music director and background score composer whose career spanned four decades.

He won three Filmfare Awards for Best Music in 1977 for Kabhi Kabhie and 1982  for Umrao Jaan, and a lifetime achievement award in 2010.

He was awarded the  2007 Sangeet Natak Akademi Award in Creative Music, by the Sangeet Natak Akademi,  India's National Academy of Music, Dance, and Theatre. He was awarded the third-highest civilian honor, Padma Bhushan by the Government of India for 2011. 

Khayyam was born as Sa'adat Hussein on 18 February 1927 in Rahon in Punjab, British India. As a boy, Khayyam ran away to his uncle's house in New Delhi. 

There he was trained under classical vocalist and composer Pandit Amarnath 

Khayyam went to Lahore looking for roles in films. There he met Baba Chishti, a famous Punjabi music director. After listening to a composition by Chishti, 

he has sung to him its first part. Impressed, Chishti gave him an offer of joining him as an assistant. Khayyam assisted Chishti for six months and came to Ludhiana in 1943. He was only 17 then. 

After a stint in the Army in the Second World War, Khayyam went to Bombay to fulfill his dream and made his debut as Sharmaji of the Sharmaji-Varmaji composer duo with the movie Heer Ranjha in 1948. He went solo after his co-composer Rahman Varma went to the newly created Pakistan post-partition.

 One of his earliest breaks was in the film Biwi (1950) in which the song "Akele Mein Woh Ghabrate To Honge" sung by Mohammed Rafi was a huge hit. 

"Shaam-e-Gham Ki Kasam" sung by Talat Mehmood from the film Footpath (1953) struck a chord among the masses. He gained greater recognition from the 

film Phir Subha Hogi starring Raj Kapoor and Mala Sinha, in which songs written by Sahir Ludhyanvi and sung by Mukesh and Asha Bhonsle were set to tune by Khayyam.

Notable amongst them are "Wo Subha Kabhi To Aayegi", "Aasman Pe hai Khuda Aur Zameen Pe Hum" and "Chin-o-Arab Humara". 

Songs from the film Shola Aur Shabnam written by Kaifi Azmi established Khayyam's reputation as a great composer. 

From the Chetan Anand directed Aakhri Khat "Baharon Mera Jeevan Bhi Sawaron" by Lata and "Aur Kuch Der Theher" by Rafi were huge hits. Other notable songs are from the film Shagoon which had Khayyam's wife Jagjit Kaur sing "Tum Apna Ranj-o-Gham" and "Tum Chali Jaogi".

The 1970s saw Khayyam team up with Sahir Ludhyanvi once again to work in the Yash Chopra-directed Kabhi Kabhie. The songs showed Khayyam's versatility 

with huge hits like "Kabhi Kabhi Mere Dil Mein Khayal Aata Hai" (Sung by Mukesh and Lata), "Tere Chehre Se Nazar Nahin" (by Kishore & Lata) and 

"Main Pal Do Pal Ka Shayar Hoon" (by Mukesh). 

Khayyam gave memorable music to the films of the late-1970s and early-1980s. Songs from Trishul, Thodi Si Bewafaai, Bazaar, Dard, Noorie, Nakhuda, Sawaal, 

Bepannah and Khandaan are some of his best works. 

Khayyam was still to deliver his best and the opportunity came in Muzaffar Ali's Umrao Jaan in 1981.  He made Asha Bhonsle sing songs which are indisputably her best. 

"In Aankhon Ki Masti Ke", "Ye Kya Jagah Hai Doston" and "Dil Cheez Kya Hai" are evergreen. 

Rajesh Khanna gifted Khayyam a car after Khayyam had composed a tune for Majoon (1979), however, the film was never released.[citation needed] 

Subsequently, Khayyam composed music for Thodisi Bewafai, Dard (both 1981) and Dil-E-Nadaan (1982), all of them starring Khanna in the lead. 

The songs from these films continue to be popular across generations. 

He also composed non-film songs. Some of them include "Paaon Padun Tore Shyam, Brij Mein Laut Chalo" and "Ghazab Kiya Tere Vaade Pe Aitbaar Kiya". 

He also gave music for Meena Kumari's album, I Write, I Recite (1971) featuring the "nazms" written and sung by her.

Khayyam always preferred to work with the poets having a strong background of poetry sidelining the regular film lyricists. That is the reason one finds poetry playing an equal role in Khayyam's compositions as the music or the singer.[citation needed] Khayyam prefers to give full freedom to the poets for expressing their views thereby making the expression of songs more poetic and meaningful. 

He has worked with both his contemporaries and the legends in the field of poetry. That's the reason one finds in his account the work profiled by Mirza Ghalib, 

Daagh, Wali Mohammed Wali, Ali Sardar Jafri, Majrooh Sultanpuri, Sahir Ludhianvi, and among the new ones Naqsh Lyallpuri, Nida Fazli, Jan Nisar Akhtar & Ahmed Wasi to name a few. 

Khayyam's music had the touch of ghazal but was rooted in Indian classical music. The compositions were soulful, melodious and emotional, 

the songs were rich in poetry and purpose and the style was noticeably different from the popular brand of music in those days, which used to be either semi-classical, ghazal or light and peppy. 

On his 89th birthday, Khayyam announced the formation of a charitable trust — Khayyam Jagjeet Kaur KPG Charitable Trust — and decided to donate his entire wealth to the trust to support budding artists and technicians in India. His wealth at the time of announcement was valued at around ₹10 crore (US$1.4 million).