Eminent lyricist Dev Kohli no more

Eminent Hindustani poet and lyricist Dev Kohli - who has penned songs like ‘Kabootar ja ja ja’ and ‘Aaja shaam hone aayee’ in 'Maine Pyar Kiya' and ‘Yeh kaali kaali aankhen' in 'Baazigar' - passed away in Mumbai on Saturday.

During his career, spanning around six decades, Kohli wrote songs for over 100 Hindi films, many of them turning out to be superhits.

Kolhi was 81.

He was suffering from old age ailments and was in hospital for a few months.

Kohli was born on 2 November, 1942 in a Sikh family in Rawalpindi.

After partition, his family moved to Dehradun, where he studied at the Shri Guru Nanak Dev Guru Maharaj College.

Kohli moved to Mumbai in 1964 in search of jobs in the entertainment industry and got a break in 1969 in 'Gunda'. His first hit was "Geet gaata hoon main" in 'Lal Patthar', which was sung by the legendary Kishore Kumar.

From Shankar-Jaikishan to Anu Malik, Raam-Laxman, to Vishal-Shekhar, Anand Raaj Anand, and Anand-Milind, Kohli has worked with generations of composers.

Kohli wrote songs for more than 100 hit films, like 'Maine Pyar Kiya', 'Baazigar', 'Judwaa 2', 'Musafir', 'Shoot Out At Lokhandwala', and 'Taxi Number 911’.