Veteran music composer Vanraj Bhatia dies at 94

TIL Desk Bollywood/ Veteran music composer Vanraj Bhatia died in Mumbai on Friday after a brief illness, a former colleague said. The 94-year-old virtuoso, who scored the music for Shyam Benegal classics like Ankur and Bhumika and TV series Yatra and Bharat Ek Khoj (Discovery of India) lived alone at his apartment at the Rungta Housing Colony on Napean Sea Road.

 After graduating from the Elphinstone College, he trained in western classical music in London and Paris. On returning home, he joined the advertising world, working for a phenomenal 6,000 ad jingles, most famously the La laaala la refrain for a soap endorsement filmed by a waterfall.

 With Benegal, he found his niche in parallel cinema, blending the western with the Indian classical idiom. He created the soundtracks for Aparna Sen’s 36 Chowringhee Lane and Kundan Shah’s Jaane Bhi Do Yaaro.