Biddu Appaiah was born on 8 February 1945 in Bangalore, Kingdom of Mysore, India, and became a producer, composer, and singer‑songwriter. After performing with the English‑speaking band Trojans in Bangalore, he moved to England in 1967, worked odd jobs, and eventually recorded his own instrumental singles, the first of which appeared in 1975. His career accelerated with the 1974 breakthrough single "Kung Fu Fighting" performed by Carl Douglas, which sold eleven million copies worldwide and secured a Gold certification; the success launched Biddu Appaiah’s Biddu Orchestra series, including the Summer of '42 and Blue‑Eyed Soul albums that entered the UK charts and topped U.S. dance charts. Throughout the late 1970s he produced soundtracks for British films such as The Stud (1978) and The Bitch (1979), and collaborated with artists including Tina Charles, Jimmy James, and Claude François. In the 1980s he shifted focus to South Asian pop, producing Nazia and Zoheb Hassan’s Disco Deewane (1981), the best‑selling Asian pop album at the time, and later Alisha Chinai’s Made in India (1995), the highest‑selling Hindi dance album. Biddu continued to release albums such as Futuristic Journey (1978), Nirvana (1984), and Diamond Sutra (2004), and received multiple Ivor Novello awards, including Songwriter of the Year in 1976.
