Pankaj Udhas

Pankaj Udhas was born on May 17, 1951 in Jetpur near Rajkot in Gujarat to a family of Zamindars. His elder brother, Manhar Udhas is a stage performancer, and so young Pankaj needed no initiation into the world of music.. He's been the Padmasree Award winner.


His first stage performance during the Indo-Chine was was one that changed his life and made him a star. He sang Ae Mere Watan Ke Logon and won for himself a prize of Rs. 51 . Pankaj was so moved by winning that he took up music professionally as his career.

Pankaj was so attracted towards the form of music by Mehndi Hasan and Begum Akhtar that he went on to learn Urdu to be able to grasp the depth of ghazals, thus Pankaj Udhas found his destiny.

The man deserves the credit for making ghazals popular at a time when it was losing its foothold over the masses.From his first ghazal album Aahat released in 1980, Pankaj has released around 40 albums with countless number of compilations. In all his albums he has always tried to present ghazals in a manner more appealing to the masses yet maintaining the essence of ghazals.

The songs like 'chithi aayi hai' from 'Naam' became the National Anthem of its time. Moreover the songs like 'Gaya fir aaj ka din bhi' from 'Dil aashna hai' gave him immense popularity.