Ravindra Jain

Singer and Musician

Visual impairment: Born blind

Born: February 28, 1944

Ravindra Jain is a consummate musician with a degree of consistency rarely seen in the industry. Born blind, he never allowed his blindness to come in the way of honing his inborn talent.

Jain was born in Aligarh, on February 28 1944, to Pandit Indramani Jain and Kiran Devi Jain. He always had an appetite for knowledge and music. He learnt classical music from Prayag Sangeet Samiti and earned a degree called Sangeet Prabhakar. He was also a poet, singer and lyricist from his younger days.

In a music career spanning more than 25 years he has worked with the best in the music industry, from Lata Mangeshkar to Sadhna Sargam and from Mohammed Rafi to Suresh Wadkar. Jain also has the rare privilege of working under the banners of R.K. films, Rajshris, B.R. Chopra, Ramanand Sagar and Sanjay Khan. He has also composed music for mega serials such as Ramayan, Shri Krishna and Jai Hanuman. But he says private albums are much more satisfying and having his very own audio company enables him to produce his kind of music.

Jain got his break in N.N. Sippy’s Silsila Hai Pyar Ka in 1972 but the film never took off and his first released film was Kaanch aur Heera. The very next year came his first musically successful film Saudagar, followed in 1974 by two hit films: Chor Machaye Shor and Geet Gata Chal. Jain arrived in a big way.

From then on there has been no stopping him. He has performed throughout India, and in many other countries including Nepal, U.K., U.S.A., Canada, Germany, South Africa and the Gulf.

He has received honours from the President of India, Governors of State and has also been given several prestigious awards, including Lata Mangeshkar award and Uttar Pradesh Film Patrakar Sangh Award. In 1986 he also won a Filmfare Award for Best Music in the film Ram Teri Ganga Maili.

He is married to the poet Divya Jain, and they have a son Aayushman Jain who, like his father, also gained the Sangeet Prabhakar from Prayag Sangeet Samiti.

Ravindra Jain has rightly been honoured with the titles Sangeet Gyaneshwar and Sangeet Samrat.