Chitragupt Shrivastava, the famous music composer of Bollywood, of Rafi & Mukesh era, of "Chal Ud Ja Re Panchhi Ke.. from (Film Bhabhi)" fame, hailed from Saran.

Chitragupt was born on 16 November 1917, Karmaini village (Gopalganj district), Bihar. He had a double MA, in Economics & in Journalism.He Worked as a lecturer in Patna before he ran away to Bombay to pursue a career as a composer in films.He assisted S.N. Tripathi for some time before he got an independent opportunity with Ramnik Vaidya in 1946. He tasted success after a struggle in 1952 with the Rafi-Shamshad duet, adaa se jhoomate hue (Sindbad the sailor) hit the music charts and was a hit.

S D Burman recommended him to Meiyappan of AVM studios, and he started with a film Shiv Bhakt in 1955. Bhabhi, Barkha, Main Chup Rahoongi and Main bhi ladki hoon were the other notable ventures of this collaboration. He worked with few big name studios or actors - with Mohan Sehgal, Hrishikesh Mukherjee, G P Sippy, Kishore Sahu and AVM being the exceptions.

He parted ways with his mentor, S N Tripathi, due to their difference in their innovative approaches and ideas from popular Western music. His classical roots are seen in songs like Kishore Kumar's "paayal vaali dekhna" (Ek Raaz), while his modern and light-hearted, foot-tapping music could be sampled in songs like "ham matavale naujavan" (Barkha), "dekho mausam kya bahaar hai" (Opera House). His notable films include Bhabhi, Ek Raaz, Main Chup Rahoongi, Oonche Log, Opera House, Vasna, Zabak etc.

Chitragupt was also a good singer and lyricist. He worked with all the major lyricists of the time - Majrooh, Rajinder Krishan, Anand Bakshi, Prem Dhawan and even Sahir.After Sahir Ludhianvi agreed to write to the tunes Chitragupt composed, they produced some wonderful songs in collaboration for Vasna - ye parbaton ke daayre, itani naazuk na bano. When it came to Bhojpuri films, Chitragupt was the ruling king.He also composed the music for a few Punjabi and Gujarati films, as well as the music for an MGR film dubbed from Tamil.

He suffered a heart attack in 1968 and a paralytic stroke in 1974. He died on the 14th of January 1991.His children, Anand and Milind (who can forget their song from QSQT, "Papa Kahate hai Bada nam karega..." which lauched Amir Khan into incredible stardom! ), the composer duo, and Sulakshana and Vijayeta Pandit, the singer-actresses have also made an impact on the film world.