Anu Malik

• Genre: Bollywood

About

Anu Malik has been both as celebrated and as denigrated as a public figure can be. His detractors call him an A.R. Rahman rip-off and accuse him of lifting melodies from others' songs to beef up his own compositions. (This isn't entirely untrue: in 1995 he used the melody from Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan's "Mera piya ghar aaya" for the Yaraana soundtrack without crediting the original, and websites abound with other instances of alleged theft.) He's also been accused of sexual harrassment. Yet despite the issues Malik, whose father was also a film composer, often finds himself in high demand. Director Gurinder Chadha (Bend It Like Beckham) chose him to compose music for Bride and Prejudice, her 2004 Bollywood remake of the classic Jane Austin story. Soundtracks including Ashoka, Ishq, Border and Refugee rank among the biggest hitmakers of the '90s and the new millenium.

- Sarah Bardeen