The practise of adopting screen names started in 1919 when two actresses Gulabbai and Anusuiyabai of Baburao Painter’s Sairandhri adopted the names Kamladevi and Susheeladevi, respectively. Gulabbai alias Kamladevi was the leading lady of this film. Incidentally, she was immortalised as the trumpet-blowing woman is the now-famous symbol of the Prabhat Film Company. She kept up her filmi connections when she married one of the pioneers of Indian cinema, S Fatehalal.
Bogilal M Dave was the first Indian who went to America to study at theNew York Institute of Photography. He graduated in 1923.
The trade agreement system in the film industry started in 1925 when Imperial Theatre, Bombay, signed a agreement with Chandulal Shah to produce and deliver a film within 21 days. Their condition: the film had to be released on Id, in their theatre. Shah was paid Rs 10,000 in advance 50 per cent of the total cost of the film. He delivered Barrister’s Wife within the stipulated time frame.
There wasno `film title’ control over producers when the talkies first came to India, in 1931. Which is why two films by the same name Harishchandra and Laila Majnu were produced by Madan Theatres and Saroj Movietone in the same year.
The song `Inhi logon ne le leeya’ from Kamla Movietone’s Himmat (1941) directed by Roop K Shorey and composed by Govind Ram was reused by Kamal Amrohi in his epic production Pakeezah (1971). The second song was written by Majrooh Sultanpuri and composed by Ghulam Mohammed and Naushad. The original song was sung by Shamshad Begum whereas the latter avataar was recorded in Lata Mangeshkar’s voice.
Actress Mala Sinha’s real name is Alda Singh. She is a Nepali, born in Calcutta on November 11, 1936. She was first introduced to Bengali films by Pinaki Mukherjee when he cast her as the leading lady in Dhuli. Her first appearance in Hindi films was in director Amiya Chakraborty’s Badshah (1954). She is best known for her role as Guru Dutt’s estranged girlfriend in Pyaasa (1957), amother in Dhool Ka Phool and Ashok Kumar’s wife in Gumrah (1963).
Laxmikant-Pyarelal won the Filmfare award for best music director four years in a row Amar Akbar Anthony (1977), Satyam Shivam Sundaram (1978), Sargam (1979) and Karz (1980). They also hold the record for scoring music for the maximum number of Hindi films over 450. Lyricist Majrooh Sultanpuri has the distinction of having written the maximum number of songs for Hindi films.
The 1971 film Paras produced by Prithvi Pictures and directed by C P Dixit was adapted from Singeetam Srinivasa Rao’s Tamil film Chinnachiru Ulagam.
Aamir Khan acted as a child artist in Yadoon Ki Baraat (1973). Later he also worked as an assistant director to uncle Nasir Hussain for Manzil Manzil (1984) and Zabardast (1985). Apart from acting, Aamir has also written the screenplay of Hum Hain Rahi Pyar Ke (1993) along with Robin Bhatt. The film was directed by Mahesh Bhatt.
(All archival material and photographs courtesy: Subhash Chheda)
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