Ismail Darbar

Ismail Darbar
Ismail Darbar at Vestoria fashion show
Background information
Born	(1964-06-01) 1 June 1964 (age 52) Surat, Gujarat, India
Genres	soundtrack
Occupation(s)	Composer, music director, instrumentalist

Ismail Darbar (born 1 June 1964) is an Indian composer and violinist, a popular name in Indian Film Industry: Bollywood. He was a contestant on Bigg Boss 3 in 2009.

Ismail Darbar is from Surat, Gujarat. He worked for several years as a session violinist for leading music directors Laxmikant Pyarelal, Kalyanji Anandji, Bappi Lahiri, Rajesh Roshan, Anand-Milind, Nadeem-Shravan, Jatin-Lalit and A. R. Rahman. Finally he got the break after so many years with Sanjay Leela Bhansali's film Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam. Earlier Darbar had played violin for Jatin-Lalit in the movie Khamoshi: The Musical. Later on his music in Bhansali's Devdas was acclaimed. He did not work with Bhansali after Devdas due to personal differences. After Devdas, Darbar did a few more movies but was unable to get much success. In 2005, he composed for seven out of 12 tracks for Subhash Ghai's Kisna: The Warrior Poet after A. R. Rahman had left the project mid-way to complete an international assignment. However Ghai would later say, "The music [of the film] has turned out so well that you can't distinguish an Ismail song from a Rahman one".

He was one of the four judges on Zee TV's Indian musical program Sa Re Ga Ma Pa Challenge 2005. The other judges were Jatin-Lalit, Aadesh Shrivastava and Himesh Reshammiya. He was one of the four judges on Sa Re Ga Ma Pa Challenge 2005 and Sa Re Ga Ma Pa Challenge 2007. He was also one of the three judges for Amul Star Voice of India 2 and Bharat Ki Shaan: Singing Star – Season 2 on DD National..