Rajinder Krishan was a poet and lyricist who worked in Hindi film industry and established himself during the later 1940s and 50s. Krishan collaborated with a number of music composers and wrote memorable songs like "Chup chup khade ho" from Badi Bahen (1949), "Man doley mera tan doley" from Nagin (1954) for which he also wrote the dialogues, "Jaag dard-e ishq jag" (Anarkali, 1953), and the unforgettable "Main chali main chali" from Padosan, 1968. In his long career in Hindi films, he wrote lyrics for over 300 films and also wrote screenplays for over hundred films. For instance in the film Padosan, Krishan not only penned the lyrics of its immortal musical numbers that catapulted Kishore Kumar to stardom, he also wrote the screenplay and dialogues for the film. Rajinder Krishan was born on June 6, 1919 in district Jalalpur Jattan in Gujarat (now in Pakistan). Since his early childhood, Krishan was greatly influenced by Hindi and Urdu poets like Firaq Gorakhpuri and Ahsan Danish, as well as Pant and Nirala. During his years in Jalalpur Jattan and later in Shimla, Krishan participated in a number of poetry recitals and gave his voice part-time, while he worked in a government job. In 1942, Krishan left his family and moved to Mumbai to make a career in the Hindi film industry. After an initial period of struggle, Krishnan got his first film as a screenwriter for Janta (1947). His first film as a lyric writer was Zanjeer (1947). The Motilal-Suraiyya starrer, Aaj Ki Raat (1948) gave Krishan his first big break within Hindi films. Soon he found success with iconic songs such as "Chali chali re patang meri" (Bhabhi, 1957).

The specialty of Rajinder Krishan's songs lies in their simplicity, coupled with innovation. The lyrics he penned were versatile, and could be adapted to any situation, making him popular choice with music composers like Sajjid Hussain, SD Burman, S Mohinder, Chitragupt and Laxmikant-Pyarelal.

After Krishan’s death in 1987, HMV post-humously honoured him by releasing an LP containing twelve of his immortal songs.