ISLAMABAD, Nov 11 (APP):Third death anniversary of famous playback singer Arthur Nayyar observed on Monday who had won five Nigar Awards for playback singing.
In his decades-long career, he sang some 4,000 songs, beginning in 1974 with the film Bahisht, and the song was ‘Yunhi din kat jaye, yunhi shaam dhal jaye’, a duet with Rubina Badar composed by A Hameed.
Nayyar’s music journey started in Arifwala, a small town in Punjab where he spent his childhood watching both Indian and Pakistani films at a cinema called Rachna, at a stone’s throw from his home. He was inspired by Muhammad Rafi, Talat Mehmood and Saleem Raza.
A student of musician Wajahat Atre, who also sought guidance from ghazal maestro Mehdi Hassan, Nayyar studied in Arifwala till class V and later shifted to Lahore. He got into St Francis School where he completed his matriculation and later got admission to the then Forman Christian College. He graduated with a B.Ed degree from the Government Central Training College in 1975.
Nayyar’s first appearance on TV was on the show Naye Fankar in 1974 after which he began his playback journey. The singer had said he was particularly delighted at lending his voice to a song, ‘Billi Teri Akh’, picturised on his favourite actor, Munawar Zarif, for the film Ayaash.
Nayyar earned popularity overnight from a duet with Naheed Akhtar, ‘Pyar to ik din hona tha’, from the film Kharidar. He became a household name with ‘Sathi mujhay mil gaya’, a song from Jasoos; ‘Milay do sathi khili do kaliyan’ from Amber; and ‘Ik baat kahoon dildara’ from Khuda Aur Mohabbat.
On the night of November 11, 2016, around 8:30pm, Nayyar died at his residence in Lahore of a cardiac arrest after a prolonged illness.