Little known facts about RD Burman

Pancham introduced the twin track effect in 'Baharon Ke Sapne', which he later used to create the mesmerizing 'Qatra Qatra Miltee Hai' [Ijaazat] and a few more songs.

He also pioneered the use of electronic organ in Indian Films with the song 'O Mere Sona Re' [Teesri Manzil]

RD was, as Gulzar says, as good a craftsman as a musician.

In 'Chura Liya' he used the sound of a spoon hitting a glass

For the 'Kitaab' song, 'Master Ji Ki Aa Gayee Chitthhi', he brought some desks from a classroom in the studio while recording and used them as a percussion

In 'Abdullah' he used the sound of a bamboo whistle with a balloon tied to it for a song

Once to get the sound of raindrops, he spent the whole rainy night in his house's balcony recording the sound he wanted

In the song 'O Manjhi Re' from the movie 'Khushboo', RD Burman used bottles with water filled at different levels and created a hollow sound by blowing into them and this sound effect was used with the orchestra

During the recording of 'Hum Dono Do Premi' [Ajnabee] the musicians were on strike. So he improvised the song with emptied-out musical interludes and just listen the song

Out of his 331 released movies 292 were in Hindi, 31 in Bangla, 3 in Telugu, 2 each in Tamil & Oriya and 1 in Marathi. RD also composed for 5 TV serials in Hindi and Marathi. He also scored a large number of non-film songs in Bangla [also known as Pooja songs or modern songs], which are available in different albums. He did a song for a small documentary film called 'Maa Ki Pukar' too, in 1975.

Starting independent music company in 1961 with 'Chote Nawab', he did 331 films and 4 non-film albums. Before coming onto his own, he assisted his father S.D. Burman for long.

Dada Burman used Pancham's tune 'Ae meri topee palat ke aa' in 'Fantoosh'. Pancham was only 9 when he composed the tune.

For Pyaasa, SD used his son's 'Sar Jo Tera Chakraye', which became a huge hit

Amit Kumar, Abhijeet and Shabbir Kumar were given their first breaks by Pancham

R.D. Burman made his acting debut in Mehmood's 'Bhoot Bangla'. Later in 'Pyaar Ka Mausam' toohe gave a hilarious performance as Mr. Popat Lal.

R.D played the mouth organ for his friends Laxmikant Pyarelal in a song in 'Dosti' and also in a movie for Kalyanji Anandji.

The mouth organ played in the song 'Hai Apna Dil To Awara' sung by Hemant Kumar in the film 'Solva Saal' is played by RD Burman himself

Both Lata and Bhupinder won a National Award for the song 'Beeti Na Bitaaye Raina' from 'Parichay', and this song was composed in a hotel room in no time

R.D. Burman won the Filmfare award only 3 times [Sanam Teri Kasam, Masoom, 1942-A Love Story] while being nominated 16 times for the award