Name : Rajinder Krishan
Full / Real Name : Rajinder Krishan
Born : 6-Jun-1919, Simla
Died :
Notable Films : Albela, Anarkali, Chhaya, Jahanara, Lahore, Nagin, Padosan, Patanga, Sangdil, Taj
Contributed by : K Vijay Kumar (sources: Dhadkan.com, Chetan Vinchhi)

Rajendra Krishan was born in Shimla, on June 6th 1919. From an early age, he gravitated towards poetry. However, he landed up with a clerk's job in a municipal office, where he worked up to 1942. During this time, he cut his teeth on the immortal verse of Firaq Gorakhpuri, Ahsan Danish, Pant and Nirala. In those days, newspapers held poetry contests to mark Krishna Janmashtami in which, Krishan the fledgling poet competed regularly.

In the mid-1940s, he moved to Bombay to try his luck as scriptwriter and lyricist. His first lyrics were for Zanjeer, his first script was for Janta, both in '47. Both unfortunately bombed. But with Aaj Ki Raat in '48, Krishan tasted real success.

Then in '49, his lyrics for Shyam Sunder's Lahore ('Baharen Phir Bhi Aayengi') and Hunslal-Bhagatram's Badi Bahen ('Chup Chup Khadi Ho') became extremely popular, the latter celebrating a silver jubilee, which was no mean achievement. The pleased producer gifted Krishan a thousand rupees and a car.

A new phase dawned in his life. His knowledge of Tamil made him an ideal choice for AVM, the giant production house from Madras, and others to use his services for their films like Bahar, Ladki and Bhai Bhai. He wrote in all 18 scripts for AVM itself. The music directors for whom he regularly wrote songs - C. Ramachandra and Madan Mohan were also composing for the South Indian Hindi movies. Considering these composers believed in having the complete lyrics before composing it, follows that a good part of the original stimulus of the great songs of the time came from the pen of Krishan.

Rajinder Krishan gave lyrics to a wide variety of songs, ranging from ghazals to bhajans, geets to nazms with great flair. His early association with the Janmashtami competition stood him in good stead as he wrote a large number of Radha-Krishna songs for Hindi films. Rumour has it that some time in the early 70s, he went into semi-retirement after he won a massive jackpot at the Mahalaxmi racecourse. His stints as screenplay and dialogue writer are largely eclipsed by his tremendous song output.