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Gaurang Vyas, a Gujarati music composer, arranger and singer, died in Ahmedabad on the night of 2 September 2026 at the age of 87.
He was the son of Avinash Vyas, the Padma Shri-winning composer of Gujarati and Hindi film music, and began his career assisting his father on the film Jesal Toral.
He made his independent debut as a music director with Lakho Phulani and went on to compose for more than 100 films.
His work included Ketan Mehta's Bhavni Bhavai, as well as Maniyaro, Liludi Dharati and Maiyarman Mandu Nathi Lagtu, and he also composed extensively in sugam sangeet, garba and devotional music.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah were among those who paid tribute.
Sugam sangeet, literally light music, is the category of Indian song that sits between classical performance and film music. It sets poetry to melody in a form meant to be accessible to a general audience, without the extended improvisation of classical performance and without a film's narrative demands. In Gujarat it carries particular weight because the tradition connects directly to garba and to devotional singing, and because composers such as Avinash Vyas and Gaurang Vyas worked across all three - film, sugam sangeet and devotional - rather than staying inside one.
Simple Analogy: It is the art song of the Indian tradition: composed and poetic, but written to be sung and heard by anyone.
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Light classical or light music that sets poetry to accessible melody, distinct from both classical performance and film song.
A Gujarati folk dance form performed in a circle, associated with the Navratri festival and accompanied by its own song repertoire.
The fourth-highest civilian award of India, after the Bharat Ratna, Padma Vibhushan and Padma Bhushan.
The practice of recording a song separately for an actor to lip-sync on screen, standard in Indian cinema.