Ghulam Mohammed was born in
Bikaner,
Rajasthan, into a family of musicians. His father, Nabi Baksh, was an accomplished tabla player. He started his career as a child actor at age six with the Punjab-based New Albert Theatrical Company and worked at the local Albert Theatre in Bikaner. He eventually signed on as a contract artiste for 25 rupees a month, but before he could take up the appointment, the theatre closed due to financial difficulties. In 1924, he came to Bombay, where after a struggle of eight years, in 1932 he got the chance of playing tabla in Saroj Movietone's Productions' "Raja Bharthari". "In 1972,
Pran refused to accept his Filmfare award for the Best Supporting Actor in
Be-Imaan because he felt music composer Ghulam Mohammed deserved a Filmfare award for his songs in
Pakeezah." Many consider his score to be one of the greatest in Indian Cinema. In 1997, he was honoured, in the 'Keep Alive' music show series in
Mumbai, that honours all-time film music composers of India. An extensive audio - visual programme on Ghulam Mohammed was presented by Mumbai- based music troupe MUSICOLOR in 2010 where music lovers cherished the composer's composed film songs. "One commonly-heard story is that when
Shankar–Jaikishan were composing their maiden venture
Barsaat (1949), they insisted on having Ghulam Mohammed play the
dholak for the film song 'Barsaat Mein Ham Se Mile Tum Sajjan'". ==Filmography==