April 11 marked the death anniversary of the Legendary singer Ahmed Rushdi. 

(Ahmed Rushdi with Nighat Seema)

Syed Ahmed Rushdi (April 24, 1934 – April 11, 1983) born at Hyderabad Deccan was a versatile Pakistani playback singer. He was most popular among the young music fans and a proudly answer to the Indian singer Kishore Kumar.

He started his show biz career as a stage actor in Indian city Hyderabad in 1952 where he sang his first song in film Ibrat. He migrated to Pakistan in 1954 and joined Radio Pakistan Karachi. He was honored to sing The National Anthem of Pakistan with ten other singers in 1955. His first super hit song on Radio was written and composed by Mehdi Zaheer:

Bandar Road se Kemari, meri chali re Ghorha Garhi, Babu, ho jana footpath par..

Ahmad Rushdi is remembered as a folk singer in the Urdu-speaking area's in Pakistan. He was born on April 4, 1934 at Hyderabad Deccan (India) and died on April 11, 1983 at Karachi.

Here are some figures facts about Ahmad Rushdi's singing career:

Ahmad Rushdi's first film as playback singer was Karnama but Karachi made Urdu film Anokhi was his first released film in 1956. The first film song was Mari Laila ne aisi katar, Mian Majnu ko aaya bukhar.. was filmed on Lehri.

His first hit song was from Lahore made film Saperan in 1961 with the lyrics Chand sa Mukhra, gora badan.. which was filmed on Habib and music composer was Manzoor Ashraf (first film).

He got breakthrough from film Mehtab's (1962) mega hit street song Gol Gappe wala aya, gol gappe laya.. in 1962 which was filmed on Allauddin.

His first Punjabi film was Chodhary in 1962 and the first Punjabi song was filmed on Asif Jah, which was Pyar tera main jholi paya te taaney marey Sharikan.. (duet with Nazir Begum)

He became 1960's "Abrar-ul-Haq" after his western style song Koko-koreena.. in film Armaan (1966)

Ahmad Rushdi's peak period was from 1963-77. His last film as playback singer was Mashiq-o-Maghrib in 1985.

According to his fans Ahmad Rushdi sang 812 Urdu, 132 Punjabi (?), 3 Sindhi, 3 Gujarati and a single English song - a total number of 951 film songs. These figures are without songs from unreleased films and none-film songs.

Ahmad Rushdi's 951 songs in 508 released films could be a record for any male singer in Pakistani films but according to the incomplete songography of Masood Rana, his songs are 887 in 574 released films. Followed by Mehdi Hassan's 631 songs in 445 films (complete figures)

Ahmad Rushdi sang the highest number of 812 Urdu songs in the highest number of 421 Urdu films. Followed by Mehdi Hassan's 542 songs in 368 films (complete figures) and Masood Rana's 357 Urdu songs in 213 films (incomplete figures).

Ahmad Rushdi sang 132 Punjabi songs in 75 Punjabi films, (which is unconfirmed!). He was not successful in Punjabi films and sang mostly B- or C-class songs. But his Punjabi songs tally is the third highest by any male singer in Pakistan after Masood Rana's 526 songs in 360 Punjabi films (incomplete figures) and Inayat Hussain Bhatti's 222 songs in 114 films (complete figures)

Ahmad Rushdi sang the highest number of songs for Waheed Murad and set a record for the first ever "century partnership" by any male singer and actor. The only other example is by Mehdi Hassan-Mohammad Ali pair.

Ahmad Rushdi sang more than 100 songs with Mala, which is all time Pakistani record.

Ahmad Rushdi sang more than 100 songs with music director M. Ashraf.

Ahmad Rushdi set the record for maximum numbers of male songs as playback singer in a calender year in 1969.

In 2003, 20 years after his death, Pakistani president Pervez Musharraf awarded him the Sitara-e-Imtiaz. A street in Gulshan-e-Iqbal, Karachi, also named Ahmed Rushdi Road