Datta Naik aka N. Dutta was born Dattaram Bapurao Naik in the village of Aroba in Goa. Bitten by the music bug early on, he ran away from home to Bombay in 1942. After studying Hindustani music at the Deodher School of Indian music, he became an assistant to music director Ghulam Haider. Music director S.D. Burman noticed Datta Naik in a music program and invited him to be his assistant, an opppurtunity that he accepted gratefully.
His first outing in Bollywood as an independent composer came with Raj Khosla’s “Milaap” (1955) where he created popular songs like “Yeh Baharon Ka Sama” and “Jaate Ho To Jaao” with lyricist Sahir Ludhianvi. The success of these songs led to many more collaborations with Sahir.
Other memorable tunes to his credit include “Maine Chand Aur Sitaron Ki Tamnna Ki Thi” (“Chandrakanta”, 1956), “Laal Laal Gaal” (“Mr. X”, 1957) and “Tere Pyar Ka Aasra Chahta Hoon” (“Dhool Ka Phool”, 1959).
Datta Naik could not fulfill his early promise, in large part due to his health issues. He worked for very few films in the 1970s and took a long break in the second half of the decade.
Data Naik passed away on December 30, 1987.
Less..
