Madhubala The Icon
In her short life, Madhubala appeared in over 70 films. In all three biographies and numerous articles published on her, she has been compared with Marilyn Monroe and has a similarly iconic position in Indian film history. Perhaps because she died before being relegated to supporting or character roles, to this day Madhubala remains one of the most enduring and celebrated legends of Indian cinema. This is in spite of a proportinally low percentage of successful films in her complete career span (15 box office hits out of some 70 releases). Her continuing appeal to film fans was underlined in a 1990 poll conducted by Movie magazine. Madhubala was voted the most popular vintage Hindi actress of all time, garnering 58% of the votes, and out ranking contemporary legendary actresses Meena Kumari, Nargis, and Nutan. More recently in Rediff.com's International Women's Day 2007 special, Madhubala was ranked second in their top ten list of "Bollywood's best actresses ever".
In 2004 a digitally colorized version of Mughal-e-Azam was released and, 35 years after her death, the film and Madhubala became a success with cinema audiences all over again.
In the past decade, several biographies and magazine articles have been issued on Madhubala, revealing previously unknown details of her private life and career. Consequently in 2007, a Hindi film Khoya Khoya Chand was produced starring Shiney Ahuja and Soha Ali Khan - the plot included some events loosely based on the life of Madhubala and other vintage film personalities.
In 2008 a commemorative postage stamp featuring Madhubala was issued. The stamp was produced by India Post in a limited edition presentation pack which featured images of the actress. It was launched by veteran actors Nimmi and Manoj Kumar in a glittering ceremony attended by colleagues, friends and surviving members of Madhubala's family. The only other Indian film actress to be honoured in this manner is Nargis Dutt.
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