Veteran lyricist and poet Gulzar celebrates his 75th birthday on Wednesday as wishes pour from fans and well wishers across the world.

Among them were melody queen Asha Bhosle and actor Shammi Kapoor, who wished him through micro-blogging site Twitter.

"Gulzar mere bhai janamdin ki badhai. Love" (Gulzar my bother, a very happy birthday! Love), tweeted Kapoor.

The lyricist, who shared an Oscar with composer A R Rahman for Slumdog Millionaire's ‘Jai Ho', is often described as one of the last standing legends of Indian cinema, and a writer who brought great respectability to the craft of lyric writing in Hindi music.

Honoured with a bounty of awards including the Sahitya Akademi Award, a heap of Filmfare and National Awards, and even the Padma Bhushan, Gulzar has garnered worldwide praise for his works.

Gulzar, having directed quite a few critically acclaimed movies as well, is characterised by his trademark style of including flashbacks into his films and his portrayal of human relations.

Once married to Bengali actress Raakhee and father of director Meghna Gulzar, Gulzar's work is believed to show a strong influence of Bengali literature despite him being an Urdu writer.

It is said that as a teenager, he always wanted to be a part of the film industry, but he had to work as garage mechanic. His break came when he got to work as an assistant director to revered directors Bimal Roy and Hrishikesh Mukherjee.

Over the years, he is credited with having penned some of the best songs by music directors for Bollywood movies through the ages right from R D Burman (Parichay, Kushboo) to today with A R Rahman (Dil Se, Guru) and his pen continues to mesmerise audiences.