Qamar Jalalabadi was a poet, writer and song writer in the Hindi film industry for nearly four decades.

Born into a Punjabi family in Jalalabad Amritsar in 1919 as Om Prakash Bhandari, he took on his pen name at the advice of a travelling poet named Amar. His debut film was "Zameendar" in 1942 for which he wrote the successful song "Duniya Mein Garibon Ko" sung by Shamshad Begum.

He worked with S. D. Burman in 1946 in the film "Eight Days" where the comic song "O Babu Babu Re" became quite popular. He went on to work with music director Sardar Malik on many films. One of their hits was "Sunti Nahi Duniya" ("Renuka", 1947). However, "Howrah Bridge" (1958), with songs like "Mera Naam Chin Chin Chu" and "Aaiye Meherban", was his ticket to fame.

Qamar was also an acclaimed writer for films. Some of the films for which he wrote either the script and/or dialogues were "Munimji" (1955), "Phagun" (1958), "Maya" (1961) and "Taj Mahal" (1963).