Music Director Uttam Singh honoured with ‘Lata Mangeshkar Award for Lifetime Achievement’

Veteran Music director Uttam Singh has been awarded the ‘Lata Mangeshkar Award for Lifetime Achievement’ instituted by the Maharashtra government.

About Lata Mangeshkar Award :

The Lata Mangeshkar Award is a national-level award instituted to honour works in the field of music. Various state governments of India present awards with this name.

• The state Government of Madhya Pradesh started this award in 1984.^[1] The award consists of a certificate of merit and a cash prize. There is also a Lata Mangeshkar Award issued by the Maharashtra Government starting from 1992.
• This is also officially known as “Lata Mangeshkar Award for Lifetime Achievement”. Another award is given by the Andhra Pradesh Government.
• The award presented by the Maharashtra government, the Lata Mangeshkar Award for Lifetime Achievement, consisted of cash reward of Rs.5,00,000, a citation, a trophy and a shawl.

About Uttam Singh :

Uttam Singh is an Indian musician. He has worked as a violinist, music arranger and music director for many Bollywood  He worked as a music arranger for Ilaiyaraaja in numerous Tamil films before establishing himself as an independent composer.

• Uttam Singh worked as violinist for three years. His big break came in 1963, when he worked as a violinist for a documentary being made by Mohammad Safi.
• After this, Uttam Singh played violin for major composers including Naushad, Roshan, Madan Mohan,  Ramchandra, Sachin Dev Burman. Later, he became the main violinist for S D Burman’s son, Rahul Dev Burman.
• Singh later partnered with another musician, Jagdish, toarrange music for The duo became reputed arrangers, working for over 65 films in several Indian languages. These films included major Rajshri Productions hits, Maine Pyar Kiya and Hum Aapke Hain Koun..!. He also worked with Ilaiyaraaja as a music arranger in various Tamil films.
• Singh and Jagdish worked as music directors forManoj Kumar’s Painter Babu. Later they worked for Manoj Kumar’s other film, Clerk . Together, they also worked on the Smita Patil-Raj Babbar-Raj Kiran-Amrita Singh-Amrish Puri starrer, Waaris (1988). After Jagdish died in 1992, Singh started working independently.
• His most notable film as a music director wasYash Chopra’s Dil To Pagal Hai. He also composed music for many other films including Hum Tumpe Marte Hain, Dushman, Farz and Pyaar Diwana Hota Hai. He also composed music for Anil Sharma’s Gadar: Ek Prem Katha (2001) and later for The Hero: Love Story of a Spy.
• His songs and score for the Chandra Prakash Dwivedi’s 2003 partition dramaPinjar, in which he collaborated with the Wadali Brothers, won him much critical acclaim and is considered to be his finest work as composer.