Born on May 24, 1955, Rajesh Roshan was born to the well known and acclaimed Music Director Roshanlal Nagrath. While he was hardly twelve yearls old, his father passed away and his mother Ila Roshan enrolled him under Ustad Faiyaz Ahmed Khan Saheb so that he could learn music. Subsequently, he quit his studies and made the shift into the industry, with Mehmood’s “Kunwaara Baap” (1974), where he composed songs like “Aa Ri Aaja Nindiya Tu”.
Thereafter, he composed music for “Ginny Aur Johnny” (1976). He also worked in Basu Chatterji films like “Swami” (1977), which is remembered most for the Yesudas-voiced “Kaa Karoon Sajni”, “Dillagi” (1978) and “Hamari Bahu Alka” (1982). Dev Anand too let him compose music for three of his films, back to back - “Des Pardes” (1978), “Manpasand” (1980) and “Lootmaar” (1980). These films brought with it songs like “Suman Sudha Rajni Chanda” (“Manpasand”, 1980) and “Jab Chhaye Mera Jadoo” (“Lootmaar”, 1980), through which, Rajesh Roshan proved his versatility. For the film “Mr Natwarlal” (1979), for the children’s song “Mere Paas Aao Mere Doston”, Rajesh took the bold step of using Amitabh Bachchan’s original voice, which remains, till date, the closest he could have to sound melodious! This trend was repeated by Kalyanji-Anandji in “Lawaaris” (1981) for “Mere Angne Mein” and by Shiv-Hari for “Silsila” (1981).
Rajesh’s hit songs like, “Mungda Mungda” from “Inkaar” (1978), “Mach Gaya Shor” from “Khuddar” (1982) and “ Angrezi Mein Kehte”, from the same film, “Tumse Badkar”, (“Kaamchor”, 1982), “Sara Zamana”, (“Yarana”, 1981) are considered milestones even in today’s times. During the later stages of his career, say during the 1990s’, most of Rajesh’s films like, “Ghar Sansaar” (1986), “Ulta Seedha” (1985) until 1987, when with “Khudgarz”, Rajesh Roshan joined his brother Rakesh Roshan’s camp. After that, be it “Khoon Bhari Maang” (1988), “Kishen Kanhaiya” (1990), “Karan Arjun” (1995) or even the mega hit “Kaho Na Pyar Hai” (2000), “Koi Mil Gaya” (2003) and “Krrish” (2006), Rakesh Roshan’s films always came with Rajesh’s music. He even won the filmfare Award in 2000 for the film, “Kaho Na Pyar Hai”, a good twenty five years after he won the first Filmfare award in 1975 for the film “Julie”. His latest assignments as a composer were, again, for brother Rakesh’s “Kites” (2010), which sank at the box office. The composer has already started work on the upcoming “Krrish 2.”
Rajesh has been accused of plagiarism on many occasions for lifting the tunes from the West for most of his popular compositions.
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