Famous People From Delhi

Listed below are personalities associated with Delhi, people who were either born here or made Delhi their home.

Amir Khusro
Amir Khusrau Dehlavi (1253-1325 AD) was a prolific Persian poet associated with royal courts of more than seven rulers of Delhi Sultanate. Amir Khusro is popular for playful riddles, songs and legends attributed to him. He is associated to Sufism and the qawwali form of song rendition is said to be his gift to the world.

Mirza Ghalib
Mirza Asadullah Khan "Ghalib" (1796-1869) is one of the best of Urdu poets. He led a revolution in Urdu poetry with his words.

Mukesh
Mukesh Chand Mathur (1923 - 1976) is popularly known as the voice of Raj Kapoor. Mukesh became the first male winner of the Film fare Award for Best Playback Singer in 1959. Mukesh's vocals became identified with other heroes in the 1960s and 70s, most notably, Manoj Kumar.

M.F.Hussain
Maqbool Fida Husain (B. 1915) is India's most famous Painter and Film maker who enjoys multifarious range of occupations interests and passions. In 1967 he made his first film, Through the Eyes of a Painter. It was shown at the Berlin Festival and won a Golden Bear.

Nizamuddin Auliya
Hazrat Nizamuddin Awlia (d. 1325 A.D.) represents the pinnacle of the Chishti Order of the Sufis. Hazrat Nizamuddin Awlia sent able disciples well versed in the Chishti practices to places across India. Hazrat Nizamuddin Awlia taught the following for the Sufi path: "For a dervish, three things are necessary. They all begin with an 'ain' (an Arabic letter), i.e., Ishq (love), Aql (intelligence) and Ilm (knowledge).

Perez Musharraf
The Pakistani president was born in Delhi. Relations between the countries did not allow him to visit his home for decades but he finally did some time back.

Qurratulain Hyder
Qurratulain Hyder (B. 1927) is one of the most celebrated of Urdu fiction writers. A trendsetter in Urdu fiction, she is a prolific writer. She has so far written some 12 novels and novellas, four collections of short stories and has done a significant amount of translation of classics. Aag Ka Darya (River of Fire), her magnum opus, is a landmark novel that explores the vast sweep of time and history.

Ravi Shankar Pandit
Ravi Shankar, the legendary sitarist and composer is India's most esteemed musical Ambassador and a singular phenomenon in the classical music worlds of East and West. As a performer, composer, teacher and writer, he has done more for Indian music than any other musician. He is well known for his pioneering work in bringing Indian music to the West.

Khushwant Singh
Khushwant Singh (B. 1915) is one of the best-known Indian writers of all times. Khushwant Singh's name is bound to go down in Indian literary history as one of the finest historians and novelists, a forthright political commentator, and an outstanding observer and social critic.

Shah Rukh Khan
Shahrukh Khan is the leading actor of bollywood and continues to the favorite for all age groups.

Captain Anuj Nayyar, Kargil war hero
Anuj was born to a Punjabi Khatri family settled in Janakpuri, Delhi, India. His father, S.K. Nayyar worked as a visiting professor in Delhi School of Economics while his mother, Meena Nayyar, worked for the South Campus library of Delhi University. Anuj received his high-school education from Army Public School, Dhaula Kuan, and New Delhi (1993 batch). Anuj was a bright student who consistently performed well in academics and sports. He graduated from the National Defence Academy (90th course, Echo Squadron) and later was commissioned into the 17th Battalion JAT Regt in June 1997 from the Indian Military Academy

Nikhil Kumar, Former Chief National Security Guards& Former Delhi Police Chief
He is a former IPS official and son of the former Chief Minister of Bihar and prominent Congressman Satyendra Narayan Sinha (affectionately called "Chhote Saheb" ), who was a seven-term MP, also from the constituency of Aurangabad. His mother Kishori Sinha is a former MP from Vaishali and his wife Shyama Singh also represented

Aurangabad in the Lok Sabha. His grandfather Dr. Anugrah Narayan Sinha, known as "Bihar Bibhuti" was the first Finance Minister of that state and a prominent Gandhian; his father "chhote saheb" was personally close in his later years to Jaya prakash Narayan and was one of the leaders of the anti-Emergency movement in Bihar and the President of the Bihar wing of the Janata Party in 1977.

Nandita Das
Nandita Das (born November 7, 1969 in Delhi, India) is an Indian actress. Das is known to world audiences for her critically acclaimed performances in films like Fire (1996) and Earth (1998), Bawander and recently for Nallu Pennugal.

Sahib Singh Verma
Verma was born on March 15, 1943 in Mundka village, Delhi, to Mir Singh, a Jat farmer, and Bharpai Devi. He began his socio-political journey as a volunteer in the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and later climbed the ranks in politics. He has a Ph.D. degree in Library Science, and started work as librarian in Bhagat Singh College, Delhi. He also holds a master's degree in Arts, and also in Library Science. Married in 1954 to Sahib Kaur, he has two sons and three daughters

Madanlal Khurana
Madan Lal Khurana (born October 15, 1936, Lyallpur (now called Faisalabad in Pakistan) is an Indian politician. Khurana was a member of the Bharatiya Janata Party till his expulsion on disciplinary grounds in 2005. In April-2008 he was rein ducted into the party with an aim to strengthening the Punjabi vote base in New Delhi. BJP suffered badly in 1984 general-elections, held after the death of Indira Gandhi

Priyanka Gandhi
Priyanka Gandhi Vadra (born Delhi January 12, 1972), is an Indian politician. The daughter of Rajiv and Sonia Gandhi, she is a member of the Nehru-Gandhi political family; her father (Rajiv Gandhi), grandmother (Indira Gandhi), and great-grandfather (Jawaharlal Nehru), were all Indian Prime Ministers. Both her father and her grandmother were assassinated, the latter while in office.

Sheila Dikshit, Chief Minister
Sheila Dikshit (sometimes rendered Shiela and Dixit) (born March 31, 1938) is the Chief Minister of Delhi since 1998. She is from the Congress. Educated at Convent of Jesus and Mary, New Delhi, and Miranda House, she has a Master of Arts degree from Delhi University. She has two children, one son and one daughter.

NRI industrialist husband Sunjay Kapur
Bollywood actress Karisma Kapoor, one of India's best-known actresses, married NRI industrialist husband Sunjay Kapur, a New Delhi businessman & a Famous Polo Player.