The death of Ex-President Dr.APJ Abdul Kalam, the 'Missile Man' and popularly revered as 'People's President' has shattered the entire nation at large. Bollywood too could not overcome this great loss.

From Lata Mangeshkar to Amitabh Bachchan to Shah Rukh Khan to Varun Dhawan the entire film fraternity was taken aback by his sudden death and the social networking sites were flooded with condolences messages paying homage to Bharat Ratna Dr. Kalam, who remained in politics without being a politician`!

While Amitabh Bachchan lamented not having met Dr. Kalam in person, he felt proud of having a telephone conversation just before he was announced to be the next President of India.

Eminent filmmaker and Oscar award winning film lyrist Gulzar, paid a glowing tribute to Dr. Kalam by his autobiographical video film APJ ABDUL KALAM KI KAHANI GULZAR KI ZUBANI, a poignant and highly inspirational documentary sketching the journey of Dr. Kalam from a poor son of a boat man to becoming President of India.

The other noteworthy homage was paid by famed lyricist Javed Akhtar, who said, "The greatest aspect of Dr. Kalam was his style of leading his life. It was indeed exemplary. The way he thought, the way he spoke, the way he lived... all that should be a torchlight guiding us and we should keep him alive in our hearts."

Music wizard and Oscar award winner AR Rahman in his tribute rightly said that Dr. Kalam encouraged every child to dream. His quotation You have to dream before your dreams can come true` made many children fulfill their dream. Rahman mourned, "Today, we have lost a great leader who inspired our young minds to feel that we live in the greatest nation on earth and that each one of them can achieve great things."

Filmmaker Nila Madhab Panda, who made the brilliant film I AM KALAM that, won accolades at Cannes International Film Festival 2010 paying homage to the departed soul said, "I've lost a hero in Dr Kalam because his humbleness and simplicity was above his genius as a scientist and a President.Despite holding the highest office in the country and commanding such respect, he was down to earth. Dr. Kalam was a man full of admiration and awe."

He mourned. "Today we've become so greedy; there are corrupt people everywhere. No matter how successful we are, we always want more but Dr. Kalam was an exception. He believed in giving rather than selflessly minting money. Dr Kalam was the last hero of my generation; of this generation. And I've lost him today,"

Asked on making a movie on Dr. Kalam he said, "Today when biopics are made on gangsters and the infamous, I would love to make a biopic on Dr APJ Abdul Kalam because Dr. Kalam`s story is the story of every child of India."

He added, "There is a Kalam in every child. Every child dreams to break out of situational shackles and achieve something in life. Dr. Kalam changed his own destiny. He rewrote his destiny by his sheer hard work, passion and achieved his dreams. Dr. Kalam`s story is thus inspiring to all of us because he is a role model, a person one could be followed, especially children."

This article is from Raaga's music blog. Read more at http://blog.raaga.com