Fayyaz Hashmi

Fayyaz Hashmi (1920–2011) was a Pakistani poet and film lyricist, born in Calcutta in 1920 to the poet and stage-drama writer Syed Muhammad Hussain Hashmi 'Dilgeer'. He began writing songs as a teenager — his early hit "Tasveer teri dil mera behla na sakegi", sung by Talat Mahmood, made the singer famous — and served as resident lyricist of the Gramophone Company of India from 1943 to 1948. After Partition he moved to Lahore, where he helped organise Pakistan's music scene and promoted artists including Farida Khanum; his first Pakistani film songs were for Kunwari Bewa (1956). He is credited with 482 songs for 122 Pakistani films, and his lifetime song count is quoted at over 2,000. Alongside the film work he wrote ghazals, collected in Satah-e-Aaina (1982), winning the Graduate Award three times and the Nigar Award for best song in 1978. He died in Karachi on 29 November 2011.