Mohammed Aziz (born as Sayeed Mohammed Aziz-Un-Nabi; 2 July 1954 – 27 November 2018), also known as Munna (name given by prominent music composer Akshaya Mohanty), was an Indian multilingual playback singer who primarily sang for the Bollywood, Odia films,[2]Bengali. He sang about twenty thousand songs, including Bhajans, Sufi devotional songs and other genres in more than ten different Indian languages.[3][4] He made his first appearance in films Odia film titled Jaga Hatare Pagha directed by Mohammad Mohsin, with the song Rupa Sagadi re Suna Kaniya. Later he the sung most numbers of songs in Odia and for Ollywood Actor Siddhanta Mahapatra. Later he appeared with a Hindi film titled Ambar (1984) and his two prominent songs, including "Mard Tangewala" composed by Anu Malik were introduced in Mard.
Originally a restaurant singer, he went to Mumbai around 1984 where he was introduced to the Hindi cinema by Anu Malik.[7] The recipient of two uncertain awards for Best Playback Singer,[3] his last film was Kaafila. Prior to this, he sang for the film Karan Arjun.[8]
Career
He was involved with music during his childhood. Later He started his professional musical career in films Odia film titled Manini (1979) Under Great Odia Music Composer Radha Krushna Bhanja and later He Sung Most Numbers of songs in Odia and Ollywood Actor Siddhanta Mahapatra . Later He appeared with a Bengali film titled Bouma (1986). He went to Mumbai for better career opportunities in film industry where he was introduced to Bollywood's film Ambar (1984) by music director Sapan-Jagmohan; however his first prominent singing role appeared in Mard film, by music director Anu Malik. The title song "Mard Tangewala" of this film became a super hit. After the success of this song he had several hits in 1985 such as "Aate Aate Teri Yaad Aa Gayi" from Jaan Ki Baazi. Since then, he was the most sought after singer in Bollywood film industry in that decade. He worked with several famous music directors such as Naushad, Shankar–Jaikishan, O. P. Nayyar, Ravi, Khayyam, Kalyanji-Anandji, Laxmikant-Pyarelal, R. D. Burman, Bappi Lahiri, Rajesh Roshan, Usha Khanna, Anu Malik, Anand–Milind, Jatin–Lalit, Ravindra Jain, Raamlaxman, Aadesh Shrivastava, Nadeem-Shravan, Viju Shah, Dilip Sen-Sameer Sen among others.[9] He had sung nearly 250+ songs for Laxmikant Pyarelal which is the highest for any composers he has sung for. He had also sung Lord Jagannath, bhajans, private music albums and Odia film songs until he was introduced as a playback singer in Hindi language films. He sang the title song of 1997 TV serial Jai Hanuman. Besides working in films, he also participated in stage shows in India and other countries.[7]
