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Raajesh Johri
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Raajesh Johri (19 June 1952 – 1 March 2017) was an Indian Poet, Lyricist, Ad Film Maker, Voice Over Artist and Anchor based in Mumbai India. Johri"s notable works as a lyricist include "Pari Hoon Main" by Sunita Rao, Colonial Cousins by Hariharan and Leslie Lewis, "Subah subha jab khidki khole" by Jojo, "Tere Mann Mein Ram" by Anup Jalota. Famous works as an ad/jingle writer include Action Shoes ("Action ka School time"), Nirma Bathing Soap ("Saundarya Saabun Nirma"), Vicco Vajradanti, Dabur Lal Dant Manjan and many more.
Career :
1972–1990 :
Raajesh"s first song was sung by Chandru Atma, "Chanchal Nain Tihare" and soon after that his career picked up beautifully crossing milestone after milestone. Soon after this bhajans, "Hari ka Dhyan Laga", "Mere Shyam Tera Naam" and "Mann Re Tan Hai Dukh Ka Gaon" were sung by Mohammed Rafi which became quite popular.
Johri gave his voice for numerous ad-jingles of that era namely Ajanta watches for Ajanta Group, Nescafe and "Vardhman Knitting Yarn" For Vardhman Group of Companies. He worked closely with Pandit Vinod Sharma and voice-over legend Ameen Sayani whom he considered his mentors.
As an anchor, he was a regular anchor for Sur Singar Samsad in which he shared stage with the best of artists and musicians such as Bismillah Khan, Ram Narayan, Kavita Krishnamurthy, Suresh Wadkar etc.
Johri Penned numerous bhajans for Anup Jalota of which "Hey Sharde Maa", "Tere Tan Mein Ram", "Jo Tu Mitana Chahe" and many more. Another very popular album by Johri was "Baby Doll" by Alisha Chinai.
1990–2017 :
Johri created niche for himself in the world of Indian pop (Indie Pop). It will not be wrong to call him one of the pioneers of this genre called "Indie Pop".
It was in 1990 that the album "Dhuan" by Sunita Rao released, composed by Lesle Lewis which contained the song, "Pari Hoon Main", which is an iconic song of the pop era.
The album Halka Nasha was very well received which had ghazals sung by Hariharan, penned by Johri.
The song "Sa Ni Dha Pa" from the Colonial Cousins, a fusion album by Hariharan and Leslie Lewis was the first ever offering that was a part of MTV Unplugged.
The album "Dil Chaahe" by Shiamak Davar was also amongst his popular works.
His songs sung by JoJo, "Woh Kaun Thi" and "Subah Subah Jab Khidki Khole" were milestones.
He penned numerous bhajans and hymns for different religious sects namely Roman Catholic Church, Jain sect, Swaminarayan Sect and many others.
He penned title songs for tele-serials like Koshish (TV series), Chandan Ka Palna Resham Ki Dori, Ghar Ek Mandir, Saara Akaash, Chittod Ki Rani Padmini Ka Johur and many others.
He used to write the script of the famous TV Show Rangoli (TV series) produced by National Film Development Corporation of India anchored by Hema Malini, directed by Ramesh Talwar. The same show was later produced by Doordarshan Kendra Mumbai, anchored by Jaya Bhattacharya and Shweta Tiwari.
He has worked as a lyricist with renowned music directors such as: Kalyanji–Anandji, R. D. Burman, Hariharan, Jagjit Singh, Shankar Mahadevan, Salim–Sulaiman, Bappi Lahiri, Pritam, Anup Jalota, Ashok Patki, Louis Banks, Lesle Lewis, Manna Dey, Datta Naik, Nikhil Kamath, Nikhil-Vinay , Raju Singh, Lt. Murli Manohar Swaroop (HMV), Anil Mohile, Dilip Sen-Sameer Sen, Rajat Dholakia, Dheeraj Dhanak, Vanraj Bhatia, Vaidya Nathan, Bhupinder Singh, Tabun Sutradhar, Ashit Desai, Nishith Mehta etc.
His songs have been sung by well-known singers such as Mohammed Rafi, Asha Bhosle, Mahendra Kapoor, Anup Jalota, Jagjit Singh, Hariharan, Bhupinder Singh Mitali Mukherjee, Suresh Wadkar, Sadhna Sargam, Kavita Krishnamurthy, Anwar (singer), Anuradha Paudwal, Udit Narayan, Kumar Sanu, Babul Supriyo, Abhijeet Bhattacharya, Shreya Ghoshal, Madhushree, Anny Chatterjee, Sudesh Bhosle, Kunal Ganjawala, Usha Uthup, Shaan, Sonu Nigam, Jaspinder Narula, Jojo, Chandrashekhar Gargil, Hari Om Sharan, Nandini Sharan, Kirti-Anurag, Ram Shankar, Alisha Chinai, Kailash Kher, Sunita Rao etc.
He has Anchored Stage Shows For Jagjit Singh, Mahendra Kapoor, Pankaj Udhas, Bhupinder Singh, Anup Jalota, Penaz Masani, Chhaya Ganguli, Abdul Halim Jaffer Khan, Dagar Bandhu, Bismillah Khan, Sitara Devi, Bhajan Sopori, Gopi Krishna (dancer) and many other most reputed artistes of our country.
He has written songs for 13 films including Subhash Ghai"s Mukta Arts "Khanna and Iyer", Suneil Anand"s "Master" and Zee Entertainment Enterprises and so on.
He worked for many online projects in this era of online channels, giving his services as a lyricist, voice over artist and also as a brand ambassador for teleshopping product English Guru. His notable works include "Asian Sky Shop", Theme Songs for Border Security Force, Delhi Police and many more.
He designed programs for online radio channel "2B! Radio"and also contributed as a voice over artist and a script writer.
Awards and Recognition :
~ Johri Received "Best Lyric Writer Award" for the film Aakarshan from "Uttar Pradesh Patrakar Sangh",
~ Lt. R. Venkat Raman the past President of India for writing the BSF Song. "Salam India Award" for excellence in advertising,
~ RAPA (Radio and TV Advertising Practitioners Association Mumbai) award for writing a Radio commercial for the product "Vardhman Knitting Yarn".
~ RAPA Award for writing a Radio Campaign for film Chandni from Yash Raj Films.
~ Award from Cottage Industry Department Government of India for Promotional Speech for Hindi.
~ "Gurjari Award" from Gujarat Association, Mumbai.
~ The Indian Television Academy Awards for "Best Lyricist" for writing the Title track of Chittod Ki Rani Padmini Ka Johur telecast on Sony Entertainment Television.
Death :
Johri suffered from kidney disease since the past few years. As a result of the same, he suffered a cardiac arrest on 1 March 2017 and breathed his last at Bhartiya Arogya Nidhi Hospital in Mumbai.
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