years later, Rafi got married to Bilquis when he was 19 years old. While Rafi’s life revolved around music, his wife was not interested in music and never listened to his songs.
Rafi’s brother-in-law Mohammed Hameed spotted the talent in Rafi and encouraged him. Since Rafi used to live in a chwl with his family, he used to wake up at 3:30 in the morning and walked till Marine Drive to practice singing.
Rafi’s first public performance came at the age of 13, when he was allowed to sing at a concert featuring the legendary KL Saigal.
In 1944, Mohammed Rafi made his playback singing debut in Lahore along with Zeenat Begum in a duet, 'Soniye Nee, Heeriye Nee'.
Mohammed Rafi sang in many languages which include Assamese, Konkani, Bhojpuri, English, Persian, Dutch, Spanish, Telugu, Maithili, Urdu, Gujarati, Punjabi, Marathi, Bengali etc.
Mohammed Rafi used to hate publicity and fame. Whenever he had to attend any wedding, he used to ask his driver to wait at the gate. The singer used to go directly to the couple, bless them and leave the wedding.
Other than singing, Rafi Sahab used to love flying kites. The singer would always fly kites after he was done with is recordings.
Mohammed Rafi and singer Lata Mangeshkar didn’t talk to each other for six years because of their difference of opinion related to the royalty given to the singers. They didn’t even work with each other for those six years.