Kabir Rafi

Kabir Rafi is an Indian music composer, playback singer, independent pop artist, and background score artist. He made his full-fledged music direction debut with his first multilingual feature film in Telugu, Tamil, Hindi, Kannada & Malayalam is #PK, Released in Aug 2022 and made his first Kannada commercial debut film with Sugar Factory released in Nov 2023. before that he did his 1st Big banner web series lik
''Mana Mugguri Love Story''
under producer Swapna Dutt banner swapna cinema who made movies like Kalki 2898 AD, sita ramam, ''Mahanati. then'' he did ''Mrs Subbalaxmi'' under Manchu Lakshmi banner manchu telefilms & Zee5. previously he has worked predominantly for 200 plus digital short films, independent films & mini movies from 2015 to present in English, Hindi, Telugu, Kannada, Tamil, Silent films and other foreign languages which accumulated lot of awards and recognition. Presently he is working on 1 Kannada & 3 Telugu features movies to be released in 2025 - 2026.

Early life

Kabir Rafi was born to an Indian army soldier Shaik Abdul Khader in Vishakapatnam, lived in and then travelled to various cities in India including Gujarat (Bhuj), Bengaluru, Assam (Silchar) and city of Dreams Mumbai then settled in Hyderabad. His family has an army background with his great-grandfather a "freedom fighter". His grandfather and father also served in the Indian army where his father, a retired subedar major, His Father is a huge fan of singer Mohammed Rafi and used to listen and cherish his songs and films during his service days in borders, with the inspiration and influence of Mohammed Rafi on him, he gave that name to his child. Documented name Mohammed Rafi (Kabir Rafi screen name) works professionally in the music field today following the encouragement of his father and mother. He finished his entire Schooling from (KV) Kendriya Vidyalaya Central school. He did his bachelor's degree in hotel management from Regency College of culinary arts in 2009 and was an MBA graduate of 2011 From Malla Reddy college. He then worked with Just Dial Company for 2 years on a contract basis as a video vendor after MBA . But his music career was on the go along with his studies since childhood. Rafi started performing at the age of 12 with various musical stage shows and learned Hindustani classical music in vocals & Tabla (Pratham swash 1st grade). His mother recognised his talent in his early schooling days and encouraged him to learn music tabla classes and participate in various stage shows, singing competitions, etc. His father was serving in the Indian Army transferred to Mumbai where Rafi started his professional career singing various jingle and dubbing songs & tracks for music directors including Dilip Sen who guided him in 2005. As his father Posted from Mumbai to Hyderabad, Rafi dint left Mumbai for 2 years staying in his uncle's room struggling hard for food and work, tried his luck in music and acting industry too in Bollywood he acted in small roles under Balaji telefilms Ltd and also sang lot of jingles and dubbing songs. Rafi's Father then insisted him to come down to Hyderabad and concentrate in studies and music alongside, as there is Tollywood industry, so he suggested him to try his luck in Telugu film industry. So he got shifted to Hyderabad in 2006. He then given lot of singing audition, sang chorus and track singing for various music director in Telugu film industry. Then he developed his music skills too and given a lot of background musical works for various top music directors as Asst. Composer, singer and keyboard player. He also sang track songs for them. One of the music directors who encouraged him was late Chakri in his early stages. Then he joined Composer Jeevan Thomas in 2009 worked with him for four years, observed, worked & learnt various professional aspects of Music under his class.

Career

From 2012 to 2014 he was under observation and worked in the musical team of musician & music director Jeevan Thomas for the movies ''Kuberulu'', ''First love'' (2013) and ''Yavvanam Oka Fantasy'' (2015). He also got opportunity to sing songs in Telugu, Kannada and Hindi as playback singer for a few movies. He gave stage performances as singer for more than 100 plus events. In 2014 he finished his first movie as full-fledged music direction debut ''Manasu palike maya prema''. the audio was released but somehow the movie didn't get released. Then in 2016 his independent film ''Parinayam'' was released. His second feature film, ''Komali'' audio was released in 2017 i Kannada. He finished with 200 Projects from the year 2015 to present which includes short films, independent films, web series, feature films, adds etc. in Telugu, Tamil, Kannada, Hindi & English. His most popular projects which went viral and brought fame are Mana Mugguri Love Story, Mrs Subbalaxmi, Konchan Istam Chaala Kastam, I Hate You, Aa Gang Repu part 1 & 2, Maa Naana Kosam, Pilli Kalla Papa, Oye Nandu, Atu itu nuvvey, etc. Critically acclaimed short films include She, Musalman, Papa, Anandmaaye, Chotu, Karmama and many more. His total musical view count on YouTube is nearing to 100 million plus views which makes him the highest viewed musician in short film category 2015- 20122 on YouTube in India. His upcoming feature film projects are under production to be released in 2025- 2026 to name few are AKARA, LOVE AGAIN, Etc.

Awards and nominations

# Awarded with siima short film awards for the best music director for "KICK" short film by Tharun Bhascker Dhaassyam (Director of PELLICHUPULU), hosted by Allu Sirish, Rana Daggubati, and Navdeep.
#Won 'Best Short Film Music Director – Telugu' Award for ''Koncham Ishtam Chala Kashtam'' at 1st SIIMA Short Film Awards.
#(MCIFA
melbourne city independent film awards
for BEST SOUND DESIGNER for short film Insight directed by kamal Krishna
#Awarded With Studio One film awards for the best music director
# Awarded With Lotus Short film Awards 2018 for best music director for ''Aa Gang Repu 2''.
#Nominated in Telangana_state_Language_and_Culture_department short film festival
#Awarded With Lotus Short film Awards 2017 for best singer for voice of eyes.
#Awarded with Indie Fest Short Film Award 2015 for best background music for short film "Aa gang repu"
# Awarded with a national award from VR films national award 2016 for best music for song "yedo maya chesav". in short film category.
#Nominated in Lotus Short film Awards 2016 for Maa Naana Kosam & parinayam for best song and singer.
# Nominated in Lotus Short film Awards 2016 for Aa gang repu & Koncham istam chaala kastam for best music.
# Felicitated with Short film Diamond Award 2017 towards Contribution of Music in Tollywood short film industry for 2 years to till date presented by Tollywood director and producers Raj Kandukuri, lyric writer Chandra Bose & producer T.Rama Satya Narayana.

Discography

Feature films

OTT Web series

Short, independent, mini movies & YouTube series

Singles and album songs

As playback singer

As Sound Designer

References

External links

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Rafi, Kabir
1986 births
Living people
Telugu film score composers