Shahid Rafi launched Mohammed Rafi Academy on 31st July, 2010, the 30th death anniversary of his father, the legendary singer Mohammed Rafi. Many living legends and celebrities from the Hindi film industry turned up at the venue to pay their glowing tributes to Rafi Sahab and support Shahid Rafi in his endeavour to create an Academy for talented children in singing and music. A few of the celebrities graced the event included Shammi Kapoor, Ravi, Naqsh Lyallpuri, Ameen Sayani, Pyarelal, Anandji, Sanjay Khan, Dara Singh, Chandrasekhar, Sudha Malhotra, Ravindra Jain, Rakesh Roshan, Rishi Kapoor, Jackie Shroff, Nitin Mukesh, Mohnish Mukesh, Amit Kumar, Bappi Lahiri, Bharat Shah, Hassan Kamaal, Udit Narayan, Shabbir Kumar, Adnan Sami Khan, Javed Jaffri, Rajil Sayani, Ashok Shekhar among others.
It was truly an emotional moment for the children of Mohammed Rafi and their families when the living legends and celebrities came one after another on stage and shared their memories with the august gathering and media. All of them shared their wonderful memories and remembered Rafi Sahab as a soft spoken, gentle but also with a good sense of humour.
Shammi Kapoor Sahab said he was incomplete without Rafi. He remembered the day when somebody called him and said "Shammi Sahab aapki aawaaz chali gai". He said "kya bakwaas kar rahe ho, main to acchha khaasa bol raha hu aur kal raat ko Mataji ke bhajan bhi gaye" to which the person said "Rafi Sahab nahi rahe". This struck him like a lightening bolt, "wakai meri aawaaz chali gai".
Jeetendra Sahab said when Rafi Sahab came to know that he is going through financial difficulties for his film 'Deedar-e-Yaar', he waived off his fees for singing in the film. Rakesh Roshan said though Rafi Sahab sang a few songs for him, he had mammoth work with his father, the late Roshan Sahab and his younger brother Rajesh Roshan.
The Mohammed Rafi Academy consists of Shahid Rafi (Chairman), Raju Naushad (Secretary), Firdaus Rafi (Treasurer), Javed Shakeel (Jt. Secretary) and Committee Members Kaka J.P., Andalib Sultanpuri, Ruhan Kapoor, H.Makhijani, Manek Premchand, Shirish Kulkarni, Creativo Camaal & Raashid Zaffar
15 авг 2010
