A new class of colored inorganic compounds, BiREMoO6 (RE = Pr, Nd, Sm, Tb and Yb) has been synthesized by a solid state route. The substitution of different rare earths for BP3+ in Bi2MoO6 produces visible light responsive compounds by gently red shifting the absorption edge to low energy side. The visible light absorption is based on the charge transfer transitions from O-2p valence band to conduction band made of primary MO4d and secondary Bi-6p. The substitution of RE3+ introduces partially occupied 4f electronic levels in between the band gap and the position of 4f level depend on the number off electrons which allows tuning the band gap. Thus the rare earth substitution provides an opportunity to tailor the band gap of Bi2MoO6 from 2.99 eV to 2.19 eV. The developed compounds exhibited different shades of yellow hue and demonstrated good coloration to plastics. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.