Qateel Shifai

Muhammad Aurangzeb or Qateel Shifai (24 December 1919 – 11 July 2001) was a Pakistani Urdu poet and lyricist.

Qateel Shifai was born in Haripur District as Muhammad Aurangzeb in 1919 in British India (now Pakistan).

He was of Hindkowan background.

Due to his father's death in 1935, Qateel was forced to quit his higher education.

He started his own sporting goods shop.

He adopted Qateel Shifai as his pen name in 1938, under which he was known in the world of Urdu poetry.

"Qateel" was his "takhallus" and "Shifai" was in honour of his ustaad (teacher) Hakeem Mohammed Yahya Shifa Khanpuri, whom he considered his mentor.

"In 1946, he was called to Lahore by Nazir Ahmed to work as the assistant editor of the monthly 'Adab-e-Latif', a literary magazine published since 1936. His first ghazal was published in the Lahore weekly 'Star', edited by the poet Qamar Ajnalvi."

Being unsuccessful in his business, he decided to move from his small town to Rawalpindi, where he started working for a transport company and later joined the Pakistani film industry in 1947 as a film song lyricist.

"His father was a businessman and there was no tradition of sher-o-shayari in his family. Initially, he showed his poetry to Hakeem Yahya Shifa Khanpuri for correction and advice. Qateel derived his poetic surname 'shifai' from him. Later, he became the disciple of Ahmad Nadeem Qasmi who was his friend and neighbor."

In January 1947, Qateel was asked to write the songs of a film by a Lahore-based film producer, Dewan Sardari Lal.

The first film he penned the lyrics for was Teri Yaad (1948) in Pakistan.

Later, after working for some time as assistant lyricist to some of the famous poets/lyricists of the time (1948 to 1955 time period), he eventually became a highly successful film lyricist of Pakistan and won numerous awards over the years for his film song lyrics despite a crowded field of competitors in those days.

Among his contemporaries were poets like Kaifi Azmi, Amrita Pritam, Majrooh Sultanpuri, Sahir Ludhianvi, Majaz Lucknawi, Tanvir Naqvi, Saifuddin Saif, Ahmad Faraz and Muhammad Hasan Askari.

Qateel Shifai produced a film in his mother language—Hindko—in 1970.

It was the first Hindko film which was named "Qissa Khwani".

The film was released in 1980.

In 1988, Qateel Shifai started work on his autobiography "Ghungroo Toot Gaye" with the assistance of his pupil, now a famous Urdu poet, Naeem Chishti.

This was a long project and took quite a few years to be completed.

Qateel Shifai died on 11 July 2001 in Lahore, Pakistan.

Over 20 collections of verse and over 2,500 film songs for Pakistani and Indian films were published.

He wrote songs for 201 Pakistani and Indian films.

His talent crossed the borders.

His poetry has been translated into numerous languages including Hindi, Gujarati, English, Russian and Chinese.

He died on 11 July 2001 in Lahore.

The street on which he lived in Lahore has been named Qateel Shifai Street after him.

There is also a sector of Haripur city that has been named after him – Mohallah Qateel Shifai.

Includes both Pakistani and Indian films.

The book was finally published after his death by his son Naveed Qateel in 2006.

The book broke out many hidden facts about film industry and literary circles and revealed some interesting facts from the personal lives of legendary personalities like Sahir Ludhianvi, Noor Jehan and Iqbal Bano.

On Qateel Shifai's 11th death anniversary in 2012, in an interview to a major newspaper, a prominent literary figure Dr Salahuddin Darvesh said, "Shifai was one of those great poets of 20th century who had gained international recognition."