Disco 82: How Bollywood got groovier

Editor’s note: Bollywood music in the ’80s was all about colourful, unapologetic flamboyance. And disco! Who better than Bappi Lahiri to define this rollicking era? But beyond Bappi da lies a world of music that emerged out of the disco movement of the time. Our music expert, Narendra Kusnur, boogies through this vibrant and electric scene in India in this spectacular essay about desi disco. 

(Psst, we assembled a playlist of all the songs mentioned here too.) 

Written by: Narendra Kusnur 

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We hope you’ve kept your dancing shoes ready, as you’ll need them after going through this article. Let’s start with something that’s in the news—the soundtrack of the film Dhurandhar. As movie fans will know, music director Shashwat Sachdev has recreated many Hindi film classics. One of them is ‘Ramba Ho’, from the 1981 film Armaan. The original was composed by Bappi Lahiri and sung by the evergreen Usha Uthup. The new version has been sung by Madhubanti Bagchi. Let’s watch the song, with Ranveer Singh in action.

Let’s now watch the Usha Uthup number picturised on Kalpana Iyer. Interestingly, after the Dhurandhar version came out, Kalpana danced to it at a family wedding, and the video went viral. For her part, Usha praised Madhubanti’s rendition.

Armaan was released when disco music was at its peak in India. Besides ‘Ramba Ho’, the film also had ‘Mere Jaisi Haseena’, where Bappi was inspired by the Dr Hook song ‘When You’re In Love With A Beautiful Woman’. Let’s watch the Hindi take, sung by Sharon Prabhakar and filmed on Prema Narayan and Kalpana Iyer, and then compare it with the English original.

Bappi was clearly the Disco King. But before getting into details, let’s also mention that he wasn’t the only one to ride the disco wave. Music directors RD Burman, Kalyanji-Anandji, Laxmikant-Pyarelal and Rajesh Roshan also composed songs with a disco flavour, though none of them were really identified with that genre. One of the biggest hits came from Bengaluru-bred, London-based Biddu’s ‘Aap Jaisa Koi’, the song from the 1980 film Qurbani sung by Pakistani pop prodigy Nazia Hassan. Let’s see Zeenat Aman sway to it.

To come back to Bappi, February 15 marks four years since he passed away. Yet, his songs are played even today. A very colourful character, wearing heaps of jewellery, he was as much known for lifting Hindi tunes as he was for spearheading the disco movement. Bappi didn’t let the accusations of copying affect him. The songs were played everywhere, and that’s what mattered to him.

Born Alokesh Lahiri on November 27, 1952, in Jalpaiguri, West Bengal, Bappi made his Hindi film debut at the age of 20 with the 1973 film Nanha Shikari. In his early compositions, he lacked a personal identity.  It all changed on a visit to the US in early 1979. At a night club in Chicago, the DJ was playing some music which they called disco. They were from the John Travolta film Saturday Night Fever. Before leaving the US, he learnt more about disco, and bought some records. Here is ‘Stayin’ Alive’ from Saturday Night Fever, which hugely inspired Bappi.

Those days, Bappi was recording songs for the Mithun Chakraborty action film Surakshaa. He decided to sing four of the six songs himself. His number ‘Gunmaster 9’, with the line “Yeh jeevan yeh duniya sapna hai deewane ka,” was a full-on attempt at disco.

Till 1982, the disco wave was in full swing, and Bappi had a string of hits. We won’t showcase all of them, but here are a handful. Let’s begin with ‘Hari Om Hari’, sung by Usha Uthup and filmed on Kalpana Iyer in Pyaara Dushman (1980), and compare it with the original ‘One Way Ticket’ by British band Eruption.

The 1982 film Disco Dancer, starring Mithun, had a number of chartbusters, including the title track, sung by Vijay Benedict. The song became an anthem for anyone wanting to learn dancing or visit a disco. Here are Mithun’s classic swag and moves.

Disco Dancer also had ‘Jimmy Jimmy Aaja Aaja’, inspired by Ottawan’s ‘T’es OK’ and ‘Koi Yahaan Naache Naache’ (Bappi, Usha), ripped from ‘Video Killed The Radio Star’, by the Buggles. Let’s look at ‘Nache Nache’ and its English inspiration.

That’s not all. The 2025 Telugu film The RajaSaab, starring Prabhas, Malavika Mohanan, and Nidhhi Agerwal, uses ‘Nache Nache’ in its Hindi and Tamil soundtracks. These versions are recreated by Thaman S. and sung by Nakash Aziz and Brinda.

What is noteworthy is that even Asha Bhosle was spurred by the disco success and joined Bappi on a few songs. These included ‘Jawani Jaaneman’ from Namak Halaal and ‘Disco Station Disco’ from Haathkadi. Let’s check both, filmed respectively on Parveen Babi and Reena Roy.

‘Disco Station’ is the last halt in our Bappi journey. Parallel to his success, Biddu also used disco successfully. Before becoming a household name with Qurbani, the charismatic composer had worked on English songs like Carl Douglas’ ‘Kung Fu Fighting’ and Tina Charles’ ‘Dance Little Lady’. We play the latter here.

After Qurbani, Biddu continued to work with Nazia Hassan, getting her brother Zoheb along on the 1981 album Disco Deewane, and later having her sing ‘Boom Boom’ in the Kumar Gaurav-Rati Agnihotri film Star. Let’s check the album’s title song, followed by the Star clip.

Till disco arrived in Hindi cinema, the biggest music directors were RD Burman, Kalyanji-Anandji, and Laxmikant-Pyarelal. Bappi’s arrival may not have affected their popularity, but they too tried their hand at disco sounds, although sparingly. Kalyanji-Anandji for instance had ‘Laila o Laila’, sung by Kanchan and Amit Kumar, in Qurbani and Kishore Kumar’s ‘Apni To Jaise Taise’ in Laawaris, which used the trademark disco sound. The former had Amjad Khan playing the drums with Zeenat dancing, and the latter featured Amitabh Bachchan and Zeenat.

RD Burman experimented with the sound in ‘Doston Se Pyaar Kiya’, sung by Usha Uthup in Shaan, and ‘Aa Dekhe Zara’, by Kishore and Asha in Rocky, starring Sanjay Dutt. Laxmikant-Pyarelal used it in the Karz songs ‘Om Shanti Om’ and ‘Paisa Yeh Paisa’, sung by Kishore and filmed on Rishi Kapoor. Let’s check one song by each music director.

Another music director to successfully use disco was Rajesh Roshan, His Kishore tune ‘Saara Zamaana’, showing Amitabh in a dazzling suit, was one of the hits from the film Yaarana. And in Khud-Daar, he even made Lata Mangeshkar sing in the genre with Kishore on ‘Disco 82’.

Folks, these tunes may make you nostalgic, but in case you’re feeling tired after dancing so much, let’s change the mood, and get a bit classical. Meet Charanjit Singh, a composer-keyboardist who was hugely inspired by Bappi. Using his own knowledge of classical music, and combining it with innovations in electronic music, Charanjit recorded a unique album in 1982. Called 10 Ragas To A Disco Beat, it used a Roland synthesiser to recreate the sounds of the bansuri, veena, santoor and shehnai. He used raags like Bhairav, Todi, Megh Malhar, Malkauns, Kalavati, and Bhairavi to create unique compositions. Let’s tap our feet to Malkauns.

By the mid-1980s, the disco wave had slowed down. The songs of Bappi, Biddu, and others continued to be played at parties, but as a genre, there was very little new creation. Interestingly, both disco and the ghazal movement blossomed around the same time, though they had totally different sounds and moods. 

The term ‘disco’, however, continued to be used in song titles. Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy had ‘It’s The Time to Disco’ in the 2003 film Kal Ho Naa Ho and Vishal-Shekhar had ‘Dard-e-Disco’ in Om Shanti Om four years later. In Student Of The Year (2012), Vishal-Shekhar used a sample from Nazia’s ‘Disco Deewane’ in ‘The Disco Song’, sung by Benny Dayal and Sunidhi Chauhan. Let’s watch ‘The Disco Song’.

We end the column with a song from the 2017 movie A Gentleman, composed by Sachin-Jigar and sung by Benny Dayal and Shirley Setia. We won’t be surprised if you, after being exposed to so much disco in the last few paragraphs, wake up in the middle of the night singing, “Dil disco disco bole saari raat sajna”. Here’s the ditty, featuring Sidharth Malhotra and Jacqueline Fernandes.

Hope you disco-vered lot of new things above. To recap, here’s a list of songs we mentioned.

• Shashwat Sachdev – Ramba Ho, Dhurandhar
• Bappi Lahiri – Ramba Ho, Armaan
• Bappi Lahiri – Mere Jaise Haseena
• Dr Hook – When You’re In Love With A Beautiful Woman
• Biddu & Nazia Hassan – Aap Jaisa Koi, Qurbani
• Bee Gees – Stayin’ Alive, Saturday Night Fever
• Bappi Lahiri – Gunmaster G9, Surakshaa
• Bappi Lahiri – Hari Om Hari, Pyaara Dushman
• Eruption – One Way Ticket
• Bappi Lahiri – I Am A Disco Dancer, Disco Dancer
• Bappi Lahiri – Jimmy Jimmy Jimmy Aaja Aaja
• Ottawan – T’es OK
• Bappi Lahiri – Koi Yahaan Nache Nache, Disco Dancer
• The Buggles – Video Killed The Radio Star
• Thaman S. – Nache Nache, The RajaSaab
• Bappi Lahiri – Jawaani Jaaneman, Namak Halal
• Bappi Lahiri – Disco Station Disco, Haathkadi
• Biddu & Tina Charles – Dance Little Lady
• Biddu, Nazia Hassan & Zoheb Hasssan – Disco Deewane
• Biddu & Nazia Hassan – Boom Boom
• Kalyanji-Anandji – Laila o Laila, Qurbani
• Kalyanji-Anandji – Apni Toh Jaise Taise, Laawaris
• R.D. Burman – Doston Se Pyaar Kiya, Shaan
• R.D. Burman – Aa Dekhe Zara, Rocky
• Laxmikant-Pyarelal – Om Shanti Om, Karz
• Laxmikant-Pyarelal – Paisa Yeh Paisa, Karz
• Rajesh Roshan – Saara Zamaana, Yaarana
• Rajesh Roshan – Disco 82, Khud-Daar
• Charanjit Singh – Malkauns
• Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy – It’s The Time To Disco, Kal Ho Naa Ho
• Vishal-Shekhar – Dard-e-Disco, Om Shanti Om
• Vishal-Shekhar – The Disco Song, Student Of The Year
• Sachin-Jigar – Disco Disco, A Gentleman

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Narendra Kusnur has been a music journalist for over 40 years—including a decade-long stint covering the beat at the Mid-Day newspaper. He currently writes for The Hindu, Free Press Journal, Hindustan Times, and Rolling Stone India—besides the in-house magazines of prestigious institutions—such as NCPA and Shanmukhananda Hall.