Gold chains, lockets and shiny shirts - Bling King Bappi Lahiri's exuberant persona reflected in his music

It was the year 1979. Kurtis Blow – the man who paved the path for hip-hop – had just burst into the music scene with his self-titled debut album. On the cover, Blow stood shirtless, with a bunch of gold chains hanging around his neck, a very literal symbolism of the richness that hip-hop had to offer, a mark of coolness for rappers, for generations to come.

However, four years prior to that, an up-and-coming Bengali music composer named Bappi Lahiri received a delightful gift from his mother, a heavy gold chain with a pendant of Hare Krishna after his songs composed for the Bollywood film ‘Zakhmee’ in 1975 became chartbusters. It was the beginning of Bappi Da - as he was known in the industry - and his long association with gold chains.

In the next three decades that followed, as rap music became exceedingly popular in the West, and music artistes from DJ Kool Herc to Jay-Z donned the big bling items (also known as ice) in their slick music videos, in India, Lahiri was the only man who held on to his gold accessories, until he breathed his last on Tuesday, this week.


Although there had been several speculation that Bappi Da's style was often inspired by rap musicians, many of his old interviews debunk that theory. Like his music – be it disco or pop – he had a way of putting his own twist to popular trends, and perhaps with his style too, he did just that.

A Golden Spirit
In a way, Lahiri was a style visionary. At a time, when celebrities didn’t consider themselves as brands, and weren't tirelessly working to curate a public image of themselves, Lahiri was spot-on with his branding. In a 2019 interview to Vogue, the musician had revealed that he loves his gold chains because they are a part of his brand signature, something people across the world associate him with. If he is abroad, and his gold is safely hidden under layers of woolen, fans crowd him to ask if he is Bappi Lahiri, and all he has to do is show his chains.

Ooh-La-La Lockets
However, gold wasn’t just good branding for the boy from Bengal who made it big in then Bombay. For him, those gold chains were amulets, that he wore around his neck. One was bought and taken to Balaji temple so that he could touch the Lord’s feet with it, before putting it on. Another, was a birthday gift from his wife, Chitrani Lahiri, a love token with a big blingy ‘B’ pendant.

In one of his old interviews, Lahiri had, in all seriousness, equated gold to God and then counted all the different neck pieces he had on and told the interviewer their meaning to explain to him how close his gold is to godliness.

One of the pendants that the composer was wearing at the time was bought after Ganpati appeared in his dreams, another had a ‘Satyanarayan’ connection. He had a Hanuman ji pendant necklace, and one of his ‘guruji’s’. Media reports even claim that the composer had an assistant just to manage his many bling items!

Bold & Shiny
Apart from gold, Lahiri also had an eye for all things shiny. His shirts frequently had a coat of added luster that most men’s attire lack, and often came in colours that could stop traffic. A baggy bright shirt, and big black glasses were his fashion go-tos.

Nothing about him was ever subtle, neither his music nor his clothing. However, there were marked similarities between the two, much like his velvet blazers, shimmery jackets and brocade vest coats that could light up rooms with them gleam, his songs could light up too — they had the ability to liven up discotheques, home functions and birthday parties. Like shiny speckles of stars embroidered on his clothes' sleeves, they demanded attention, always.

The man may have left us, but his legacy of songs and shiny stuff remains.