Runa Laila - Early Life

Early Life

Runa Laila was born in an upper middle class family on November 17, 1952, in Sylhet, Bangladesh. Her father was from Rajshahi. A music ustad would visit the family home, to teach classical music to Runa's elder sister Dina Laila. As younger siblings are wont to do, Runa too would sit down and pick it up effortlessly. But the energetic youngster's heart was in dance, and she was enrolled in a school where she learnt Kathak, Bharatanatyam, and Kathakali. Her early music training was done when her family lived in Karachi's Federal B area in 1960. Ustad Qader, later known as Piya Rang, was her teacher.

Besides her classical training, Runa recalls gratefully the influence of Manzur Hussain on her career, since, instead of pampering her as a child, he told her that while her voice was good, it had certain flaws he needed her to work on. In those days, recording a song meant meeting a crowd of people in the studio, singing along with the orchestra and, should anyone make a mistake, starting over again from the beginning.

She started learning classical music at a very early age and received vigorous training from Ustad Habibiddin Khan. She made her first public debut as a singer at the age of six and cut her first disc for a Pakistani film called "Jugnu" at the age of twelve. She had a great inspiration from famous playback singer Ahmed Rushdi as she followed his way of expressing emotions during singing and also made a hit pair with him later on.