Vanraj Bhatia Biography 
Vanraj Bhatia was one of the greatest music directors of Indian cinema. He has been associated with Shyam Benegal in numerous movies. His music albums with Music Today are equally popular. He was active in the industry during 1970’s and 1980’s and has contributed a lot to parallel cinema in the form of music. He became a part of the industry when Indian film industry started witnessing a new age group of directors, who came to be known as film makers of art cinema, parallel cinema or contemporary cinema. In 1987, he received national award for best music director for the Hindi movie – Tamas. He was awarded the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award in 1989 and Padmashree in 2012 for his contributions to Indian art.
Vanraj Bhatia was born in Mumbai in 1927. He took MA with honours from Elphinstone College in Mumbai. During this time, he learnt Western classical music. After graduating in 1949 he left for the Royal Academy of Music, London, to study music composition. He passed with a Royal Academy Gold Medal in 1954. Then he joined Paris Conservatory as a student. He received numerous scholarships while studying abroad.
He created his first advertising jingle in the year 1959 for Shakti Silk Sarees. In 1960 he started his career as Reader in Musicology in charge of Western Music at Delhi University. He worked there till 1965. As his jingles became immensely popular, he moved to Mumbai where he started working for the advertising industry. He has done more than 7000 scores for advertising jingles, corporate and business films. His non-film albums include - Sangit Raat, Indian Meditation Music, The elements – Earth, The Bhagavad Gita and The Spirit of Upanishads.
As a music director, his first movie was Ankur. Its success paved way to his association with many of Benegal’s projects later. His noted Hindi movies include - Manthan (1976), Bhumika (1977), Junoon (1978), Kalyug (1981), 36 Chowringhee Lane (1981), Trikal (1985) and Mandi (1983), Hip hip hurray (1984) and Jaane Bhi Do Yaaro (1983). In 1996, he composed the music of Vijay Singh's international film Jaya Ganga. Suraj Ka Satvan Ghoda and Sardari Begam (1996) are among his last few works.
Published: N/A
Updated: January 10, 2014
