Handwritten letters, diaries, nazms and shayaris of legendary poet-lyricist Sahir Ludhianvi were found at a scrap dealer’s shop in Juhu.

Also found were black and white photographs of the Urdu poet, which have now been procured by Film Heritage Foundation (FHF) for preservation.

Founder and director of FHF Shivendra Dungarpur tweeted: “Heartbreaking to find that Sahir Ludhianvi’s early photos, letters, hand written notes and poems all thrown to the scrap dealer just like the film Pyaasa ...Film Heritage Foundation is proud to rescue them and preserve them in our archive....”

Shivendra told The Woods that he is in constant touch with scrap dealers of Mumbai because “such treasure” could be found anywhere in the city.

“One scrap dealer from Juhu called me about some papers not knowing it was the writings and photographs of Sahir saab.

“The diaries found have details of his daily routines like where he would be going for song recording and other personal life happenings. Then there are several poems and notes. The notes are related to his publishing house Parchaian,” Shivendra said.

“There are letters addressed to him from prominent people of the time like composer Ravi and his friend and poet Harbans. Some of the letters are in English, and some in Urdu. Everything else is in Urdu,” he said.

“This is reminiscent of a scene from Guru Dutt’s Pyaasa, where the protagonist’s poems and writings are found at a scrap shop,” he said. Sahir had written the songs for the 1957 classic, also the last film he worked on with composer SD Burman.

“Several situations in the film, whose protagonist played by Guru Dutt, too, was a poet, were based on Sahir’s life,” he said.

Sahir, who died in 1980, was known as the “people’s poet” as his writings reflected their loves, sufferings, angst and joy.