As the Angry Young Man in films like Deewar and Zanjeer, he reflected society’s angst about growing corruption and violence. Not everybody cares for his new persona, as the marketeer’s dream ambassador for everything from cement to chocolate, but his iconic status endures.

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Guru Dutt
Tragic Hero

He was that rare bird, an auteur who didn’t sing in an arthouse. Through the ’50s and early ’60s he used a repertory of talent—the most beautiful women (Madhubala, Waheeda Rehman, Meena Kumari), the best character actors (Johnny Walker, Rehman, Mehmood), genius lyricists, composers (Sahir, Kaifi, S.D. Burman), a great cameraman (V.K. Murthy), a brilliant writer (Abrar Alvi) and a remarkably plain leading man (himself) to make a string of melancholy classics.

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Ustad Bismillah Khan
Music’s Monk

It was the soaring notes of his shehnai that heralded the dawn of freedom on August 15 1947. His virtuosity raised the humble shehnai to classical status, but it was his spirit that made his music so sublime—worshipping both Allah and Saraswati as he did his daily riyaaz on the banks of the Ganga in Benares, he was a symbol of our composite culture, and the noblest ideals to which independent India aspires.

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Begum Akhtar
Ghazal Queen

She was the unrivalled ghazal queen of India, with her earthy voice, captivating stage presence, and, above all, her ability to evoke romance, passion, wistful yearning, betrayal (but no self-pity, no regret). Those emotions came through so strong and true in each line she sang, because she’d lived them all in her chequered life, and survived to tell the tale.

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Lata Mangeshkar
The Nightingale

Songbird, diva, prima donna, manipulator, monopolist. Her unparalleled reign over the world of Hindi film music attracted both adulation and controversy. But for several generations of Indians, right up to the ’80s, she was the indisputable voice of Hindi films. An entire nation, led by a prime minister, wept when she sang Aye mere watan ke logon.

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M.S. Subbulakshmi
Spiritual Voice

Sarojini Naidu called her the Nightingale of India. Her music was an expression of her deeply spiritual personality, and touched to the core all those who heard her. She sang with equal sweetness in eight languages, and countless households all over India still begin their day on the right note with her Suprabhatam, her Meera Bhajans.

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A.R. Rahman
GenNext Beats

He began as a keyboard player in a Chennai band, and shot to fame with his music for the film Roja (1992). Now his inimitable brand of ‘Indian fusion’ music is a hit the world over, in shows like Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Bombay Dreams and Chinese film Warriors of Heaven and Earth. His Vande Mataram became the anthem for a young, upbeat generation.

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Pandit Ravi Shankar
String Maestro

He took Indian classical music out of baithaks and soirees into the public arena, and made classical Indian sitar an international craze, with admirers including the likes of Yehudi Menuhin and the Beatles. As purists raised eyebrows, he experimented boldly, collaborated widely, but never made the journey from popular to populist—his roots in the sitar’s classical traditions ran too deep.