Veteran lyricist Dev Kohli, who wrote songs for Maine Pyaar Kiya and Baazigar, dies at 81 in Mumbai

ISLAMABAD Aug 26 (Online): Veteran lyricist Dev Kohli, who penned songs for Bollywood films like Salman Khan-starrer Hum Aapke Hain Koun, has died. He was 81.

The India Today report added that Anand Raaj Anand, Anu Malik, Uttam Singh and others from the the film fraternity will be present to pay their last respects.

Dev Kohli’s death
Dev Kohli’s spokesperson, Pritam Sharma, confirmed his death and told Indianexpress.com, “Kohli ji was admitted at Kokilaben Ambani Hospital for the last few months, he was not keeping well and passed away in his sleep early, on Saturday morning.”

About Dev Kohli
Dev Kohli had penned over a hundred songs for Bollywood films such as Baazigar, Hum Aapke Hain Koun, Maine Pyaar Kiya, Shoot Out At Lokhandwala, among many others. He last wrote songs for the Kangana Ranaut-starrer Rajjo, which had music by Uttam Singh.

Dev Kohli was born on November 2, 1942, in Rawalpindi, Pakistan and spent his childhood in Dehradun, after shifting there from Delhi in 1949.
Dev Kohli on his journey in Hindi films

From Shankar-Jaikishan to Vishal-Shekhar, Dev Kohli worked with different generations of composers in a career that spanned from 1969 to 2013. In an old interview with Planet Bollywood, he spoke about his long and illustrious journey as a lyricist and his association with music composer Anu Malik.

He had said, “The first song I wrote for him (Anu Malik) was Yeh Kaali Kaali Aankhein from Baazigar (1993), which became a huge hit. I remember he won a Filmfare Award for the film. He (Anu Malik) used to call me often to write songs. He used to praise me a lot among his peers, particularly about my ability to write songs very fast. He is a very lively person. He used to compose the mukhda in 2-3 minutes.”

Dev had also opened up about ‘writing songs very fast’. He had said, “I would always write the song in the studio itself. I would never take a tune home to write the verses. I have written most of my songs at one go. In fact, by the time I went back home, I would forget what I had written just a couple of hours ago.”