Viju Shah Wiki, Age, Wife, Family, Biography & More

Viju Shah is an Indian music composer. He is the son of the veteran music director Kalyanji Virji Shah of the composer duo Kalyanji Anandji. He is widely regarded as the Hans Zimmer of Bollywood due to his exceptional talent for background music and instrumental electronic soundtracks.

Wiki/Biography

Vijay Kalyanji Shah was born on Friday, 5 June 1959 (64 Years old; as of 2023). His zodiac sign is Gemini.

Viju Shah’s childhood picture with his mother and brothers

Family

Parents & Siblings

Viju is the son of Veteran Music composer Kalyanji Virji Shah. His mother’s name is Sakarben Kalyanji Shah. He has four brothers, Dinesh, Chandrakant, Ramesh, and Rajesh Shah. Rajesh Shah is a Management Consultant.

Viju Shah (standing left) with the duo Kalyanji-Anandji and Rajiv Rai

Viju Shah mother

Viju Shah’s brother Rajesh K Shah

Viju Shah’s brother Dinesh Shah

Viju Shah’s brother Chandrakant Shah

Wife & Children

Viju Shah got married to Sunanda Shah on 21 May 1983. They have a daughter Priyal Shah, who is the founder and director of Svara Music Studio.

Viju Shah with his wife

Viju Shah with his wife and daughter

Other relatives 

Viju Shah’s grandfather’s name is Virji Premji Dedhia, and his grandmother’s name is Haansbai Virji Dedhia.

Viju Shah’s grandparents

Career (Music Director)

Film

Tridev (1989), an Indian action thriller directed by Rajiv Rai, was Viju Shah’s official film debut as a music director.
Later, he gave many hit songs with catchy tunes including “Tirchi Topiwale” from the film Tridev (1989), “Saat Samundar Paar” from the film Vishwatma (1992), and “Aankh Marey” from the film Tere Mere Sapne (1996).

For the 1992 Indian thriller film Vishwatma, which was released in Hindi, he collaborated once more with Rajiv Rai. The musical comedy Andaz Apna Apna (1994) and the horror film Junoon (1992) included Viju Shah’s music. In Mohra (1994), Rajiv Rai and Viju Shah worked together. The songs “Tu Cheez Badi Hai Mast” and “Tip Tip Barsa Pani” are among the most well-known from the film. The music album went on to sell more than 8 million copies, surpassing Hum Aapke Hain Koun to become the second-highest-selling Bollywood soundtrack album of the year. Viju Shah went on to compose music for the film Ravan Raaj: A True Story and Tere Mere Sapne in the years following the popularity of Mohra. The fifth time he worked with Rajiv Rai was on the 1997 film Gupt. He composed songs for almost 35 films during the course of his over 30-year-long career in the music industry.

Viju Shah (playing the Harmonium) with Kishore Kumar, music director Babla, and lyricist Indeevar while composing the song “Kabhi hoti nahi jiski haar”

OTT

Viju Shah gave the background music to the 2021 Netflix movie Class of ’83.

Controversy

Plagiarism issues

Viju Shah has often been criticized for borrowing music from other musicians, especially Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan. In an interview, he talked about these plagiarism issues and clarified,

There’s not much one can do if directors present us with a song and instruct us to abide by that template. Then what we do is alter it a bit, present it to the filmmaker. The tune is okayed. My job is also done. Otherwise, who wants to copy tunes when there’s a wealth of Indian folk music across so many states?” ^[1]Scroll

Awards

In 1998, Viju Shah won the Best Background Score for the Bollywood movie Gupt: The Hidden Truth at Filmfare Awards.

Viju Shah with his Filmfare award

Facts/Trivia

• In an interview, Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan discussed Bollywood composers stealing his tunes. The master of Pakistani qawwali claimed that Anu Malik and Viju Shah best copied him.

• The song ‘Tip Tip Barsa Pani’ from the film Mohra (1994) was recreated for the film Sooryavanshi (2021), keeping the original singers, Alka Yagnik and Udit Narayan, intact in the recreated song. In an interview, he talked about the recreated version of the song and said,
  

  From whatever little I have heard of the song, I don’t get a feeling that it’s recreated or sounding very different. It’s almost similar to mine and they have also used the original singers Udit Narayan and Alka Yagnik. So it sounds even more close to the original. A recreation is when you keep the original composition intact but change a bit of the arrangement. But I am happy that even after 27 years, people are enjoying the song and giving it love. “

• Viju Shah started taking music lessons at the age of 4-5 by practising on the harmonium.

• In an interview, when asked about the reason why he chose to start a career in music, he said,

  Since my father Kalyanji Virji Shah of the composer duo Kalyanji Anandji was a renowned musician of that era he wanted one of his children to be pursue music. My learning in music was very mechanical until electronics came in 1970s. Eventually, I felt that I should start with this ”

  

  Viju Shah (in pink shirt on right) with other singers and composers of Bollywood at Anandji’s 90th birthday

• In 1995, Viju Shah was a judge on the semi-final episode of the popular reality show Sa Re Ga Ma Pa – Schedule 2, along with Jagjit Kaur, Javed Akhtar, and Usha Khanna.

• At the beginning of his career, he released a solo album named ‘Why not Synthesizers?’.

• During an award show, the host Vishal Dadlani introduced him as the “king of synth sounds”.
• In an interview, talking about using synthesizers for the first time, Viju Shah said,
  

  I was in seventh standard when I worked on ‘Don’. Electronic instruments were used very interestingly in ‘Don’. When the electronics came, I was very excited. ‘Yeh Mera Dil Pyaar Ka Deewana’ was the first song I worked on. I played the synthesizer in the song. I still remember the date distinctively. It was 24th August 1974.” ^[2]Planet Bollywood