Walter Kaufman

Walter Kaufman was a Jewish immigrant who came from Prague to Bombay in the year 1934 with growing influence of Nazis over Europe. He was associated with the Bombay Chamber Music Society, All India Radio etc and was resident of Bombay for 12 years after which he moved to England and Canada, and finally settled in USA. He joined the All India Radio in the year 1937 and was the Director of the European music department. One of his most significant contribution was the composition of the signature tune of AIR that has played for decades every morning at the start of the days programme.

Walter composed music for several hindi films and news reels produced by Information Films of India(IFI). One such film was The Mill(Mazdoor) directed by Mohan Bhavani in the year 1934 but had to face censorship issues as the President of the Mill Owners Association was one of the members of the Censor board and said that the film was communist propaganda. In 1936 Kaufman again collaborated with Bhavani for his film Jagran which had Kaufman and S P Mukherjee as the music composers.

For Further Reading:

The Music that Still Rings at Dawn, Every Dawn(2013) by Amrit Gangar