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
Famous quotes containing the word film:
“Television does not dominate or insist, as movies do. It is not sensational, but taken for granted. Insistence would destroy it, for its message is so dire that it relies on being the background drone that counters silence. For most of us, it is something turned on and off as we would the light. It is a service, not a luxury or a thing of choice.”
—David Thomson, U.S. film historian. America in the Dark: The Impact of Hollywood Films on American Culture, ch. 8, William Morrow (1977)
“All film directors, whether famous or obscure, regard themselves as misunderstood or underrated. Because of that, they all lie. They’re obliged to overstate their own importance.”
—François Truffaut (1932–1984)