Shamshad Begum was an Indian singer who was one of the first playback singers in the Hindi film industry. Notable for her distinctive voice and range, she sang over 6,000 songs in Hindustani, Bengali, Marathi, Gujarati, Tamil, and Punjabi languages, among which 1287 were Hindi film songs. She worked with renowned composers of the time, such as Naushad Ali and O. P. Nayyar, for whom she was one of their favorites. Her songs from the 1940s to the early 1970s remain popular and continue to be remixed.
Nigar Sultana was an Indian actress who worked in Hindi films. She appeared in Aag (1948), Patanga (1949), Sheesh Mahal (1950), Mirza Ghalib (1954), Yahudi (1958), Do Kaliyaan (1968), etc. but she is most notably remembered for playing the role of "Bahar begum" in the historical epic film Mughal-e-Azam (1960). She was the wife of filmmaker K. Asif.
Shyam Sundar Chadha better known mononymously as Shyam, was an Indian actor in Hindi cinema. He began his career in 1942 and worked in over 30 films until his death in 1951 at the age of 31.
Sharada is a 1957 Indian Hindi-language film directed by L. V. Prasad. The film stars Raj Kapoor and Meena Kumari. The music was composed by C. Ramchandra.
Ladki (transl. Girl) is a 1953 Indian Hindi-language romantic comedy film written by V. S. Venkatasalam and directed by M. V. Raman. The film stars Bharat Bhushan, Kishore Kumar, Vyjayanthimala, and Anjali Devi in lead roles, along with Om Prakash, Leela Mishra, Raj Mehra, and Chittor V. Nagaiah in supporting roles. The film was produced by A. V. Meiyappan of AVM Productions. The film's score was composed by R. Sudarsanam and Dhaniram, edited by K. Shankar and M. V. Raman, and filmed by Yusuf Mulji and T. Muthu Sami.
Leela Mishra was an Indian actress. She worked as a character actor in over 200 Hindi films for five decades, and is best remembered for playing stock characters such as aunts. She is best known for her role of "mausi" in the blockbuster Sholay (1975), Dil Se Mile Dil (1978), Baton Baton Mein (1979), Rajesh Khanna films such as Palkon Ki Chhaon Mein, Aanchal, Mehbooba, Amar Prem and Rajshri Productions hits such as Geet Gaata Chal (1975), Nadiya Ke Paar (1982) and Abodh (1984). Her career's best performance was in Naani Maa in 1981, for which she received Best Actress award at the age of 73.
Kaneez is a 1949 Indian Hindi-language drama film, directed and produced by Krishan Kumar, starring Shyam, Munawar Sultana and Kuldip Kaur in lead roles.
Harnam Singh Rawail, often credited as H. S. Rawail, was an Indian filmmaker. He debuted as a director with the 1940 Bollywood film Dorangia Daku and is best known for romantic films like Mere Mehboob (1963), Sunghursh (1968), Mehboob Ki Mehndi (1971) and Laila Majnu (1976). His son Rahul Rawail and grandson Rajat Rawail are film directors too; the former paid a tribute to his father's film Sunghursh by titling one of his films as Jeevan Ek Sanghursh (1990).
Yakub Khan, known as Yakub, was an Indian actor born into a Pathan family in Jabalpur, Madhya Pradesh, India. He is best known for his comic and comic villainous roles.
Gope was an Indian actor of Hindi cinema. Starting his career with a small role in Insaan Ya Shaitaan (1933), directed by Moti Gidwani and produced by Eastern Arts Production, Gope went on to act in over one hundred forty films in a career spanning twenty-four years from 1933 to 1957. Several of his films were released following his death. Best known for his comedy roles, he is stated to be one of Hindi cinema's "most popular comedians". His acting in comic roles won him "critical and popular acclaim" and he soon became "the leading comedian of his time". His popularity assured him of being mentioned in the credit roll of films along with the main cast. He became famous for lip-syncing the popular number "Mere Piya Gaye Rangoon" from Patanga, playbacked by C. Ramchandra for Gope and by Shamshad Begum for Nigar Sultana.
Watan (transl. Homeland) is a 1938 Indian costume drama film directed by Mehboob Khan. Produced by Sagar Films, the film had story by Mehboob Khan and Wajahat Mirza. The cast of the film included Kumar, Bibbo, Maya Banerjee, Yakub Lala, Sitara Devi and Kayam Ali. The story set in Central Asia, based on the De-Cossackization policy, involving the Bolsheviks and Cossacks with the Cossacks fight for independence which was a symbolic reference to the independence from British rule in India at that time. It also incorporated a romantic triangle involving Kumar, Bibbo and Sitara Devi.
Sunehre Din is a 1949 Indian Hindi-language romance film directed by Satish Nigam and produced by Madan Lal Mehrotr. The film stars Raj Kapoor, Roop Kamal, Nigar Sultana and Rehana, with Ramesh Sinha, Indumati, Heera, Kamalakant and Mahendra in supporting roles. The soundtrack was composed by Gyan Dutt. The film was based on a story written by Satish Nigam.
Magroor (transl. Proud) is a 1950 Indian Hindi-language romance film produced by J.B.H. Wadia and directed by cinematographer R.D. Mathur.
Teerandaz is a 1955 Indian romance film directed by H. S. Rawail and starring Ajit and Madhubala.
Varma Films was a film production and distribution company founded in Bombay, India. The company was predominantly involved in producing and distributing Hindi-language films and to a lesser extent distributing some Italian-language films with English subtitles in India.
Sagai is a 1951 Bollywood drama film starring Premnath and Rehana directed by H. S. Rawail. It was the second time H. S. Rawail collaborated with Varma Films after the success of their previous film Patanga, which was the seventh highest-grossing film of 1949. As in Patanga, Rajendra Kumar, who would rise to become one of the leading actors in Indian cinema, worked on Sagai as an assistant to director H. S. Rawail.
