Celebrated composer Bappi Lahiri’s last rites took place on Thursday, a day after his death. Bappi Da, as he was known to everyone, died of sleep apnea on Tuesday night in a Mumbai hospital where he was being treated for a variety of ailments at the age of 69.
The funeral was postponed to Thursday so that his son Bappa, who lives in Los Angeles, could attend. After coming to Mumbai with his family, Bappa Lahiri was pictured at his father’s last rites – he and Rani Mukerji’s brother Raja were among the pallbearers.
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The music composer was cremated at the Pawan Hans facility in Juhu, a short distance from his home. Police were present to manage the crowd gathered and had barricaded the lane to the Lahiri residence.
According to PTI reports, Bappi Lahiri was taken to the crematorium wearing his trademark sunglasses. Son Bappa conducted the last rites.
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Among family and friends were actress Vidya Balan, star of the 2011 film ‘The Dirty Picture’ in which Bappi Lahiri sang the song ‘Ooh La La’. In a tweet posted yesterday, the actress revealed that Bappi Da used to call her “Bidda” (the Bengali pronunciation of her name).
Several other members of the Mukerji family were also present apart from Raja. The Mukerjis and Lahiris are connected, both are related to the Ganguly family to which Kishore Kumar belonged. Kishore Kumar sang many of Bappi Lahiri’s greatest hits.
‘Border’ star Sharbani, cousin of Kajol and Rani Mukerji, was at the funeral along with her brother Samrat.
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Veteran actor Biswajit Chatterjee also attended the cremation. He was associated with the 1985 film ‘Saaheb’, which contained one of Bappi Lahiri’s best-known songs, ‘Pyar Bina Chain Kaha Re’. Bappi Da also created the score for several of Biswajit’s son Prosenjit’s movies.
Singers Alka Yagnik and Ila Arun, who have sung several songs composed by Lahiri, were pictured at the funeral together.
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On Wednesday, members of the Hindi film and music fraternity visited Bappi Lahiri’s residence, among them singer Abhijeet Bhattacharya, composer Lalit Pandit, actor Padmini Kolhapure and sister Shivangi and filmmaker Rakesh Roshan.