August 12 - Remembering Gulshan Kumar, the Cassette King

Today in History

August 12, 1997 - The black day for Indian Music Industry

Remembering on his Death Anniversary

Gulshan Kumar - The King of the Music World popularly known as the 'Cassette King'


Born in a middle-class family, he used to run a juice shop with his father in the early days.

Chasing his passion for singing, Kumar opened a cassette shop in Delhi where he used to sell song cassettes at an affordable price. The journey of his music company 'T-Series' started from that day.


He started recording songs in his own voice and once he had enough money, he opened a cassette company in Noida and became the 'Cassette King'.

Gulshan Kumar's music label ‘Super Cassette Industries Ltd.' was later renamed as 'T-Series' in 1983 and under this new label, he released a lot of superhit devotional and bollywood songs. He also went on to produce many bollywood movies later.


Under his banner, Gulshan Kumar introduced and promoted several new singers, including Sonu Nigam, who went on to become renowned singers of the industry.

Gulshan Kumar was a very religious person and a devotee of Lord Shiva. He was even featured in many of his devotional music videos and movies.

Gulshan Kumar was shot dead on August 12, 1997 outside Jeeteshwar Mahadev Mandir in Andheri, Mumbai.

As per reports, Gulshan Kumar was  getting extortion threats from the underworld gangster Abu Salem however he refused to pay.


During his regular visit to the Mahadev Temple when he opened his car door, two men came out of the hiding and fired three bullets. Kumar fell on the ground with its impact. He tried to crawl into one of the huts near the temple and asked a woman for help. But, by that time the killers fired 15 more bullets, one after the other.

As per sources, Abu Salem involved Dawood Merchant and sharpshooter Vinod Jagtap to kill Gulshan Kumar.

By November 1997, the Mumbai police had filed a 400 page chargesheet, accusing 26 people including people from the music industry and the underworld.

Police also declared music composer 'Nadeem Akhter Saifee' of the popular 'Nadeem-Shravan' duo, as a co-conspirator in the case.

In January 2001, Vinod Jagtap confessed his crime and and was sentenced life imprisonment by the court. But Dawood Merchant fled to Bangladesh during his parole release in 2009

Nadeem was in London when his arrest warrant was released. Indian government tried extraditing him but London high court denied the request. Later, one of the accused in custody changed his statement and told he had no connections with Nadeem. Abu Salem also denied his involvement. Thus, he was absolved by courts in both UK and Mumbai.

After Gulshan Kumar, his son Bhushan Kumar was given the charge of T-series and he is currently running this India's largest music label that runs the most viewed YouTube channel of all time (over 155 billion views), with 190 million subscribers as of today.





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