Biography

Walli Sahab was born in Pune, Bihar in old British India in 1908 as Walli Mohammad Khan. Later, his family moved to Panipat, Punjab and then lived in Lahore,Punjab.He started writing poetry when he was quite young. He first started working for Gramophone Company Of India in the early 1930s. In 1935,he decided to enter the Indian film world by writing film song lyrics.He first became famous with the Indian public, when famous music director Ghulam Haider first composed a Naat (religious poem)written by him in 1937 in Lahore..."Paigham saba lai hai gulzar-e-nabi se" and recorded it in vocalist Shamshad Begum's voice.This Naat became instantly popular among the Indian people.This was the pioneering times of sound recording after the Silent Film Era ended in India. Walli Sahab wrote lyrics of film songs for film Gul Bakaoli (1938), Yamla Jat (1940) and Gaon Ki Gori (1945)...also known as Village Girl (1945). By now, he had earned a name for himself for writing lyrics of film songs for many popular films of that era.Walli Sahab also got into producing and directing films and made many films before migrating to Pakistan in 1955. In Pakistan, his first film as producer-director was in Punjabi language...Guddi Gudda (1956 )which became a super hit. After this, he made a couple more films in Pakistan but,then,he started having some health issues (heart trouble) and retired from the film world after a very successful professional career. His younger brother, Nazim Panipati,was also a well-known lyricist of film songs of his time. Walli Sahab died in 1977 in Lahore, Pakistan.
- IMDb mini biography by: Nisar Ahmad Grewal