Vanraj Bhatia

Vanraj Bhatia is one of India's most prolific and most accomplished composers and music directors. In addition to the scores of more than 40 Bollywood films and eight television series, Bhatia has composed more than 7,000 advertising jingles. Although he had difficulty breaking into the mainstream, Bhatia enjoyed a long, illustrious career. Four decades after he wrote his first jingle -- for Shakti Silk Sarees -- he was still recording and released an album, Ritika, in 1999 at the age of 72. Bhatia studied music at Elphinstone College, where he earned a master's in English with honors, and the Royal Academy of Music in London, where he received a gold medal. He continued to study at the Paris Conservatoire, where he worked with influential composer/teacher Nadia Boulanger from 1954 until 1959. The recipient of a Bengal Film Journalists' award for his work on films Bhumika, in 1976, and Manthan the following year, Bhatia received the President's Gold Medal for his work on Tomas in 1988 and the prestigious Sangeet Natak Academy award in 1989.