June | 27, 2017 :: In History Today :: Birth of R. D. Burman [ 27 June 1939 ]
Rahul Dev Burman ( 27 June 1939 – 4 January 1994) was an Indian film score composer, who is considered one of the seminal music directors of the Indian film industry. Nicknamed Pancham, he was the only son of the composer Sachin Dev Burman.
From the 1960s to the 1990s, Burman composed musical scores for 331 films. He was mainly active in the Hindi film industry as a composer, and also provided vocals for a few of compositions. Burman did major work with Asha Bhosle (his wife) and Kishore Kumar, and scored many of the songs that made these singers famous. He also scored many songs sung by Lata Mangeshkar. He served as an influence to the next generation of Indian music directors and his songs continue to be popular in India.
Burman was born to the Bollywood composer/singer Sachin Dev Burman and his lyricist wife Meera Dev Burman, in Calcutta. Initially, he was nicknamed Tublu by his maternal grandmother although he later became known by the nickname of Pancham. According to some stories, he was nicknamed as Pancham because, as a child, whenever he cried, it sounded in the fifth note (Pa), G scale, of music notation. The word Pancham means five (or fifth) in Bengali, his mother tongue. Another theory says that the baby was nicknamed Pancham because he could cry in five different notes.
