Mehboob Kotwal

Mehboob Alam Kotwal
Born	13 July, 1953 Nashik, India
Nationality	Indian

Mehboob Alam Kotwal is a writer of Bollywood film song lyrics. He was born and brought up in Mumbai city of Maharashtra. His family moved to the city of Mumbai for good in the 1960s where he received his primary education, first in English and later in Urdu.

In 1986, Mehboob met music composer Ismail Darbar who used to play the violin in film orchestras in those days. And it was Darbar who taught him the difference between poetry and film lyrics. Darbar introduced Mehboob to filmmaker Ram Gopal Varma and he began his song writing career with Varma's 1992 film Drohi whose music was composed by R. D. Burman. He then worked with A.R.Rahman on Varma's Rangeela. Rahman liked his work and introduced him to Mani Ratnam and Mehboob penned the lyrics for the Hindi (dubbed) version of Bombay. Mehboob went on to work with Rahman on films such as Thakshak, Doli Saja Ke Rakhna and Dil Hi Dil Mein. He has also written the lyrics for Rahman's non-film album Maa Tujhe Salaam as well as Ratnam's Yuva.

Mehboob has collaborated with Ismail Darbar on Sanjay Leela Bhansali's 1999 film Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam, and on Shakti - The Power in 2002. He has also written the lyrics for Kamaal Khan's Hindi pop album "Kal Raat" (2003) and KK's albums - Pal and Humsafar.

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