MUMBAI:

Veteran Bollywood composer Naushad Ali, who wrote the music for some of India’s biggest film box-office hits, died in hospital on May 5 after a heart attack, medical officials said.

Naushad, 86 was a pioneer in introducing Hindustani classical and North-Indian folk music to the cinema. He started his Bollywood career with Prem Nagar in 1940, and a string of successes followed. He composed music for blockbusters like Oscar-nominated Mother India, Mughal-e-Azam and Pakeezah.

In 1981, Naushad received India’s top government cinema award, the Dadasaheb Phalke Award, for his lifetime contribution — 68 movies over six decades, half of them major money-spinners. His last work was for Taj Mahal-An Eternal Love Story in 2005.

Naushad introduced singers Lata Mangeshkar and Mohammed Rafi to Bollywood movies. “I was a complete newcomer when he gave me a break in 1947. He was good natured and had a kind word for everyone,” Lata Mangeshkar told AajTak television.

Naushad was considered one of the first in the industry to introduce sound-mixing and the separate recording of voice and music tracks in playback singing.