Sameer Anjaan

Lyricist

Shitala Pandey, better known as Sameer Anjaan, is an Indian lyricist, writing songs such as "Mujhe Raat Din Bas", predominantly in Hindi language films. He is a Guinness World Record holder for writing the most songs. He was awarded this honor on 17 February 2016.

His father is the famed Hindi lyricist, Lalji "Anjaan" Pandey. He has won three Filmfare Awards.

Sameer, officially named sameer Pandey, but commonly known by his nickname Rajan, was born near Banaras, Uttar Pradesh. He earned a Master of Commerce degree at the Banaras Hindu University in Varanasi, and started a new position as a bank officer at the Central Bank of India. However, a few days after joining, he left the job because he "knew the bank was not my world". To pursue a career as a lyricist, he moved to Mumbai in 1980.

Sameer started his career as a lyricist in 1983 with the film Bekhabar (1983). The first film song he recorded was "Maar Ke Kataaree Mar Jaibe" for the Bhojpuri film Bairi Saawan (1984) sung by Suresh Wadkar and Preeti Sagar. In 1990, he came into prominence with songs in films such as Dil and Aashiqui. He won his first Filmfare Award for the song "Nazar Ke Saamne" in the latter. In the following decades he emerged as a leading lyricist in Hindi films, writing the lyrics for over 500 films (4,000 songs).