Gulshan Kumar Mehta, popularly known by his pen name Gulshan Bawra (literally: "Gulshan The Mad") (12 April 1937 – 7 August 2009), was an Indian songwriter and actor in Hindi cinema. In a career spanning 42 years, he has to his credit about 240 songs, he collaborated with noted music directors like Kalyanji Anandji, Shankar Jaikishan, and R. D. Burman. He composed almost half of the songs in films like Khel Khel Mein (1975), Kasme Vaade (1978) and Satte Pe Satta (1982). Apart from R. D. Burman hits, he is most remembered for his songs like 'Mere Desh Ki Dharti" in Upkaar (1968) and "Yaari Hai Imaan Mera" in Zanjeer (1974), both of which got him the Filmfare Best Lyricist Award. The latter also topped the Binaca Geetmala annual list of 1973. As a character actor, he also appeared in a small number of Hindi films. Early life and education Gulshan Kumar Mehta, popularly known as Gulshan Bawra was born 30 km from Lahore in a place called Sheikhupura. His father had a construction business, and his immediate family were Shri Labh Chand Mehta, father of Roop Lal Mehta and Chaman Lal Mehta, incidentally both their families were victims of the partition riots where young Gulshan witnessed his father and his cousins' father killed in Labh Chand Mehta's haveli, in front of their own eyes. His elder sister at Jaipur, brought him and his elder brother up. After his brother got a job, they shifted to Delhi, where he graduated from Delhi University. During college, he began to write poetry. Career He wanted to come into films and applied for a job with the Railways. He was posted to Kota, Rajasthan, but when he arrived there, the vacancy was filled. His next call was luckily that for the post of a clerk at Mumbai and he arrived in the city in 1955. Gulshan struggled to get a film break, initially keeping his job on. Kalyanji (of Kalyanji-Anandji), then on his own as Kalyanji Virji Shah, gave him his first opening in Chandrasena (1959) in the song "Main kya jaanu kahan laage yeh saawan matwala re", sung by Lata Mangeshkar. K-A's first joint film, the Meena Kumari-Balraj Sahni starrer Satta Bazaar later the same year marked his first brush with success with hits like "Tumhein yaad hoga kabhi hum mile the" (Lata-Hemant), "Aakde ka dhanda" (Rafi) and "Chandi ke chand tukdon