Yogesh (lyricist)

Yogesh Gaur
Born	Lucknow, UP, India
Occupation	Lyricist

Yogesh Gaur (born 1943) is an Indian writer and lyricist. He wrote songs for Bollywood, and is best known for songs like, Kahin Door Jab Din Dal Jaaye and Zindagi Kaisi Hai Paheli in Anand (1971).

Yogesh was born on 16 April 1943 in Lucknow , Uttar Pradesh.

He moved in search of work, his cousin was a screenplay director. His first work was with Hrishikesh Mukherjee, and wrote Kahin Door Jab Din Dal Jaaye. He wrote songs like Zindagi Kaisi Hai Paheli and Rimjhim gire Saawan, Kai baar yunhi dekha hai from Rajnigandha and Na bole tum na maine kuch kaha from Baaton Baaton Mein.

Yogesh also worked in television serials as a writer.

Lyric writer Yogesh Gaur was a man in great demand among the slice-of-life filmmakers like Basu Chatterjee and Hrishikesh Mukherjee. The story goes that Mukherjee heard the lyrics of two songs Yogesh had written for producer LB Lachman's film, and wanted them for Anand.

Lachmanji was adamant about keeping the songs, but Rajesh Khanna, Amitabh Bachchan and Mukherjee pleaded with him. Bachchan, who was a young man then, would say to me, Please get us these two songs somehow. Finally, Lachmanji relented and gave them one of the songs, says Yogesh.

The song, Kahin door jab din dhal jaaye, shot the lyricist to overnight popularity. Mukherjee was so happy he got Yogesh to pen another song for him, Zindagi kaisi yeh paheli for Anand too. Soon, the fan mail was pouring in.

Funnily, people also sent me flowers for Maine tere liye, which was written by Gulzar, says the man, popularly known as 'shaayar' by actresses of that time. The nickname happened because the heroines, when they reported on the sets, would insist he recite some of his shaayari. "Producers thought the heroines were getting distracted by my poetry, especially when I waxed eloquent about their beauty," he laughs.

Known as the 'sensible film lyricist', Yogesh worked primarily with Chatterjee and Mukherjee, rather than 'masala' filmmakers. My problem was similar to that faced by the filmmakers themselves. My work was appreciated, but was restricted to 'art' films. But they were more real than arty, he says.

Working with Basu Chatterjee was not the easiest, says Yogesh. Basuda was a master of his craft, but brainstorming sessions with him weren't all that fun. While discussing a song for Rajnigandha, he would say, in true Bengali style: ‘Uske baad, Vidya wahan se aata hai.’ I had to stop him and ask if he meant heroine Vidya Sinha’s character or hero Amol Palekar’s. He got angry and said he was referring to Vidya. I didn’t bother explaining to him that he had actually mixed up the gender while speaking in Hindi, Yogesh says. But the collaboration was a fruitful one. Yogesh wrote some of his best songs for Chatterjee, like Kai baar yunhi dekha hai from Rajnigandha and Na bole tum na maine kuch kaha from Baaton Baaton Mein.

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