Veteran poet and lyricist Dev Kohli, who wrote more than a hundred of songs in Bollywood, took his last breath today at the age of 81. He was admitted in Kokilaben Dhirubhai Ambani Hospital, Mumbai since three months for age-related issues. He breathed his last today at 4:00 am. As per reports, the funeral will be held at his home on Saturday, August 26, at Jupiter Apartment, Mumbai at 2 pm while the last rites will be conducted at Oshiwara Crematorium, Jogeshwari West at around 6 pm today.
Dev Kohli rose to fame with the song “Geet Gaata Hoon Main” from the film ‘Laal Patthar’ (1971). The song became instantly successful. Unfortunately, many songs that he wrote in ’80s went unnoticed. Later, he again caught attention with the songs “Aate Jaate Hanste Gaate”, “Kabootar Ja Ja” and “Aaja Shaam Hone Aayi” from the film ‘Maine Pyaar Kiya’ in 1989.
From then on, he rose to fame again. He worked extensively with composer Anu Malik and penned chartbusters numbers like “Yeh Kaali Kaali Aankhen” from ‘Baazigar’ (1993), “Dekho Dekho Jaanam Hum” from ‘Ishq’ (1997), “Dil Mujhse Judaa Kyun Hua” from ‘Hameshaa’ (1997) and “Ab Tak Hai Puri Aazadi” from ‘Kudrat’ (1998) with Rajesh Roshan.
Dev Kohli worked with popular composers from time to time like Raam-Laxman, Anand Raaj Anand and Anand-Milind. In recent times, he had also worked in films like ‘Taxi No. 9.2.11’ (2006), ‘Shootout At Lokhandwala’ (2007) and ‘Judwaa 2’ (2017).
Due to Dev Kohli’s immense talent, he was nominated for many prestigious accolades like Filmfare Awards, IIFA Awards and Zee Cine Awards.
