Sahir Ludhianvi a poet and Bollywood film lyricist who wrote in the Hindi and Urdu languages was born as Abdul Hayee. He was born on 8 March 1921 Ludhiana, Punjab, British India. His parents got separated when he was a child. Sahir was educated at the Khalsa High School in Ludhiana. He then enrolled at the Government College, Ludhiana. As a college student, Sahir was popular for his ghazals and nazms (poetry in Urdu) and empassioned speeches.
His father was a careless man and he never understood his responsibilities for his family. He married 12 women. Sahir was the son of the 11th wife. Due to her father’s poor behaviour, her mother divorced her husband Fazal Mohammed and started living with her brother.
Sahir’s childhood was different from other children. Also, he never got the love of his life even after linked to so many women. During his college days, he met legendary writer Amrita Pritam who was a married woman who left her husband because of the differences in their thoughts. Both Amrita and Sahir felt a connection with each other. But religion and social disparity dug a trench in their relationship. Sahir was poor and along with that he was a Muslim whereas Amrita was a Sikh.
After struggling a lot in India and present-day Pakistan’s Lahore and facing severe financial crisis, in 1945, he moved to Mumbai and started writing for films. He became renowned lyricist there! Meanwhile, Lata Mangeshkar also shot to fame as a singer.
Sahir used to take Rupee 1 more than Lata as his fee in the films. Lata never liked it and she decided not to sing the songs written by Sahir. However, later, on the persuasion of BR Chopra, Lata Mangeshkar started singing Sahir’s songs.
On 25 October 1980, at the age of fifty-nine, Sahir died of sudden cardiac arrest (he had been a smoker and drinker). He died in the presence of his friend and the famous writer Javed Akhtar.
