In Bombay, he began with Filmistan’s Shikari (1946) but his first major breakthrough came the following year with the company’s Do Bhai (1947). He became a music director initially in Calcutta with Rajgee (1937). His first film as a singer was finally Sanjher Pidim (1935). He made his film debut singing in Yahudi ki Ladki (1933) but the songs were scrapped and re-sung by Pahari Sanyal. Notable ones being “Dheere se jana bagiyan mein” and “Kaun nagariya javun re Bansiwale.”. He has also sung a number of private songs and bhajans. Mukesh and Talat Mahmood have also sung songs composed by him. Burman’s compositions have been mainly sung to a large extent by the likes of Lata Mangeshkar, Mohammad Rafi, Geeta Dutt (wife of Guru Dutt and a playback singer herself), Manna Dey,Kishore Kumar, Asha Bhonsle and Shamsad Begum. He also sang for one of the songs of Amar Prem (1971), a film whose music was composed by his son, Rahul Dev Burman. He also sang about 20 film songs (inclusive of Bengali films) for which he composed music though he may not have been the music director of the films. Agneepath (1990) had an uncredited song composed by him - Nazar lagi raja tore bangle par from Kalapani (1958). S D Burman composed music for 100 movies inclusive of Bengalee films. (Consequently his film compositions were often influenced by his huge repertory of folk-tunes from the Bengali, Bhatiali, Sari and Dhamail traditions of the North-East India). In the early 1930s he made a reputation for himself as a singer of folk and light classical music. His early work for radio was based on East Bengali and North-Eastern folk-music. He also acknowledges Ustad Allauddin Khan as one of his gurus. He later continued his training first under KC Dey,and then Bhismadev Chattopadhaya and Badal Khan.
He was born in the royal family of Tripura, and began his training in classical music under his father, sitarist and Dhrupad singer Nabadwipchandra Dev Burman. S D Burman was born in Comilla, Bengal (now in Bangladesh) in British India. Blissful Oldies-Sachin Dev Burman’s Hindi Film List Sachin Dev Burman: