Viju Shah is an Indian music composer. He is the son of the famous veteran music director Kalyanji Virji Shah of the composer duo Kalyanji Anandji. He is widely regarded as the Hans Zimmer of Bollywood due to his exceptional talent for background music and instrumental electronic soundtracks.
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Wiki/Biography
Vijay Kalyanji Shah was born on Friday, 5 June 1959 (64 Years old; as of 2023). He is a Gemini. He composed the music for films like Gupt (1997), for which he was nominated for a Filmfare Award for Best Music Director, and Tridev (1989), Vishwatama (1992), Mohra (1994), and Tere Mere Sapne (1996). Viju Shah is a music director who used synthesizers and electronic music way ahead of his time. Viju Shah usually uses a keyboard to compose. Viju Shah plays numerous synthesizers simultaneously while performing at various Garba/Dandia nights.
Family
Parents & Siblings
Viju is the son of Veteran Music composer Kalyanji Virji Shah. He was raised with four brothers Ramesh, Dinesh, Chandrakant and, Rajesh.
Viju Shah (standing on right) with the duo Kalyanji-Anandji and Rajiv Rai
Wife & Children
Viju Shah is married to Sunanda Shah.
Career
Film
90s
Tridev (1989), an Indian action thriller directed by Rajiv Rai, was Viju Shah’s official film debut.For the 1992 Indian thriller film Vishwatma, which was released in Hindi, he collaborated once more with Rajiv Rai. The musical comedy Andaz Apna Apna (1994) and the horror film Junoon (1992) included Viju Shah’s music. In Mohra (1994), Rajiv Rai and Viju Shah worked together. The songs “Tu Cheez Badi Hai Mast” and “Tip Tip Barsa Pani” are among the most well-known in the movie. The music album went on to sell more than 8 million copies, surpassing Hum Aapke Hain Koun to become the second-highest-selling Bollywood soundtrack album of the year. Viju Shah went on to compose Ravan Raaj: A True Story and Tere Mere Sapne in the years following the popularity of Mohra. The fifth time he worked with Rajiv Rai was on the 1997 film Gupt. He composed songs for almost 35 films during the course of his over 30-year career in the music industry.
Viju Shah(playing Harmonium) along with Kishore Kumar, music director Babla and Lyricist Indeevar while composing the song “Kabhi hoti nahi jiski haar”.
2000s
With the comedy Bade Miyan Chote Miyan (1998) starring David Dhawan, Viju Shah brought in the new millennium.
Latest work
The background music for the 2021 Netflix movie Class of ’83 was written by Viju Shah.
Controversies
Viju Shah and A R Rahman Controversy
Viju Shah has been blamed quite a few times for plagiarism in his work, one allegation that caught the attraction of many people was made by A R Rahman stating that Viju was using his work from the south movies in his songs. Although these allegations were never proved to be either right or wrong, they had a huge impact on Viju Shah’s Career as a music composer.
Awards
- In 1998 Viju Shah won the Best Background Score for the Bollywood movie Gupt: The Hidden Truth at Filmfare Awards.
Viju Shah with his Filmfare award
Facts/Trivia
- In a past interview, Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan discussed Bollywood composers stealing his tunes. The master of Pakistani qawwali claimed that Anu Malik and Viju Shah best copied him.
- Recently his song Tip Tip Barsa Pani was recreated and when asked about it in an interview he said,
From whatever little I have heard of the song, I don’t get a feeling that it’s recreated or sounding very different. It’s almost similar to mine and they have also used the original singers Udit Narayan and Alka Yagnik. So it sounds even more close to the original. A recreation is when you keep the original composition intact but change a bit of the arrangement. But I am happy that even after 27 years, people are enjoying the song and giving it love. “
- Viju Shah started in music at the age of 4-5 by practising on the harmonium.
Viju Shah’s childhood picture playing the Harmonium along with Legendary singer Mukesh and Legendary Composer Kalyanji and his father Virji Shah
- When asked about the reason why he chose to start a career in music he said,
Since my father Kalyanji Virji Shah of the composer duo Kalyanji Anandji was a renowned musician of that era he wanted one of his children to be pursue music. My learning in music was very mechanical until electronics came in 1970s. Eventually, I felt that I should start with this ”
Viju Shah ( in pink shirt on right) with other singers and composers of Bollywood at Anandji’s 90th birthday.
- In 1995, Viju Shah was a judge on the semi-finals episode of the popular reality show Sa Re Ga Ma Pa – Schedule 2, along with Jagjit Kaur, Javed Akhtar, and Usha Khanna.
- During the beginning of his career, he released a solo album named ‘Why not Synthesizers?’.
Categories: Biography
Source: vcmp.edu.vn