MUMBAI: Today marks the 30th death anniversary of Kishore Kumar. On this day he left his mark on earth with millions of memories and melodies. Kishore, a veteran actor and singer has always been crooned many melodies tracks.
Kishore had been part of the Indian film industry since the 1950s - he was aplayback singer, actor, lyricist, composer, producer, director, and screenwriter.He is considered one of the most successfulplayback singersin theHindi film industry.
Apart from Hindi, he sang in many Indian languages includingBengali,Marathi,Assamese,Gujarati,Kannada,Bhojpuri,Malayalam, andUrdu. He has also sung in private albums in several languages especially in Bengali which are noted as all time classics.
He won eightFilmfare Awards for Best Male Playback Singerand holds the record for winning the mostFilmfare Awardsin that category. He was awarded the "Lata Mangeshkar Award" by theMadhya Pradeshgovernment in the year 1985-86.
Recently, Kishore Kumar's unreleased song was sold for Rs 15.6 lakh at the Osian’s Cinefan Auction, New Delhi in 2012, the highest price bid for any Indian singer . The song was ‘Tum hi to woh ho’ written by Kulwant Jani with music by Usha Khanna. This was for a film called ‘Khel Tamasha’ by Rakesh Kumar which never got made. The song was recorded just three days before the legendary singer's demise in October 1987.
On October 13, 1987, Kishore died of a heart attack in Mumbai. Kumar had recorded his last song,Guru Guru, a duet withAsha Bhosle, for the filmWaqt Ki Aawaz(1988) composed byBappi Lahirithe day before he died.