Gulzar

Gulzar
Gulzar at the launch of Jagjit singh's album Tera Bayaan Ghalib
Born	Sampooran Singh Kalra (1936-08-18) 18 August 1936 (age 80) Dina, Punjab, India (now in Pakistan)
Nationality	Indian
Occupation	Film director, lyricist, screenwriter, producer, poet, author
Years active	1971–99 (as director) (retired) 1956–present (as lyricist)
Spouse(s)	Raakhee (m. 1973)
Children	Meghna Gulzar
Parent(s)	Makhan Singh Kalra and Sujan Kaur
Awards	Padma Bhushan (2004)
Signature

1971–99 (as director) (retired)

Sampooran Singh Kalra (born 18 August 1936), known popularly by his pen name Gulzar, is an Indian poet, lyricist and film director. Born in Jhelum District in British India, his family moved to India after partition. He started his career with music director S.D. Burman (lovingly known as Burman Dada) as a lyricist in the 1963 film Bandini and worked with many music directors including R. D. Burman, Salil Chowdhury, Vishal Bhardwaj and A. R. Rahman. He directed films such as Aandhi and Mausam and TV series Mirza Ghalib during the 1970s and 1980s. He also directed Kirdaar in 1993.

Gulzar also wrote poetry, dialogues and scripts. He was awarded Padma Bhushan, the third-highest civilian award in India, the Sahitya Akademi Award and the Dadasaheb Phalke Award — the highest award in Indian cinema. He has won several Indian National Film Awards, 20 Filmfare Awards, one Academy Award and one Grammy Award.

Gulzar was born in a Kalra Sikh family, to Makhan Singh Kalra and Sujan Kaur, in Dina, Jhelum District, British India (now in Pakistan). Before becoming a writer, Sampooran took up lot of small jobs in Mumbai one of them was in a garage where he used to touch up accident cars by creating shades of paint, in his own words "I had a knack for colors". His father rebuked him for being writer initially. He took the pen name Gulzar Deenvi and later simply Gulzar.