Manoj Muntashir

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Manoj Muntashir is an Indian lyricist, poet, and screenwriter. He has written the popular Bollywood songs: Galliyan, Tere Sang Yaara, Kaun Tujhe, and Teri Mitti.He began writing poetry in his hometown during his school days. He began reciting his poetry after his friends took him to a Mushaira..After Manojs father left his job around 1985, his mother took charge of the house expenses and started working as a teacher at a school with Rs. 500 per month as her salary. Out of the salary, her mother spent Rs. 300 in his tuitions and spent the rest of the amount on the household.His mother was very doting towards him. She used to say- Honge bahot log duniya me, mere Manu jaisa koi nahi hai (There might be many people in the world, but theres no one like her Manu) This used to embarrass Manoj as he used to think that he was an ordinary boy with no special skills. Childhood Picture of Manoj Muntashir with his Mother.Since his childhood, he liked reading and writing. While studying in middle school, he got a book of Mirza Ghalib titled Diwan-e-Ghalib. It was difficult for him to read the book as he did not know Urdu. Manoj believed that he needed to know Urdu to write poems. One day, he brought a 2-rupees book from a nearby mosque; the book had Urdu translations in Hindi.His interest in writing poetry came through a book of Sahir Ludhianvi, which led him to pursue writing as his profession. According to Manoj, From childhood, I was registering the words most when I heard any film song, and soon Sahir Ludhianvi and Shailendra became my favourites.After his graduation in 1999, he moved to Mumbai with just Rs. 700 in his pocket to seek a job. In Mumbai, he was given the work of writing a Bhajan after he met Anup Jalota. He had never written a Bhajan before, but he took the work as he needed money. He was given a check of Rs. 3000 for the Bhajan he wrote for Anup; it was his first salary in Mumbai.Before he moved to Mumbai, he changed his last name to Muntashir (a scattered soul). He took the moniker because he believed that no poet ever used that name and it was unique to him.Before moving to Mumbai, he worked for All India Radio Allahabad (Prayagraj) on a salary of Rs. 135 in 1997.In 2004, he was commissioned to pen down the songs for the film Rang Rasiya, which was released in 2014, almost a decade later due to some problems.