Sagar Sarhadi

Sagar Sarhadi Biography

Sagar Sarhadi is a noted Urdu writer and veteran screenwriter associated with many landmark movies of Bollywood such as Kabhi Kabhi (1976) and Silsila (1981) starring Amitabh Bachchan. Frequently associated with director Yash Chopra, he also wrote the dialogues of yet another Yah Chopra blockbuster, Chandini in 1989. He turned a film director with the highly acclaimed film, Baazar (1982), starring Farooq Shaikh, Smita Patil, Naseeruddin Shah and Supriya Pathak – the movie still remembered for its mesmerizing ghazals. He scripted 15 Bollywood films and wrote the dialogues of Kaho na pyar hai in 2000. His last film as a director, Chausar is unreleased.

His real name is Ganga Sagar Talwar. He was born on 11 May 1933 in Abbottabad, Baffa of present day Pakistan. He moved to India following partition and also accepted a new name, Sarhadi (border resident) instead of his surname Talwar. He wished to become a universal citizen. Before he joined film industry as a scriptwriter he was a well-established Urdu short story writer. His story titled Raakha catapulted him to fame when it was made as Noorie for Bollywood. He also wrote its film dialogues. Known for his frequent association with Yash Chopra and Rakesh Roshan, he has not worked with them for long. Sagar is one among those rare writers of Bollywood who refused to script plagiarized versions of many Hollywood films to Hindi.

As a short story writer, Jeev Janaawar is his best seller. His popular Urdu plays like Khyaal ki Dastak, Bhagat Singh ki Waapsi, Raj Durbar and Tanhai were applauded by critics. As a screenwriter, he became extremely popular through evergreen classic film, Kabhi Kabhi. Since then he has wrote screenplays for many evergreen romantic hits like Chandini, Silsila, Faasle, Abubhav etc. At present he is away from limelight.  He is one among those rare artists of Bollywood who takes fame lightly.As a film director, known for his debut flick - the Bollywood classic, Baazar (1982) the movie gathered him three Filmfare nominations - Best Film, Best Direction and Best Story, though he was not able to win any. 

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Updated: June 21, 2016