Masood Rana

Masood Rana (Urdu: مسعود رانا) (June 9, 1938 - October 4, 1995) was a Pakistani playback singer. He began his singing career in 1962 with the film Inqalab and became one of the top male singers in both Urdu and Punjabi films for more than three decades. He sang in the highest number of films and was a very busy film singer until his death in 1995.

Early life

Masood Rana was born in Mir Pur Khas, Sindh to a Rajput landowner family which had migrated from the East Punjab's city Jalandhar. He started his singing career on Radio Pakistan, Hyderabad in 1955 and helped establish a singing group in Karachi in the early 1960's with two other famous names in showbiz - Nadeem Baig and Akhlaq Ahmed.

His Film Career

Masood Rana got his first breakthrough when the renowned film actor Saqi introduced him to producer and director Iqbal Shehzad and musician Deebo. His first film song was in the film Inqalab and the song was Mashriq ki tareek faza mein naya savera phoota hay composed by music director N. K. Rathore but he got his big breakthrough from his second film Banjaran in 1962 which was composed by music director Deebo Bhattacharia. He was proudly introduced as "Pakistani Rafi" and always lived up to his reputation. He specialized in singing difficult songs in very high- pitched voice and was the first choice for music directors for film title and theme songs.