First Film
K.D. Mehra made the first Punjabi "talkie" film, Sheila, also known as Pind Di Kudi in 1936. Young Noor Jehan was introduced as an actress and singer in this film. Sheila was made in the city of Calcutta(now Kolkata ) and released in Lahore. It ran very successfully and was a hit across the province. Due to the success of this film more producers started making Punjabi films. K.D. Mehra made his second film, Heer Sial (1938), with the assistance of M.M. Billoo Mehra. This film had Noor Jehan and new artists Balo and M. Ismail. This film was commercially successful.
Due to the vast Punjabi community in Lahore and Punjab, the area soon became a significant Punjabi-language film market. Studios opened up and many artists, producers, directors, and technicians from Bombay and Calcutta shifted to Lahore. Prominent names were Shanta Apte, Motilal, Chandra Mohan, Hiralal, Noor Jehan, Mumtaz Shanti, Wali, Syed Attahullah Shah Hashmi, Krishna Kumar, and Shanker Hussain. Baldev Raj Chopra, later known as a director, got started in the movie industry in Lahore, where he ran a film magazine called the Cine Herald. Ramanand Sagar, also later a director, was associated with the Evening News. Syed Attahullah Shah Hashmi worked for the film newspaper Adakar.
Read more about this topic: Cinema Of Punjab
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—David Mamet (b. 1947)
“The motion picture is like a picture of a lady in a half- piece bathing suit. If she wore a few more clothes, you might be intrigued. If she wore no clothes at all, you might be shocked. But the way it is, you are occupied with noticing that her knees are too bony and that her toenails are too large. The modern film tries too hard to be real. Its techniques of illusion are so perfect that it requires no contribution from the audience but a mouthful of popcorn.”
—Raymond Chandler (1888–1959)