A simple clerk who became famous by writing 237 songs, forced Mohammad Rafi to sing again

New Delhi: ‘Mere Desh Ki Dharti Sona Ugle, Ugle Heere Moti, Mere Desh Ki Dharti.’ This song from actor Manoj Kumar’s film ‘Upkar’ is still on people’s lips. This song that arouses the spirit of patriotism has been alive with us for many decades, but the famous lyricist Gulshan Kumar Mehta aka Gulshan Bawra who wrote this song is no longer among us.

Gulshan Bawra breathed his last on 7 August 2009. Even after 15 years of his death, people still remember him by listening to the songs written by him. Gulshan Bawra wrote many great songs in his career. But, one song which was very close to his heart has the lyrics- ‘Chaandi ki deewar na todi, pyar bhara dil tod diya. Ek Dhanawan ki beti ne nirdhan ka daman chod diya.’ Gulshan Bawra also won the Filmfare Award for the song ‘Yaari hai imaan mera yaar meri dosti’ in the film Zanjeer.

The first song was written for the film ‘Chandrasena’
Gulshan Bawra was born on 12 April 1937 in Shekhupur, Pakistan. After partition, he came to India. Here he got a job as a clerk in Western Railway. After coming to Mumbai in 1955, he wanted to write songs for Hindi films. He struggled for some time. On 23 August 1958, music director Kalyan-Anand gave him a chance for the film Chandrasena. He wrote his first song for this film. After listening to two of his songs during the film Satta Bazaar, distributor Shanti Bhai Patel gave him the name Gulshan Bawra.

When Lata Mangeshkar made a mistake
In Gulshan Bawra’s career, 237 of his songs came in the market. He worked with Laxmi Kant Pyarelal, Anu Malik. He had a deep friendship with RD Burman. He was very sad at the time of Mohammad Rafi’s death. There is a song in the film ‘Zanjeer’ – ‘Deewane hai deewano ko na ghar chahiye’. Mohammad Rafi had given a take for this song, which was also okayed by the composer. Lata Mangeshkar also gave voice to this song along with Rafi sahab. She had made a mistake in this song, she wanted one more take.

When Mohammad Rafi could not say ‘no’ to Gulshan Bawra
Here, Mohammad Rafi was leaving the recording studio in his car, when Gulshan Bawra reached him and said- ‘Sir, do you know who is going to sing this song on screen.’ He said who Dilip Kumar? Gulshan Bawra said, ‘Not Dilip Kumar, I am singing on screen.’ On this he came again for a take. The special thing was that during Roza in those days, even the famous singer Mohammad Rafi could not say no to lyricist Gulshan Bawra.

Tags: Bollywood films, Bollywood News, Entertainment news.