Jagjit Kaur

Jagjit Kaur is a singer who was born in 1931 in Punjab. She is popular for her Ghazals and folk songs. Besides these, she has crooned songs in Hindi films. She had also sung Urdu songs. She is one of the important contemporaries of Lata Mangeshkar and Asha Bhosle. Although Jagjit Kaur has crooned a few songs, most of them are hits. Jagjit was active in the film industry from 1950 to 1990. Bollywood’s popular music director, Mohammed Zahur Khayyam, is her husband and got married in 1954. It is said that theirs is the first inter-communal wedding in the film industry. Jagjit’s father didn’t accept her marriage with Khayyam. Jagjit and Khayyam had a son, Pradeep Khayyam. Pradeep died on 25^th March 2012, due to a heart attack. After Pradeep’s death, Jagjit and Khayyam started a trust named Khayyam Jagjit Kaur KPG Charitable Trust and started helping the needy technicians and artists. On 19^th August 2019, Mohammed Zahur Khayyam died due to a massive cardiac arrest. He was 92.

Jagjit Kaur not only sang in the films but also in the TV serials. She was the associate music director for the series “Dard” and crooned a song with Bhupinder. The series was directed and produced by Neena Gupta, who also played the lead role. Jagjit’s first movie debut was in a Punjabi film, Posti, in 1950. In 1953, she made her Bollywood debut with the film Dil E Nadaan. Shagoon, the 1964 movie, got her enough recognition and the super hit song in the film Tum Apna Ranj O Gham took her to heights. It is to be noted that her husband, Mohammed Zahur Khayyam, identified her talent when singing a classical song in a musical concert. It was he who brought her to the film industry. Under his music composition, she sang in Shola Aur Shabnam along with Mohammed Rafi. The former Indian PM, Dr. Manmohan Singh, is a classmate of Jagjit Kaur.