Renowned lyricist, poet, author and filmmaker Gulzar will be honoured with the 2013 Dadsaheb Phalke award, the country' highest award in cinema given annually by the Government of India.
The 79-year-old was awarded the Padma Bhushan in 2004 and the Sahitya Akademi Award in 2002. He has won a number of National Film Awards and 20 Filmfare Awards.
The ace lyricist whose songs have entertained many generations of Indians has also won international renown. At the 81st Academy Awards, he won the Academy Award for Best Original Song for "Jai Ho" (shared with AR Rahman), for the film Slumdog Millionaire. In January 2010, the same song won him a Grammy Award in the category of Grammy Award for Best Song Written for a Motion Picture, Television or Other Visual Media.
Gulzar, born Sampooran Singh, started his career in films with his song 'Mora gora rang layee le' for Bimal Roy's classic Bandini in 1963, and began his tryst with the Hindi film world, where he penned songs, wrote dialogues and scripts. He later moved to direction, tackling a range of themes.
However, Gulzar's most successful songs as a lyricist were to come out later, of his association with Rahul Dev Burman who he described later as an anchor in his life.
The range of his versatility is manifest in his award-winning associations with the music directors of many generations: Salil Chowdhury (Anand, Mere Apne), Madan Mohan (Mausam) and more recently with Vishal Bhardwaj (Maachis, Omkara, Kaminey), AR Rahman (Dil Se, Guru, Slumdog Millionaire, Raavan) and Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy (Bunty aur Babli).
Making his directorial debut Mere Apne in 1971, Gulzar went on to make classics like Parichay, Koshish and Aandhi.
