Renowned Indian violinist and music composer Ismail Darbar was born on 1st June, 1964 in Surat, Gujarat. He began his music career as a session violinist for leading music directors like Laxmikant Pyarelal, Kalyanji Anandji, Bappi Lahiri, Rajesh Roshan, Anand-Milind, Nadeem-Shravan, Jatin-Lalit and A. R. Rahman. He has also played the violin for Jatin-Lalit for the film Khamoshi: The Musical (1996). The film’s songs were chartbusters. 

After many years as a violinist, Darbar got the break as a film’s music director with Sanjay Leela Bhansali's film ‘Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam’ (1999). The soundtracks in the film became huge hits and brought the new music director much needed attention. He received a lot of appreciation for his work from eminent music composers of the industry. 

Bhansali once again teamed up with Darbar for his next grand venture – Devdas (2000). The music in the film was much critically and commercially well acclaimed. Though success was not consistent, he came back with a bang once again, co-composing for Subhash Ghai's film Kisna: The Warrior Poet (2005) with A. R. Rahman. 

Besides composing music, Darbar was seen as one of the four judges on Zee TV's popular Indian musical programme ‘Sa Re Ga Ma Pa Challenge’ in 2005 and 2007. In 2007, he cut a music album called ‘Rasiya Saajan’ directed by S Ramachandran, which won many hearts. 

In the year 2009, the violinist & music director was seen as one of the contestants in Bigg Boss (Season 3) on Colors TV. In 2011, he joined a political party at State level. He made his presence felt in this field as well.