| Qateel Shifai | |
|---|---|
| Born | Aurangzeb Khan December 24, 1919 Haripur District, N.W.F.P, Pakistan |
| Died | July 11, 2001 (aged 81) Lahore, Punjab, Pakistan |
| Pen name | Qateel Shifai |
| Occupation | Urdu poet, Lyricist |
| Nationality | Pakistani |
| Genres | Ghazal |
| Notable award(s) | Pride of Performance, 1994 |
| Children | Pervaiz Qateel Musarat Butt, Tanveer Qateel, Samina Khurshid, Naveed Qateel |
| Relative(s) | Col.Ahmed Fraz Khan son in law of his daughter Musarat butt |
Career
He adopted Qateel Shifai as his pen name in 1938 under which he was known in the world of Urdu poetry. “Qateel” was his “takhallus” and “Shifai” was in honour of his ustaad(master) Hakeem Mohammed ‘Shifa’ whom he considered his mentor.
Due to his father’s early death, Qateel was forced to quit his education. He started his own sporting goods shop. Being unsuccessful in his business he decided to move to Rawalpindi, where he started working for a transport company and earned about 60 Rupees a month.
In 1946, he was called to Lahore by Nazir Ahmed to work as the assistant editor of the monthly ‘Adab-e-Latif’, a literary magazine published since 1936. His first ghazal was published in the Lahore weekly ‘Star’, edited by Qamar Jalalabadi.
In January 1947, Qateel was asked to pen the songs of a film by a Lahore based film producer. The first film he penned the lyrics for was “Teri Yaad”. After that there was no looking back and initially, after working for some time as assistant lyricist to some of the famous poets/lyricists of the time (c.1947-48 to 1956-57), he eventually became a regular film lyricist and won numerous awards in due course. Wiki
