Years active 1933 – 1980 Name Wajahat Mirza | Role Screenwriter | |
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Full Name Mirza Wajahat Husain Changezi Born 20 April 1908 Sitapur, India Occupation Dialogue writer, Screenwriter, Story writer, Film director Awards Filmfare Award for Best Dialogue Movies Mother India, Mughal‑E‑Azam, Gunga Jumna, Jawani, Roti Similar People Mehboob Khan, Anil Biswas, K Asif, Nitin Bose, Kamal Amrohi | ||
wajahat mirza
Wajahat Mirza (Urdu: وجاہت مرزا, Hindi: वजाहत मिर्ज़ा) (20 April 1908 – 4 August 1990), also known as Vajahat Mirza and Wajahat Mirza Changezi, was an Indian screenwriter and film director who penned the dialogues of some of the most successful films in India during the 1950s and 1960s, best known for Mughal-e-Azam (1960) and the Academy Award-nominee, Mother India (1957).
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Mirza won Filmfare Best Dialogue Award twice, in 1961 for Mughal-e-Azam, and in 1962 for Ganga Jamuna. He also won the Bengal Film Journalists' Association Awards for Ganga Jamuna.
He was born in Sitapur, a small town 89 kilometers from Lucknow. While studying at Government Jubilee Inter College, Lucknow Mirza became acquainted with cinematographer Krishan Gopal of Calcutta, and worked as his assistant. He later co-produced with singer Midgan Kumar a movie called Anookhi Moohabat ("Crazy Lover") in Bombay. Mirza became a dialogue and screenplay writer and was also one of the first Indians to be nominated for an Oscar for the movie Mother India (1957), based upon a story by Babubhai Mehta.
In a career spanning well over 50 years, Wajahat Mirza wrote the Dialogue for 31 Movies in which he also contributed as screenplay writer for 6 and wrote stories for 2. Early in his career, he also directed 5 movies.
He died in Karachi in 1990.