Vishal Bharadwaj

Vishal was born and raised in the Bijnor district of Uttar Pradesh. As a young man, he moved to Delhi and started playing harmonium for little known ghazal singers at the various food festivals in Delhi’s Pragati Maidan. He was later introduced to R.V. Pandit, who offered him a job in his CBS music company in Delhi.

A friend recommended him to the filmmaker Gulzar, with whom he collaborated on TV serials such as Jungle Book, Alice in Wonderland and Guchche. Vishal composed the music for Maachis, a film directed by Gulzar. The musical score for Maachis was received to critical and commercial acclaim and earned Vishal the Filmfare R D Burman Award in 1996. Since then, Vishal has scored music for several Hindi films such as Satya, Chachi 420 and a host of other popular projects. He is among the top music directors of the film industry and is known for doing quality work.

Vishal Bhardwaj turned director with his children's film Makdee. He then made the first of his Shakespearean adaptation, Maqbool, based on Macbeth. This was followed up by yet another children's film, The Blue Umbrella based on Ruskin Bond's story of the same name. Omkara marked the second of Vishal's Shakespearan endeavours, this time an adaptation of Othello.

Vishal is known for his collaborations with Gulzar, who opted for Vishal's music in all his directorial ventures since Maachis. In turn, he has provided lyrics to all of Vishal's films. Vishal has done some second unit work for the legendary Francis Ford Coppola on the latter's film Youth Without Youth.