Ahmad Rushdi

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Urdu Punjabi articleson various film topics

Ahmad Rushdi was a top playback singer in Pakistani films in the 1960's and 1970's. 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 superhit song on Radio was:

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

written an composed by Mehdi Zaheer.

Some facts about Ahmad Rushdi

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 Speran in 1961 with the lyrics:
Chand sa Mukhra, gora badan... filmed on Habib and music by Manzoor Ashraf (first film).
He got breakthrough from film Mehtab's 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...
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.
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 un-released 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 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. 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 "centaury partnership" by any male singer and actor. The only other example is by Mehdi Hassan-Mohammad Ali pair.