Mohammed Rafi was one of the greatest singers in the industry. He was the legendary figure to have inspired numerous singers today. Here are a few fun facts on him that one must know about.
Mohammed Rafi used to sing imitating the fakirs as a kid but it was his brother-in-law who encouraged and pushed him to become a singer.
As a new young budding singer, Mohammed Rafi had his voice greatly influenced by KL Saigal. And also he had his first performance at the age of 13 that was featuring his mentor KL Saigal.
When Gandhiji was assassinated in 1945, he sang two songs Sun Suno Duniya Walon Bapuji Ki Amar Kahani. And so he was invited by the then prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru to sing at his place.
During the 1970s, Mohammed Rafi was suffering from a throat infection and that was the time when Kishore Kumar came into prominence. But after Rafi made a comeback he won back to back awards.
Mohammed Rafi had a controversy with Lata Mangeshkar over the claim of who had recorded the highest number of songs in Guinness Book of World Records.
Rafi has sung 4,516 Hindi songs. He has sung in many languages which include Assamese, Konkani, Bhojpuri, English, Persian, Dutch, Spanish, Telugu, Maithili, Urdu, Gujarati, Punjabi, Marathi, Bengali, etc.
Mohammed Rafi was awarded numerous awards. In 1967, he was honored with Padma Shri and in 2013, he was regarded as the Greatest Voice in Hindi Cinema by CNN-IBN.