Jagjit Singh was an Indian composer, singer and musician. He composed and sang in numerous languages and is credited for the revival and popularity of ghazal, an Indian classical art form, by choosing poetry that was relevant to the masses and composing them in a way that laid more emphasis on the meaning of words and melody evoked by them. In terms of Indian classical music, his style of composing and gayaki (singing) is considered as Bol-pradhan, one that lays emphasis on words. He highlighted this in his music for films such as Prem Geet (1981), Arth (1982), and Saath Saath (1982), and TV serials Mirza Ghalib (1988) and Kahkashan (1991). Singh is considered to be the most successful ghazal singer and composer of all time in terms of critical acclaim and commercial success. With a career spanning five decades and many albums, the range and breadth of his work has been regarded as genre-defining.
Mehdi Hassan Khan, known mononymously as Mehdi Hassan, was a Pakistani ghazal singer and playback singer of great renown. Widely considered one of the greatest and most influential figures in the history of ghazal singing, Hassan is referred to as the Shahenshah-e-Ghazal. Known for his "haunting" baritone voice, Hassan is credited with bringing ghazal singing to a worldwide audience. He is unique for his melodic patterns and maintaining integrity of the ragas in an innovative way.
Ustad Ghulam Ali is a Pakistani ghazal singer of the Patiala Gharana. Ghulam Ali is considered as one of the greatest ghazal singers of his era. He has also been a prominent playback singer in Bollywood. He is a disciple of Bade Ghulam Ali Khan. Ali was also trained by Bade Ghulam Ali's younger brothers – Barkat Ali Khan and Mubarak Ali Khan.
Kaifi Azmi was an Indian Urdu poet. He is remembered as the one who brought Urdu literature to Indian motion pictures. Together with Pirzada Qasim, Jaun Elia and others he participated in many memorable Mushaira gatherings of the twentieth century. He was also a communist who wanted to see India one day become a socialist state. His wife was theatre and film actress Shaukat Kaifi.
Madan Mohan Kohli, better known as Madan Mohan, was an Indian music director of the 1950s, 1960s and the 1970s. He is considered one of the most melodious and skilled music directors of the Hindi film industry. He is particularly remembered for the immortal ghazals he composed for Hindi films. Some of his best works are with singers Lata Mangeshkar, Mohammed Rafi and Talat Mahmood.
Roopkumar Rathod is an Indian music director and playback singer and Indian pop singer. He has performed a number of songs in Hindi, Gujarati, Marathi, Tamil, Telugu, Bengali, Oriya, Assamese, Nepali, Bhojpuri and Kannada films.
Kanu Roy (1912-1981) was an Indian actor and music composer in Hindi and Bengali films. He gave music for most of Basu Bhattacharya's films.
Neeraj Shridhar is an Indian film playback singer, composer and singer-songwriter who was the lead vocalist of Indian pop and rock group Bombay Vikings. Bombay Vikings became popular with remix hits like "Kya Soorat Hai", "Woh Chali" and "Chod Do Anchal".
Nachiketa Chakraborty, simply known as Nachiketa, is an Indian singer, songwriter, musician, composer and playback singer who is known for his modern Bengali lyrics. He achieved fame in the early 1990s, with the release of his debut album Ei Besh Bhalo Achi.
Ramesh Talwar is an Indian film, theatre, television and film director, co-producer and actor. He is the nephew of the film writer, short story writer and playwright Sagar Sarhadi. Talwar began his career as a child artist in Love in Simla (1960), Dhool Ka Phool (1959) and Phool Aur Kaliyan (1960) which was a National Award winner – Gold medal for best children's film.
Noel Dias, better known as Saleem Raza, was a Pakistani playback singer. He converted to Islam and started his singing career from Lahore, Pakistan, quickly gaining popularity. Raza was a classically- trained singer and was more famous for singing sad songs. Raza's career suffered due to the rise of singer Ahmed Rushdi in the late 1950s. He left playback singing in 1966 as he lost his popularity with the film composers and moved to Canada where he died in 1983.
Sudarshan Kamra, better known by his takhallus Sudarshan Faakir, was an Indian Urdu poet and lyricist. His ghazals and nazms were sung by Begum Akhtar and Jagjit Singh. He has his son Manav Faakir as a Lyricist now.
Kuldeep Singh is a music director for Hindi theatre and Hindi films, most known for composing ghazals such as Tumko Dekha To Ye Khayal AayaSaath Saath (1982) and Itni Shakti Hame Dena Daata (Ankush).
Laparwah is a 1981 Hindi-language Indian action film directed by Ravikant Nagaich, starring Mithun Chakraborty, Ranjeeta Kaur, Prema Narayan and Shakti Kapoor in the leading roles.
