Shitala Pandey, better known as Sameer Anjaan, is an Indian lyricist, writing songs such as "Mujhe Raat Din Bas", predominantly in Hindi language films. He is a

Guinness World Record ''Guinness World Records'', known from its inception in 1955 until 1999 as ''The Guinness Book of Records'' and in previous United States editions as ''The Guinness Book of World Records'', is a reference book published annually, listing world ...

holder for writing the most songs. He was awarded this honor on 17 February 2016. His father is the famed Hindi lyricist, Lalji "Anjaan" Pandey. He has won three

Filmfare Awards The Filmfare Awards are annual awards that honour artistic and technical excellence in the Hindi-language film industry of India.Al The Filmfare ceremony is one of the most famous film events in India. The awards were first introduced by th ...

Biography

Sameer, officially named sameer Pandey, but commonly known by his nickname Rajan, was born near Banaras,

Uttar Pradesh Uttar Pradesh (; , 'Northern Province') is a state in northern India. With over 200 million inhabitants, it is the most populated state in India as well as the most populous country subdivision in the world. It was established in 1950 ...

. He earned a

Master of Commerce Master of Commerce (MCom or M Comm; sometimes '' Magister Commercii'' as MagComm or Mag. comm.) is a postgraduate master's degree focusing on commerce-, accounting-, management- and economics-related subjects. Like the undergraduate Bachelor of Co ...

degree at the

Banaras Hindu University Banaras Hindu University (BHU) IAST: kāśī hindū viśvavidyālaya IPA: /kaːʃiː hɪnd̪uː ʋɪʃwəʋid̪jaːləj/), is a collegiate, central, and research university located in Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh, India, and founded in 1916 ...

Varanasi Varanasi (; ; also Banaras or Benares (; ), and Kashi.) is a city on the Ganges river in northern India that has a central place in the traditions of pilgrimage, death, and mourning in the Hindu world. * * * * The city has a syncretic t ...

, and started a new position as a bank officer at the

Central Bank of India Central Bank of India (CBI) is an Indian public sector bank based in Mumbai. Despite its name, it is not the central bank of India; The Indian central bank is the Reserve Bank of India. History The Central Bank of India was established on ...

. However, a few days after joining, he left the job because he "knew the bank was not my world". To pursue a career as a lyricist, he moved to

Mumbai Mumbai (, ; also known as Bombay — the official name until 1995) is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra and the ''de facto'' financial centre of India. According to the United Nations, as of 2018, Mumbai is the second- ...

in 1980.

Career

Sameer started his career as a lyricist in 1983 with the film ''Bekhabar'' (1983).https://lyricsraag.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/Filmfare-Awards-Winners-From-1953-to-2018.pdf The first film song he recorded was "Maar Ke Kataaree Mar Jaibe" for the Bhojpuri film ''Bairi Saawan'' (1984) sung by

Suresh Wadkar Suresh Ishwar Wadkar (born 7 August 1955) is an Indian playback singer. He performs in both Hindi and Marathi films. He has sung songs in some Bhojpuri films, Odia albums and bhajans and in Konkani films. He was awarded the Sangeet Natak Aka ...

and

Preeti Sagar Preeti Sagar is a former Bollywood playback singer who won the Filmfare Award for Best Female Playback Singer for the song "Mero Gaam Katha Parey" from ''Manthan'' in 1978 and for the hit song "My Heart is Beating" from ''Julie'' (1975). Care ...

. In 1990, he came into prominence with songs in films such as '' Dil'' and ''

Aashiqui Aashiqui () is a 1990 Indian Hindi musical romantic drama film and first installment of Aashiqui series directed by Mahesh Bhatt, starring Rahul Roy, Anu Aggarwal and Deepak Tijori in pivotal roles. The film was known for its music, by com ...

''. He won his first

Filmfare Award The Filmfare Awards are annual awards that honour artistic and technical excellence in the Hindi-language film industry of India.Al The Filmfare ceremony is one of the most famous film events in India. The awards were first introduced by th ...

for the song "Nazar Ke Saamne" in the latter. In the following decades he emerged as a leading lyricist in

Hindi films Hindi cinema, popularly known as Bollywood and formerly as Bombay cinema, refers to the film industry based in Mumbai, engaged in production of motion pictures in Hindi language. The popular term Bollywood, is a portmanteau of "Bombay" (fo ...

, writing the lyrics for over 500 films (4,000 songs). According to Sameer, his inspirations have been lyricists

Majrooh Sultanpuri Asrar ul Hassan Khan (1 October 1919 − 24 May 2000), better known as Majrooh Sultanpuri, was an Indian Urdu poet and lyricist in India's Hindi language film industry. He wrote Hindustani lyrics for numerous Hindi film soundtracks. He was ...

and Anand Bakshi, and his father, Anjaan. He has said on several occasions, "Whatever I am today is only because of my father." Sameer won two additional

in 1993 and 1994; one for the song "Teri Umeed Tera Intezaar" from the movie '' Deewana'', and the second for the song "Ghunghat Ki Aad" from ''

Hum Hain Rahi Pyar Ke ''Hum Hain Rahi Pyar Ke'' () is a 1993 Indian romantic comedy-drama film, directed by Mahesh Bhatt and produced by Tahir Hussain, with screenplay written by Aamir Khan and Robin Bhatt, and with a musical score by Nadeem-Shravan. It stars Aamir ...

''. In 1998, he won

Zee Cine Award The Zee Cine Award (ZCA) is an Indian awards ceremony for the Hindi film industry. They were instituted in November 1997 to award "Excellence in cinema - the democratic way". They were first held in Mumbai until 2004, when the ZCA went interna ...

for "Kuch Kuch Hota Hai" from '' Kuch Kuch Hota Hai''. Some of his most successful songs include songs in films like ''

Beta Beta (, ; uppercase , lowercase , or cursive ; grc, βῆτα, bē̂ta or ell, βήτα, víta) is the second letter of the Greek alphabet. In the system of Greek numerals, it has a value of 2. In Modern Greek, it represents the voiced labiod ...

'', ''

Saajan ''Saajan'' () is a 1991 Indian Hindi-language romantic drama film directed by Lawrence D'Souza and produced by Sudhakar Bokade. It stars Sanjay Dutt, Madhuri Dixit and Salman Khan in lead roles, with Kader Khan, Reema Lagoo and Laxmikant Berde ...

'', '' Raja Babu'', '' Coolie No. 1'', ''

Raja Hindustani ''Raja Hindustani/Prema Bandham''(/ప్రేమ బంధం) is a 1996 Indian Hindi-language romantic drama film directed by Dharmesh Darshan. It tells the story of a cab driver from a small town who falls in love with a rich young woman. ...

'', ''

Anjaam ''Anjaam'' () is a 1994 Indian Hindi-language psychological thriller film directed by Rahul Rawail. It stars Madhuri Dixit and Shah Rukh Khan in lead roles, with Tinnu Anand, Johnny Lever, Kalpana Iyer, Himani Shivpuri, Sudha Chandran, Beena, ...

'', '' Kuch Kuch Hota Hai'', ''

Fiza ''Fiza'', also known as ''Fiza: In Search Of Her Brother'', is a 2000 Indian Hindi-language crime thriller film written and directed by Khalid Mohammed. It stars Karisma Kapoor as the eponymous lead, along with Hrithik Roshan as her terrorist ...

'', ''

Dhadkan Dhadkan may refer to: * ''Dhadkan'' (1946 film), a 1946 Bollywood film * ''Dhakhan'' (2000 film), a 2000 Indian romantic drama film * ''Dhadkan'' (2017 film), a 2017 Indian Bhojpuri action-romance-comedy film * ''Dhadkan'' (TV series), an I ...

'', ''

Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham ''Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham...'' (Sometimes Happiness, Sometimes Sadness), also known by the initialism ''K3G'', is a 2001 Indian Hindi-language family-drama film written and directed by Karan Johar and produced by Yash Johar. The film stars ...

'', ''

Devdas ''Devdas'' ( bn, দেবদাস, transliterated as ''Debdās'') is a Bengali romance novel written by Sarat Chandra Chatterjee. The story pivots a tragic triangle linking Devdas, an archetypal lover in viraha (separation); Paro, his forbidd ...

'', '' Raaz'', ''

Dil Hai Tumhaara ''Dil Hai Tumhaara'' (English: ''My Heart Is Yours'') is a 2002 Indian Hindi romantic drama film directed by Kundan Shah starring Rekha, Preity Zinta, Mahima Chaudhry, Arjun Rampal, Jimmy Sheirgill and Alok Nath. The film was promoted as a sta ...

'', ''

Ishq Vishk ''Ishq Vishk'' ( ''Love Shmove'') is a 2003 Indian Hindi-language coming-of-age romantic comedy film starring Shahid Kapoor in his debut film performance, Amrita Rao, Shenaz Treasurywala, Yash Tonk, Satish Shah and Vishal Malhotra. It is abou ...

'', ''

Dil Maange More ''Dil Maange More!!!'' () is a 2004 Indian Hindi-language romantic comedy film directed by Anant Mahadevan and produced by Fourth Wall Productions. it features Shahid Kapoor, Ayesha Takia, Tulip Joshi, Soha Ali Khan (in her film debut), Gulshan ...

'', ''

Tere Naam ''Tere Naam'' () is a 2003 Indian Hindi-language romantic tragedy film directed by Satish Kaushik. Written by Bala and Jainendra Jain, the film stars Salman Khan and Bhumika Chawla in her Hindi film debut. It is a remake of Bala's own ...

'', '' Asambhav'', ''

Fida ''Fida'' (translation: ''Infatuated'') is a 2004 Indian romantic thriller film released on 20 August 2004. The film is directed by Ken Ghosh and stars Fardeen Khan, Kareena Kapoor and Shahid Kapoor. The film was a box office bomb. Plot Someb ...

'', ''

No Entry One-way traffic (or uni-directional traffic) is traffic that moves in a single direction. A one-way street is a street either facilitating only one-way traffic, or designed to direct vehicles to move in one direction. One-way streets typical ...

'', ''

Aksar ''Aksar'' () is a 2006 Indian Hindi-language erotic drama thriller film directed by Anant Mahadevan and produced by Narendra and Shyam Bajaj under the banner of Siddhi Vinayak Creations. The film stars Emraan Hashmi, Udita Goswami and Dino ...

'', ''

Dhoom 2 ''Dhoom 2'' (trans. Blast 2) is a 2006 Indian Hindi-language action thriller film directed by Sanjay Gadhvi and written by Vijay Krishna Acharya, based on a story by producer Aditya Chopra, who backed the film at an estimated budget of unde ...

'', ''

Saawariya ''Saawariya'' () is a 2007 Indian Hindi-language romance film produced and directed by Sanjay Leela Bhansali, based on Fyodor Dostoevsky's 1848 short story ''White Nights''. The film marked the debut of Ranbir Kapoor and Sonam Kapoor. Rani M ...

'', ''

Race Race, RACE or "The Race" may refer to: * Race (biology), an informal taxonomic classification within a species, generally within a sub-species * Race (human categorization), classification of humans into groups based on physical traits, and/or s ...

'', ''

Damadamm! ''Damadamm!'' () is a 2011 Bollywood romantic comedy film directed by Swapna Waghmare Joshi. The film stars Himesh Reshammiya opposite Sonal Sehgal and Purbi Joshi in lead roles. Reshammiya plays a scriptwriter who is fed up of his girlfriend wh ...

'', ''

Housefull 2 ''Housefull 2'', sometimes called ''Housefull 2: The Dirty Dozen'', is an 2012 Indian Hindi-language action comedy film written and directed by Sajid Khan. Brothers Sajid Samji and Farhad Samji co-wrote the film under their duo Sajid-Farhad, ba ...

'', ''

Rowdy Rathore ''Rowdy Rathore'' is a 2012 Indian Hindi-language action comedy film directed by Prabhu Deva and produced by Sanjay Leela Bhansali and Ronnie Screwvala under the UTV Motion Pictures and Bhansali Productions banners. A remake of the 2006 Telugu f ...

'', ''

Son of Sardaar ''Son of Sardaar'' is a 2012 Indian Hindi-language action comedy film directed by Ashwni Dhir. A remake of 2010 Telugu film ''Maryada Ramanna'' directed by S. S. Rajamouli, it featured Ajay Devgn, Sanjay Dutt, Sonakshi Sinha and Juhi Chawla ...

'', ''

Dabangg 2 ''Dabangg 2'' () is a 2012 Indian Hindi-language action comedy film co-produced with and directed by Arbaaz Khan in his directorial debut, who co-produced the film with Malaika Arora. Its story is set in Kanpur and written by Dilip Shukla. ''D ...

'', ''

Balmaa ''Balmaa'' is a 1993 Hindi-language film directed by Lawrence D'Souza. It stars Avinash Wadhavan, Ayesha Jhulka, Saeed Jaffrey, Anjana Mumtaz in pivotal roles. ''Balmaa'' is a not proper Hindi word, but in India people often use the word balma ...

, and more. The music composer duo Nadeem-Shravan chose Sameer as their lyricist for most of their works
Sameer
authored more than 950 under the music composition of famous music composer duo

Anand–Milind Anand and Milind Srivastava are a duo of Indian film music composers. Born to composer Chitragupt, they have composed music for over 200 Bollywood films. The brothers debuted in 1984 with ''Ab Ayega Mazaa'' and had their major breakthrough with ' ...

. Sameer has also worked with other music directors like

Rajesh Roshan Rajesh Roshan Lal Nagrath (born 24 May 1955) is an Indian Hindi cinema music director and composer. He is the son of music director Roshan and singer Ira Roshan. Personal life Rajesh Roshan has a Punjabi Hindu father and Bengali Brahmin m ...

Uttam Singh Uttam Singh (born 25 May 1948) is an Indian music director and a well-known violinist. He has also worked as a music arranger, programmer and recordist for many Bollywood films. He worked as a music assistant for Ilaiyaraaja in numerous Tamil fi ...

Ilayaraja Ilaiyaraaja (born R. Gnanathesikan, 3 June 1943) is an Indian musician, composer, arranger, conductor, orchestrator, instrumentalist, lyricist and singer, popular for his works in Indian Cinema, prominently in Tamil films. Reputed to be one of ...

Jatin–Lalit Jatin–Lalit are an Indian film music director duo consisting of Jatin Pandit and his brother Lalit Pandit. They have written the widely popular scores for films such as '' Yaara Dildara'', '' Khiladi'', ''Jo Jeeta Wohi Sikandar'', ''Kabhi Ha ...

, Dilip Sen-Sameer Sen, Nikhil-Vinay,

Anu Malik Anwar Sardar "Anu" Malik (born 2 November 1960) is an Indian music composer, singer, music arranger and score composer. He is an Indian National Award and Filmfare Award winning musician, who primarily composes music for the Hindi film indus ...

Aadesh Shrivastava Aadesh Shrivastava (4 September 1964 – 5 September 2015) was a music composer and singer of Indian music. Initially, he had worked as a drummer to music composers including R. D. Burman, Rajesh Roshan before working independently as a music d ...

Anand Raj Anand Anand Raaj Anand is an Indian composer, lyricist and playback singer in the Hindi film industry. He was nominated for the Best Music Director Filmfare Award for ''Kaante'' (2003). Early life Anand Raj was born on 8 November 1961 in Delhi in ...

, Viju Shah,

A. R. Rahman Allah Rakha Rahman (; born A. S. Dileep Kumar; 6 January 1967) is an Indian music composer, record producer, singer and songwriter, popular for his works in Indian cinema; predominantly in Tamil and Hindi films, with occasional forays in int ...

, Vidyasagar, Himesh Reshammiya,

Ismail Darbar Ismail Darbar is an Indian film score composer, instrumentalist, violinist and music director. Career Ismail Darbar is from Surat, Gujarat. He worked for several years as a session violinist for leading music directors Laxmikant Pyarelal, ...

Bappi Lahiri Bappi Aparesh Lahiri (born Alokesh Aparesh Lahiri; 27 November 1952 – 15 February 2022), also known as Bappi Da was an Indian singer, composer and record producer. He popularised the use of synthesised disco music in Indian music industry and ...

Vishal–Shekhar Vishal–Shekhar are an Indian music composer, production, singing and songwriting duo consisting of Vishal Dadlani and Shekhar Ravjiani from Mumbai. Known predominantly for their work as music composers in Hindi cinema, Vishal–Shekhar have a ...

Monty Sharma Monty Sharma (born 17 April 1970) is a music composer from India scoring music for Bollywood. He is popular for being the background music composer for ''Black'' (2005), '' Ram-Leela'' (2013) and music director for ''Saawariya'' (2007). He is cou ...

, Shankar–Ehsaan–Loy,

Sajid–Wajid Sajid–Wajid was an Indian Bollywood Hindi film music director duo consisting of brothers Sajid Khan and Wajid Khan, the sons of Sharafat Ali Khan, a tabla player. Wajid Khan, the younger of the two brothers, died on June 1, 2020. Since th ...

Pritam Pritam Chakraborty (born 14 June 1971), also known mononymously as Pritam, is an Indian composer, instrumentalist, guitarist, and singer. After working as an ad jingles composer, he debuted as a co-composer in the 2001 Hindi film Tere Liye. ...

, Sanjeev-Darshan,

Sachin–Jigar Sachin–Jigar is an Indian music composer duo consisting of Sachin Sanghvi and Jigar Saraiya. They compose for Hindi and Gujarati language films. They have scored a number of successful soundtracks in recent times. Before working independently ...

, and

Adnan Sami Adnan Sami Khan (born 15 August 1971) is an Indian singer, musician, music composer and pianist. He performs Indian and Western music, including for Hindi, Kannada, Telugu and Tamil movies. He has been awarded with Padma Shri (India's fourth hi ...

Personal life

Sameer is married to Anita Pandey and the couple have three children: daughters Sanchita and Suchita, and son Siddhesh. His mother, Indira Pandey, lives with them. A biography, ''Sameer – A Way with Words'' by Derek Bose, was released by

Amitabh Bachchan Amitabh Bachchan (; born as Amitabh Shrivastav; 11 October 1942) is an Indian actor, film producer, television host, occasional playback singer and former politician known for his work in Hindi cinema. He is regarded as one of the most succe ...

in 2007.

Filmography as lyricist

Due to Sameer's large number of works, this is an incomplete list.

Albums

Awards and nominations

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sameer Anjaan Living people Year of birth missing (living people) 20th-century Indian composers 21st-century Indian composers Banaras Hindu University alumni Indian lyricists Musicians from Varanasi