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Gopal Singh Nepali (born Gopal Bahadur Singh; 11 August 1911 – 17 April 1963) was an Indian poet of Hindi literature and a lyricist of Bollywood. He was the son of Rel Bahadur Singh and Saraswati. He was born on 11 August 1911, on the birthday of Lord Krishna (Krishna Janmashtami), which got him his name. His association with Bollywood spanned around two decades, beginning in 1944 and ended with his death in 1963, penning songs for around 51 films, he had a successful collaboration with music director Chitragupta Srivastava for whom he wrote songs the maximum in his career.
He was a poet of post-Chhayavaad period, and he wrote several collections of Hindi poems including "Umang" (published in 1933). The names of famous poetry collections such as Umang, Ragini, panchhi, Neelima, Himalaya ne Pukara etc. are notable in their important works. He also wrote collections of Nepali poem as 'Kalpana'. He was also a journalist and edited at least four Hindi magazines, namely, Ratlam Times, Chitrapat, Sudha, and Yogi.
He was very respected along with his contemporaries Mahadevi Verma, Sumitranandan Pant, Suryakant Tripathi, Ramdhari Sigh Dinkar etc. His works have been included in course of different universities of India. He was born in Bettiah in the state of Bihar. During Sino-Indian War of 1962, he wrote many patriotic songs and poems which include Savan. He died at a premature age of 51 on 17 April 1963 in Bhagalpur Railway Junction platform no. 2.
Filmography as a film lyricist Year Film Songs written Music Director(s)Notes1945Begum9 (All)Hari Prasanna DasMazdoor6 (All)19468 Days3-5Sachin Dev BurmanShikari11 (All)Safar10 (All)Ramchandra Narhar Chitalkar1947Ahinsa2Leela51948Aap Beeti1HaribhaiChaubeji alias Hip Hip HurrayAt least 3Hanuman PrasadAnokha Pyar1Anil Krishna BiswasGajre10 (All)Hum Bhi Insan Hain10 (All)Hari Prasanna Das & Manna Dey1949Kamal3Sachin Dev BurmanMain Abala Nahin Hoon9 (All)M. Golwalkar & Shanta ApteNazrana5 (All)Ramchandra Narhar Chitalkar1952Bhakt Puran3Chitragupta Srivastava1953Naag Panchami7 (All)1954Durga Puja2Shri Nath TripathiKhushboo11 (All)Shankar DasguptaRaj Yogi BharthariAt least 2Shankar Rao VyasTilottama8 (All)Shri Nath TripathiSaltanat4Chitragupta SrivastavaShivratri8 (All)Toote Khilone1 or 2Tulsidas10 (All)1955Mahasati Savitri9 (All)Navratri6Raj Kanya8 (All)Rajdarbar2Sati Madalsa9 (All)Shiv Bhakta14 (All)Shri Ganesh Vivah4Shree Krishna Bhakti8 (All)Waman Avtar alias Bali Raja6Avinash Anandrai VyasVeer Rajputani9 (All)Bulo C. Rani 1956 Aabroo 2Gauri Puja8 (All)Manna DeyJayshri7Chitragupta SrivastavaTalwar Ka Dhani3Sati Naagkanya3Shri Nath TripathiSudarshan Chakra8 (All)Avinash Anandrai Vyas1957Nag Lok2Ram Lal HeerapannaNarsi Bhagat11 (All)Ravi Shankar SharmaOne of the songs of this film "Darshan Do Ghanshyam" sung by Manna Dey, Hemant Kumar & Sudha Malhotra appeared in a quiz question in the Oscar-winning film Slumdog Millionaire (2008). The lead character of the film Jamal Malik (Dev Patel) was asked to identify the poet who wrote this song and answered Surdas. According to the quizmaster of the film Prem Kumar (Anil Kapoor), this was the right answer. However, in reality, the song was actually written by Gopal Singh Nepali, inspired by the words of the 15th century Gujarati poet Narsinh Mehta, whose biopic this film was. Music director Ravi sued the makers of Slumdog Millionaire & demanded damages of Rs. 20 crores for using this song in their film without his permission. The hook lines of the song "Vaishnav Jan Toh Tene Kahiye" (Part 2) sung by Manna Dey were taken from a poem written by Narsinh Mehta, the remaining lyrics were penned by Gopal Singh Nepali.Neelmani4Chitragupta SrivastavaPavan Putra Hanuman61958Maya Bazaar5Naag Champa3Manna Dey1959Nai Raahen2Ravi Shankar Sharma1961ApsaraAt least 2Husnlal-BhagatramJai Bhavani alias Rajput Ramani8 (All)Mohinder Singh Sarna1966Sunehre Kadam2Bulo C. RaniPosthomous release
Further reading Tikaram Upadhyaya. Gopal Singh Nepali (Nepali and Hindi poet), Sahitya Akademi,
References
External links Poet Gopal Singh Nepali devoted to the nation. Deshbandhu. Gopal Singh Nepali. anubhuti-hindi.org Popular national poet. Jagran. Gopal Singh Nepali. kavitakosh.org. Songs of Gopal Singh Nepali as a lyricist. Smriti.com. Remembering Poet Gopal Singh Nepali. : Bhaskar.