The Filmfare Award for Best Music Director is given by the Filmfare magazine as part of its annual Filmfare Awards for Hindi films, to the best composer/arranger of a soundtrack. Filmfare award is the most prestigious award in India for Music Directors apart from the National Award. This category was first presented in 1954. Naushad Ali was the first recipient of this award for his song "Tu Ganga Ki Mauj" from the film Baiju Bawra. For the first two years, it was awarded to the composer for a particular song and not the entire album. From 1956 onwards, awards in this category have been given for the entire soundtrack. From 2017, the name of this was category changed from best music direction to music album.
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Superlatives
The top five Filmfare Award for Best Music Director winner's have a total of 36 awards. A. R. Rahman leads the winners with 10 filmfare awards, followed by the music director duo of Shankar–Jaikishan, who have 9, then Laxmikant–Pyarelal with 7 awards, Pritam with 6 and Nadeem–Shravan with 4.
Pritam has the most nominations with 26, followed by Laxmikant-Pyarelal with 25, Shankar–Jaikishan with 20, A. R. Rahman with 19, and R. D. Burman with 17.
Pritam has the most nominations in a 10-year span with 14 nominations, winning in 5 among these 14.
Pritam received 6 consecutive nominations between 2013 and 2018, and won in 2013, 2017 and 2018.
Pritam has the highest number of nominations in a single year, with 4 nominations in 2024, winning the award for Animal (2023), while also being nominated solely for Dunki, Rocky Aur Rani Kii Prem Kahaani, and Tu Jhoothi Main Makkar. There have been three instances when a music director (or duo) were nominated thrice in the same year – Bappi Lahiri in 1985, Laxmikant Pyarelal in 1986 and A. R. Rahman in 2009.
Shankar–Jaikishan holds the record for the highest number of consecutive-year nominations (9), having been nominated for the award every year from 1959 till 1967, winning the award four times from ten total nominations.
Laxmikant-Pyarelal and A. R. Rahman have the distinction of winning the award four times in a row between 1978 and 1981 and between 2007 and 2010, respectively. Those who have won the award thrice in a row are Shankar–Jaikishan (1971–1973) and Nadeem Shravan (1991–1993).
Usha Khanna, Sneha Khanwalkar, Parampara Thakur and Jasleen Royal are the only four women to have ever been nominated for this award. They were nominated for their work in the Souten (1983), Gangs of Wasseypur (2012), Kabir Singh (2020) and Shershaah (2022) respectively. Parampara Thakur won the award, becoming the first woman to do so. In 2022, Jasleen Royal became the second woman to win this.
Jatin–Lalit has never won this award after receiving 12 nominations from (1992–2006), but after the separation of Jatin Pandit and Lalit Pandit, Lalit Pandit won the Filmfare Best music Director Awards for Dabangg in 2010.
Anu Malik won a Special Award in 2001 for the film Refugee.
Vishal-Shekhar is the duo who have never won an award after receiving 11 nominations from (2005–2024).
Multiple nominees
Multiple music directors (or duo/trio) have received multiple Best Music Director nominations.
Winners and nominees
In the list below, the winner of the award for each year is shown first, followed by the other nominees. The films are listed by the years when the award was presented. The announcing of nominations became regular after 1956.