Raajesh Johri

Johri suffered from kidney disease since the past few years. As a result of the same, he suffered a cardiac arrest on 1 March 2017 and breathed his last at Bhartiya Aaroya Nidhi Hospital in Mumbai.

Johri created niche for himself in the world of Indian pop (Indie Pop). It will not be wrong to call him one of the pioneers of this genre called "Indie Pop". It was in 1990 that the album "Dhuan" by Sunita Rao released, composed by Lesle Lewis which contained the song, Pari Hoon Main which is an iconic song of the pop era. The album Halka Nasha was very well received which had ghazals sung by Hariharan, penned by Johri. The song "Sa Ni Dha Pa" from the Colonial Cousins, a fusion album by Hariharan and Lesle Lewis was the first ever offering that was a part of MTV Unplugged. The album "Dil Chaahe" by Shiamak Davar was also amongst his popular works. His songs sung by JoJo, "Wo Kaun Thi" and "Subah Subah Jab Khidhki Khole" were milestones. He penned numerous bhajans and hymns for different religious sects namely Roman Catholic Church, Jain sect, Swami Narayan Sect and many others. He penned title songs for tele-serials like Koshish (TV series), Chandan Ka Palna Resham Ki Dori, Ghar Ek Mandir, Saara Akaash, Chittod Ki Rani Padmini Ka Johur and many others. He used to write the script of the famous TV Show Rangoli (TV series) produced by National Film Development Corporation of India anchored by Hema Malini, directed by Ramesh Talwar. The same show was later produced by Doordarshan Kendra Mumbai, anchored by Jaya Bhattacharya and Shweta Tiwari. He has worked as a lyricist with renowned music directors such as: Kalyanji–Anandji, R. D. Burman, Hariharan, Jagjit Singh, Shankar Mahadevan, Salim–Sulaiman, Bappi Lahiri, Pritam, Anup Jalota, Ashok Patki, Louis Banks, Lesle Lewis, Manna Dey, Datta Naik, Nikhil Kamath, Nikhil-Vinay , Raju Singh, Lt. Murlimanohar Swaroop (HMV), Anil Mohile, Dilip Sen-Sameer Sen, Rajat Dholakia, Dheeraj Dhanak, Vanraj Bhatia, Vaidya Nathan, Bhupinder Singh, Tabun Sutradhar, Ashit Desai, Nishith Mehta etc. His songs have been sung by well-known singers such as Mohammed Rafi, Asha Bhosle, Mahendra Kapoor, Anup Jalota, Jagjit Singh, Hariharan, Bhupinder Singh Mitali Mukherjee, Suresh Wadkar, Sadhna Sargam, Kavita Krishnamurthy, Anwar (singer), Anuradha Paudwal, Udit Narayan, Kumar Sanu, Babul Supriyo, Abhijeet Bhattacharya, Shreya Ghoshal, Madhushree, Anny Chatterjee, Sudesh Bhosle, Kunal Ganjawala, Usha Uthup, Shaan, Sonu Nigam, Jaspinder Narula, Jojo, Chandrashekhar Gargil, Hari Om Sharan, Nandini Sharan, Kirti-Anurag, Ram Shankar, Alisha Chinai, Kailash Kher, Sunita Rao etc. He has Anchored Stage Shows For Jagjit Singh, Mahendra Kapoor, Pankaj Udhas, Bhupinder Singh, Anup Jalota, Penaz Masani, Chhaya Ganguli, Abdul Halim Jaffer Khan, Dagar Bandhu, Bismillah Khan, Sitara Devi, Bhajan Sopori, Gopi Krishna (dancer) and many other most reputed artistes of our country. He has written songs for 13 films including Subhash Ghai’s Mukta Arts' "Khanna and Iyer",Suneil Anand's "Master" and Zee Entertainment Enterprises and so on. He worked for many online projects in this era of online channels, giving his services as a lyricist, voice over artist and also as a brand ambassador for tele-shopping product English Guru. His notable works include "Asian Sky Shop", Theme Songs for Border Security Force, Delhi Police and many more. He designed programs for online radio channel "2B! Radio"and also contributed as a voice over artist and a script writer.

Raajesh married Archana Johri, a script writer, anchor and poet by profession in the year 1986. He has two daughters, Ratika Johri and Rashee Johri. The elder one, Ratika is a singer and lending her voice for many albums, serials and films. The younger one, Rashee is a choreographer, director and anchor.

Raajesh received his primary education from Pilani in Rajasthan and since his father was in a transferable job, in his childhood he travelled to Chandausi, Khurja and finally, Saharanpur where he completed his graduation in Science stream from Jain College, in 1972. His parents' dream was that he becomes an engineer and so they enrolled him for an M.Sc course in Physics. But, following his passion for writing, one day ahead of his 20th birthday, he boarded a train to Mumbai from Saharanpur for the purpose of fulfilling his dreams. Having no connection whatsoever with the industry leading to a single-handed struggle he left for his journey to the city of his dreams.

Raajesh Johri (Hindi: राजेश जौहरी راجیش سنار ‎) 19 June 1952 – 1 March 2017) was an Indian poet, Lyricist, Ad Film Maker, Voice Over Artist and Anchor based in Mumbai India. Johri's notable works as a lyricist include Pari Hoon Main by Sunita Rao, Colonial Cousins by Hariharan and Lesle Lewis, Subha subha jab khidki khole by Jojo, Tere Mann Mein Ram by Anup Jalota. Famous works as an ad/jingle writer include Action Shoes ("Action ka School time"), Nirma Bathing Soap ("Saundarya Saabun Nirma"), Vicco Vajradanti, Dabur Lal Dant Majan and many more.

Raajesh belonged to Uttar Pradesh and was born in 1952 in Pilani. His father, Dr. A. N. Johri was a professor of English Literature and an author, and his mother Chandra Johri was a well-educated lady. Raajesh was the third of his three brothers and two sisters. Artistically inclined from a very young age, he penned his first poem at the age of 10. He had deep interest in music and literature. In one of his interviews, he was quoted saying that his father's paternal grand mother, Heera Kunwar used to pen bhajans in praise of Lord Krishna, that is where he got it from.