Avinash Vyas

Gujarat, India

Avinash Vyas was born in the Indian state of Gujarat on 21 July 1912 and had his initial music training under Ustad Allauddin Khan. His career started with HMV for their Young India label where he cut his first gramophone record in 1940 and debuted as a film music composer in with the Gujarati film, Mahasati Ansuya in 1943, partnering the renowned musician, Ustad Alla Rakha.Two more films were released the next year, Krishna Bhakta Bodana and Laheri Badmash but both were not successful. His first major hit came in 1948 with Gunsundari, a bilingual in Gujarati and Hindi.

Vyas composed music for over 1200 songs for 190 Hindi and Gujarati films during his career, his total contribution exceeding 10,000 songs including non film songs. Most of the major singers of that era such as Geeta Dutt, Mohammed Rafi, Lata Mangeshkar, Asha Bhosle, Suman Kalyanpur, Manna Dey, Mukesh, Hemant Kumar, Talat Mehmood, Kishore Kumar, Mahendra Kapoor and Usha Mangeshkar sang his compositions in various movies. He tuned the lines of several noted lyricists like Qamar Jalalabadi, Indeevar, Bharat Vyas and Raja Mehdi Ali Khan. Geeta Dutt was one of his favorite singers and she sang in more Gujarati films than in Bengali films where she originally came from.