

Numerous hit Bollywood songs were copied from M.

Arshad is also a well known music director and he was instructor for late musician Nazir Ali who assisted him in few films in the 1960's before becoming a top music director. He assisted his uncle Akhtar Hussain Akhian (film Patey Khan fame) in five years. Ashraf got music lessons from his Nana (grand father who was Mamu (uncle) of Master Inayat Hussain). In the 1990's he was blamed for piracy of old Pakistani and Indian songs and his answer was that to survive, it was necessary because it was a demand of film producers. He continued his success march in the 1980s despite the downfall of Urdu films and a dominance of Punjabi films. In the 1970's he reached the peak of his film career and composed music for many big films. After separation from Manzoor his first film as M. Ashraf composed music with Manzoor in 28 films in the 1960's. Ashraf started his film career with his mate Manzoor (film Svera song tu jo nahin hay to kuchh bhi nahin hay… by S.B.John fame) in film Speran (1961) and his first song Chand sa Mukhra gora badan… was not only his first super hit song but also the first hit song of Ahmad Rushdi who was struggling since his debut in 1956. Ashraf was popular in both Urdu and Punjabi films. Ashraf, but he mostly was known as Punjabi film music director and M. He composed approximately 2.800 films songs in more than 400 films in his 45 years long film career - only Wajahat Attre had more films (or songs) than M. He had the highest number of super hit film songs compared to any other music director in Pakistan. Ashraf was the most dominating and the most productive music director in Pakistan.
