OP Nayyar Death Anniversary: When The Legendary Music Composer Vowed To NEVER Work With Lata Mangeshkar

Legendary music composer Omkar Prasad Nayyar also known as OP Nayyar died of cardiac arrest on 28 January 2007 at the age of 81. He made his debut in the Hindi cinema, with the 1949 movie Kaneez and in 1952 as music director in Aasmaan. Nayyar has worked extensively with singers Geeta Dutt, Asha Bhosle, and Mohammed Rafi, however, never with Lata Mangeshkar.

Lata Mangeshkar was roped in to sing in the movie Aasmaan in 1952, which marked Nayyar’s first movie as an independent composer. However, she failed to show up for the recording even after Nayyar and his background musicians waited for hours.

This is how the infamous enmity between OP Nayyar and Lata started. After which, Nayyar vowed that Lata Mangeshkar would never sing in his movie. Later, Lata claimed that she was not able to reach Nayyar’s studio as she got occupied with another recording. This incident happened at the beginning of the 1950s.

Earlier, in the late 1950s, it was also speculated that Asha Bhosle and Omkar Prasad Nayyar were in a relationship, however, the two ended their professional collaboration in 1972.

Omkar Prasad Nayyar, who was born in Lahore in 1926, moved to Patiala and began his career as an assistant at All India Radio in Jalandhar.