Artist Bio: Gulzar

Original name: Sampooran Singh Kalra
Date of Birth: August 18, 1936
Place of Birth: Dina, Jhelum, British India
Father’s name: Mahajan Singh Kalra
Mother’s name: Sujan Kaur
Spouse: Rakhee
Profession: film producer and Director, lyrics writer, script writer and poet

Gulzar was born in a small village located in West Punjab to Makhan Singh Kalra. He belongs from a Sikh family. In the initial days of his adolescence he worked in a garage as a car mechanic. Gulzar initiated his career under two great artists Hrishikesh Mukherjee and Bimal Roy. He started off as a song writer and developed keen interest in writing for various other sections of Industry later on. The first song he wrote was for the movie ‘Aandhi’ which was “Mora gora ang layle” and was picturised on Nutan. Gulzar did most of his writing work for the famous and leading music director of that era, R.D Burman. From him he got to learn a lot and together they entertained the masses with their beautiful compositions and touching lyrics. They worked together for many big projects which proved to be break through hits. This includes ‘Parichay’(musafir hoon yaaro), ‘Aandhi’ (tere bina zindagi se koi), ‘Khushboo’ (Ghar jaegi), ‘Masoom’ (Tujhse naraz nahi zindagi) and ‘Ijazat’ (Mera kuch Samaan). Gulzaar is still working ina number of big projects and the most recently has written for ‘Guru’. Gulzar has also got engaged in production of many movies and serials which includes Mirza Galib that highlighted the extreme talent in Naseeruddin Shah, lead actor of that serial, who is now a well known actor of Bollywood. Gulzar has received the Padma Bhushan, the third highest civilian award for his extraordinary contribution to Hindi Cinema. He had also been honoured with the title of many best director and best lyricist in many film fare awards. He has also received the Sahitya Academi award for short stories written by him. Gulzar has written a number poems in his book named as ‘Triveni’ which is sung in the melodious voice of Jagjit Singh in their Private album ‘Koi Baat Chale’. Gulzar has been married to the famous actor Rakhee and has a daughter Meghna Gulzaar, a famous director. She from his childhood days aspired to be a director and has directed a movie ‘Filhaal’ highlighting the sensitive issue of surrogate mother. Meghna Gulzaar has written a book ‘Becaise he is…..’ that is a biography of Gulzar, his father.