Wajid Khan laid to rest in private funeral after he succumbed to coronavirus at 42

NEW DELHI: Music director Wajid Khan, known for his compositions for Salman Khan's popular movies such as 'Wanted', the 'Dabangg' franchise and 'Ek Tha Tiger', was laid to rest at a Versova cemetery in presence of close friends and family members.

The music composer passed away on Monday morning in a Mumbai hospital at 42 due to coronavirus complications leading to kidney issues.

A source close to the family revealed to news agency PTI that Khan was buried around 1 PM. Because of the coronavirus-induced lockdown, only 20 people were allowed to attend the funeral with police security and barricades. "Only close family, including brother Sajid and friends from the industry were present," the sources said.


His brother Sajid confirmed to the news agency that the musician had tested positive for Covid-19, and died of cardiac arrest.

In an interaction with PTI, music composer Salim Merchant also revealed that the singer-composer was admitted in Chembur's Surana Hospital a few days ago where his condition deteriorated.

"He had multiple issues. He had a kidney issue and had a transplant a while ago. But recently he got to know about kidney infection... He was on the ventilator for the last four days, after his situation started getting worse. Kidney infection was the beginning and then he got critical," Salim said in his statement to PTI.

Merchant also took to Twitter to express grief over the death of his 'brother'. Wishing him safe travels, he said Khan's death is a huge loss to the film fraternity.



Soon after the news broke, many from the fraternity took to the micro-blogging site to pay tributes.

Actress Priyanka Chopra said she will always remember Wajid's smile.


Actress Parineeti Chopra recalls the most-beautiful memory with Wajid - singing with him under the Taj Mahal during sunset. In another post, she said that he was one of the "nicest" men in the industry.



Actor Varun Dhawan shared a picture of his filmmaker-father David Dhawan with Khan, and said that he was close to the family.


Music composer-singer Vishal Dadlani said he was 'heartbroken' after hearing the news.


In an Instagram post, Dadlani assured Wajid Khan's composer-brother Sajid that he will never be alone.

View this post on Instagram

Hard to believe we won't meet again, talk again, laugh again, @wajidkhan_live (in front, in the picture). @sajidk21 my brother, you will never be alone and our brother will never be forgotten.

A post shared by VISHAL (@vishaldadlani) on May 31, 2020 at 1:48pm PDT

Singer-composer Shankar Mahadevan said he was unable to come to terms with the news of Wajid's demise.


Singer Javed Ali said he was deeply saddened after hearing the shocking news.


The music composer duo made their Bollywood debut with Salman's 1998 movie 'Pyaar Kiya Toh Darna Kya', and went on to work on actor's various films including 'Garv', 'Tere Naam', 'Tumko Na Bhool Payenge', 'Partner' and the popular 'Dabangg' franchise.

Wajid also did playback for Salman in chartbusters like 'Mera He Jalwa', 'Fevicol Se' and for Akshay Kumar in 'Chinta Ta Chita Chita' from the film 'Rowdy Rathore', among others. He recently co-composed Salman's songs 'Pyaar Karona' and 'Bhai Bhai', which the actor released on his YouTube channel.

Wajid along with his brother Sajid served as mentor on singing reality shows 'Sa Re Ga Ma Pa 2012' and 'Sa Re Ga Ma Pa Singing Superstar'.

The composer duo also scored IPL 4 theme song, 'Dhoom Dhoom Dhoom Dhadaka', which was sung by Wajid.