Early life Bedi was born in village
Dhallewali in
Sialkot district,
Punjab, now in
Pakistan, to Hira Singh Bedi and Seva Dai. He spent his early years in
Lahore, where he received his education in Urdu, as it was common to most Punjabi families, though he never graduated from a college.
Career His first collection of short stories,
Daan-O-Daam (The Catch), featuring his prominent story "Garam Coat" (Warm Coat) was published in 1940. In 1942, he published his second collection of short stories,
Grehan (The Eclipse). In 1943, he joined Maheshwari Films, a small Lahore film studio, although after one and half years he returned to All India Radio and was posted to Jammu, where he worked until 1947, and became the Director of Jammu and Kashmir Broadcasting Service. By the time of Partition Rajinder Singh Bedi had published numerous more short stories, and had made a name for himself as a prolific writer. His Urdu novel,
Ek Chadar Maili Si, translated into English as
I Take This Woman, by
Khushwant Singh received the
Sahitya Akademi Award in 1965. The book was later translated into Hindi, Kashmiri and Bengali. His later collections of short stories were
Kokh Jali and
Apne Dukh Mujhe Dedo and a collection of plays,
Saat Khel.
Films After the partition of India in 1947, he moved to
Bombay, and started working with D. D. Kashyap and got his first screen credit for dialogue, in the 1949 film
Badi Bahen, although he received greater recognition for his second film
Daag, a 1952 film. In 1954, he joined with Amar Kumar,
Balraj Sahni,
Geeta Bali and others to create a new company called Cine Cooperative. In 1955, it produced its first film,
Garam Coat. Based on Bedi's short story
Garam Coat, starring Balraj Sahni and Nirupa Roy, and directed by Aman Kumar, the film gave Bedi the chance to write an entire screenplay. Their second film,
Rangoli (1962), starring Kishore Kumar, Vyjayantimala, and Durga Khote, was also directed by Amar Kumar. He continued to display his range in dialogue writing styles in many classic Hindi films, starting with
Sohrab Modi's
Mirza Ghalib (1954),
Bimal Roy's
Devdas (1955), and
Madhumati (1958); Amar Kumar and Hrishikesh Mukherjee's films,
Anuradha (1960),
Anupama (1966),
Satyakam (1969) and (1973). He made his directorial debut with Hindi classic
Dastak (1970), starring
Sanjeev Kumar and
Rehana Sultan, with music by
Madan Mohan, and in the following decade he directed three more films:
Phagun (1973),
Nawab Sahib (1978) and
Aankhin Dekhi (1978). His novella
Ek Chadar Maili Si was made into a film in Pakistan,
Mutthi Bhar Chawal (1978) and later in India, as
Ek Chadar Maili Si (1986). His son
Narender Bedi was also a film director and the maker of films including
Jawani Diwani (1972),
Benaam (1974),
Rafoo Chakkar (1975), and
Sanam Teri Kasam (1982). He died in 1982, a few years after Bedi's wife. Thereafter, Bedi's health consistently deteriorated. He suffered paralysis in 1982 and died in Bombay two years later. ==Legacy==