Mohd Rafi’s evergreen classic becomes hallmark of Sunita Williams’ birthday

American astronaut Sunita Williams, who is currently on a space mission, received a heartwarming gift on her 59^th birthday.

On Wednesday, renowned music company Saregama took to its Instagram and shared a collaborative reel featuring music stalwarts, Sonu Nigam, Shaan, Hariharan and Neeti Mohan along with producer-director Karan Johar.

The post was captioned, ‘Come on India lets sing #HappyBirthdaySunita along with India’s biggest icons and send our collective wishes to Astronaut Sunita Williams up in space. Use #HappyBirthdaySunita to post your videos and Tag Saregama.’

The video starts with Karan Johar smiling and saying, “Meri taraf se ek special birthday wish to someone very special jo humse hai duur bahut duur.” Later, Hariharan concluded with, “On behalf of entire India, we celebrate you and the amazing journey of..” and the song began with Sonu Nigam, Shaan, Hariharan and Neeti Mohan as they sang the all-time classic track of late Mohd Rafi titled ‘Happy Birthday Sunita’.

In the last shot, Karan Johar said, “Happy Birthday to you and come on India, aap bhi sing karo aur upload karo”.

Meanwhile, renowned singer-composer Shankar Mahadevan also took to his Instagram and shared his blessings for Sunita.

He wrote in the caption, ‘Happiest birthday Sunita Williams!! We are all waiting for your safe return back to planet earth ! Love and best wishes.’

The video starts with the ‘Dil Chahta Hai’ singer talking about Sunita and giving his best wishes for returning safely back to earth. He starts with, “Namskar, meri taraf se ek bahut hi khaas shaks ke liye jo humse bahut duur hai. Hum ye ummeed karte hai ki wo jaldi laut aaye dharti par. Unka birthday hai. Wo hai hum sabki pyaari Sunita Williams”, and started singing “Happy Birthday Sunita”.

He concluded his adorable message with, “Many happy returns of the day Sunita. Looking forward to meeting you on planet earth, very soon”.

For the unversed, Sunita Williams is currently in space with another astronaut Butch Wilmore as they were part of Boeing’s inaugural crewed mission on the Starline. However, due to some technical faults with the spacecraft, Williams and Wilmore are now slated to stay until February 2025.