Gulshan Kumar

Lore & Background

Gulshan Kumar was born on 5 May 1954 in a Punjabi Hindu family, the son of a fruit juice vendor who sold from a cart on the streets of Delhi. His family came as refugees from the Jhang region of West Punjab after the partition of India in 1947. He started working with his father from an early age. A devoted worshipper of Shiva and Vaishno Devi, he sang many religious songs and ran a free meal service for devotees visiting the Vaishno Devi Temple, started in 1983 at Baan Ganga. The service continues after his death, managed by his son Bhushan Kumar.

Kumar changed career paths when his family acquired a shop selling records and inexpensive audio cassettes. He started his own audio cassette operation, Super Cassettes Industries, which became profitable. He began a music production company in Noida and later moved to Mumbai.

Reader's Guide

Gulshan Kumar's significance lies in his founding of T-Series, which emerged as one of India's top music labels with the release of Aashiqui in 1990. In the early 1990s, T-Series sparked a boom for the Indian music industry. The annual earnings of T-Series grew from ₹20 crore in 1985 to ₹200 crore in 1991, and by the time of his death in 1997, had reached ₹500 crore. The label continues as a major force, controlling more than 60% of the Indian music market, with international turnover exceeding $4.2 million and exports to 24 countries across six continents. His legacy includes the ongoing free meal service at Vaishno Devi Temple and the planned biographical film Mogul – The Gulshan Kumar Story, announced by T-Series in 2017. His daughters Tulsi Kumar and Khushalii Kumar are playback singers.

Did You Know?

• Gulshan Kumar was shot 18 times outside a Shiva temple in Mumbai on 12 August 1997.
• He started a free meal service for devotees at Vaishno Devi Temple in 1983, which continues after his death.
• T-Series annual earnings grew from ₹20 crore in 1985 to ₹500 crore by 1997.
• Abdul Rauf Merchant, convicted for the murder, was extradited from Bangladesh in 2016.

From Refugee Streets to a Music Empire

Gulshan Kumar Dua was born on 5 May 1956 into a Punjabi Hindu family whose roots traced back to the Jhang region of West Punjab. His parents had fled the communal violence of India's 1947 partition and resettled in Daryaganj, a bustling neighbourhood in central Delhi. His father earned a living as a street vendor of fruit juice, and young Gulshan helped him from an early age. The family's fortunes shifted when they acquired a small shop dealing in records and inexpensive audio cassettes — a modest storefront that would eventually blossom into one of India's most powerful entertainment enterprises. Beyond commerce, Dua was deeply spiritual, a devoted worshipper of Shiva and Vaishno Devi. He composed and performed devotional songs honouring major Hindu deities and, in 1983, established a free meal service at Baan Ganga, a location along the Vaishno Devi pilgrimage route, offering prasad to all visiting devotees. That charitable initiative, which his son Bhushan Kumar now oversees, has continued without interruption since its inception.

Forging T-Series into a Cultural Force

In 1983, Dua launched Super Cassettes Industries, initially operating as an audio cassette business before expanding into a full-scale music production company based in Noida. As operations scaled, he relocated to Mumbai, the beating heart of Bollywood. His foray into filmmaking began with Lal Dupatta Malmal Ka in 1989, but it was the 1990 release of Aashiqui — powered by the Nadeem-Shravan soundtrack — that catapulted T-Series into the national spotlight. The label went on to produce a string of notable films including Bahaar Aane Tak, Dil Hai Ke Manta Nahin, and Jeena Marna Tere Sang. The financial trajectory was staggering: annual earnings climbed from roughly 20 crore rupees in 1985 to 200 crore by 1991, and had reached 500 crore rupees by 1997. In the early 1990s, T-Series is widely credited with igniting a broader boom across the Indian music industry, establishing a distribution network of over 2,500 dealers domestically and exporting to 24 countries spanning six continents.

The Jeet Nagar Shooting

On 12 August 1997, Gulshan Kumar was gunned down outside a Shiva temple in Jeet Nagar, Andheri West, Mumbai — a place he visited daily for worship. His government-provided bodyguard from Uttar Pradesh was absent that day due to illness. On 5 and 8 August, Kumar had received threatening calls demanding extortion money; he refused. Hired assassins, including Rauf and Abdul Rashid, had surveilled his routine for a month but were deterred by the armed guard's usual presence. At 10:40, as Kumar was leaving the temple, an assassin confronted him with the taunt, 'You've prayed enough already, now do it up there.' Kumar was struck by 18 bullets. He initially survived and attempted to seek refuge in nearby huts, but residents locked their doors. His driver Suraj was shot in both legs while trying to shield him. Mumbai's D-Company underworld was identified as the likely mastermind. Police also implicated composer Nadeem Saifi, alleging he had paid Abu Salem — a Dawood Ibrahim associate — to arrange the hit over a personal dispute, though D-Company had independently planned the killing after Kumar refused to hand over 10 crore rupees in protection money.

A Legacy That Outlived the Tragedy

Following his death, T-Series was carried forward by his younger brother Krishan Kumar and his son Bhushan Kumar, and the label has since grown to command more than 60 percent of India's music market. The free meal service at Baan Ganga, which Dua had started in 1983 for Vaishno Devi pilgrims, continues to operate under Bhushan's stewardship and is widely revered across the country. Dua's daughters, Tulsi Kumar and Khushalii Kumar, have followed a different artistic path, working as playback singers in the Indian film industry. In 2017, T-Series itself announced plans to produce a biographical film about the founder, titled Mogul – The Gulshan Kumar Story, a fitting tribute to a man who rose from a fruit-juice vendor's street stall in Daryaganj to reshape the landscape of Indian popular music. The legal saga also continued long after the shooting: Abdul Rauf Merchant, the convicted gunman, was sentenced to life imprisonment in 2002, fled India during a 2009 furlough, and was eventually extradited from Bangladesh in 2016, where he now remains in Mumbai's high-security Arthur Road Jail.