Hema Malini- Became Star with Johny Mera Naam

She got her first Hindi film offer in 1968 opposite Raj Kapoor in Sapno Ka Saudagar, Her 2nd Hindi Film was Waris 1969 with Jeetendra as her Hero. In the next year, her 5 films released but she came into prominence only after Johny Mera Naam 1970. She established herself as No 1 only after Seeta Aur Geeta. She won the Filmfare Award for Best Actress.for this film. In 1975 alone she was part of five successes --- Sanyasi, Dharmatma, Khushboo, Prattigya and most significantly, Sholay, where she was unforgettable as the chatterbox Basanti.
The entire country was now mesmerized by Hema Malini’s beauty so many producers thought of creating a film role as Dream Girl. It was in 1977, the film called Dream Girl was released. The highlight was how good Hema could look in various avatars like a princess, a street girl or a dancer.
Hema Malini paired with top heroes of Industry but she worked maximum with Dharmendra in 28 films, With Rajesh Khanna in 19 films, with Amitabh Bachchan 15 films, with Jeetendra 11 films and Dev Anand 9 films.
In 1980 Hema defied convention and became Dharmendra's second wife. Her spotless reputation and regal demeanor saw her facing little flack for this act of societal defiance.
After her marriage, Malini made films including Kranti, Naseeb (1981), Satte Pe Satta, Rajput, and Ek Nai Paheli (1984). Her works also included Aandhi Toofan, Durgaa (1985), Ramkali (1985), Sitapur Ki Geeta (1987), Ek Chadar Maili Si (1986), Rihaee and Jamai Raja (1990)
In the 1990s, she produced and directed the 1992 film Dil Aashna Hai, starring Divya Bharti and Shah Rukh Khan in the leading roles. She also produced and directed her second feature film Mohini (1995), starring her niece Madhoo and actor Sudesh Berry in the leading roles. She then focused on dancing and television work, only occasionally appearing in films.
After taking a break from films for a number of years, Hema made a comeback with Baghban (2003), Baabul in 2006.Aarakshan in 2011. In 2017 she acted in the film Ek Thi Rani Aisi Bhi in the role of Vijaya Raje Scindia of Gwalior, with Vinod Khanna as her husband, unfortunately, it was Vinod Khanna's last film. 
Top 10 Songs of Hema Malini

Song of Razia Sultan 1983

Song of Kinara 1977

Song of Mehbooba 1976

Song of Kudrat (1981)

Song of Johny Mera Naam 1971

Song of Kranti (1981)

Song of Satte Pe Satta (1982)

Song of Andaz (1971)

Song of Sharafat (1970)

Song of Sholay (1975)

The Fans and Admirers of DevAnand

Dev Anand was among the few Bollywood Stars who was admired and inspiration to generations. His fan following is still intact. There are millions of his fans all across the globe. There are many fan clubs all over the world organize musical programmes and photo exhibitions on his Birth Anniversary or Death Anniversary. He is among the top Bollywood heroes having the maximum number of Groups or Pages in Social media.
Writing in the Preface of his Autobiography Dev Anand says that he used to receive a lot of fan mail every day. One of his fans wrote him 3720 letters in a hope of one-day receiving a reply from me. 

Dev Anand also had admirers in various fields of life, lawyers, doctors, judges, and politicians. Pt Jawaharlal Nehru was his admirer, V.K Krishna Menon, the first defense minister of India, was also his admirer, Atal Bihar Van payee ji L.K Advani and leaders cutting across all political parties Shiv Sena supremo Bal Thackeray was also his admirer. Dev Anand knew the Shiv Sena Supremo, Balasaheb Thackeray when he was a junior cartoonist working with the Free Press Journal drawing a salary of hundred and fifty rupees and called him “Bal”. When Thackeray was at his peak,he invited him to his house  “Matoshri”. Dev was given a red carpet welcome with the entire Thackeray family present to welcome him. Nawaz Sharif, the Pakistan Prime Minister is also his admirer.

Some of the biggest stars of that era  were his unabashed fans. Stars like Sunil Dutt,Dharmendra Shammi Kapoor,Shashi Kapoor were his admirers. Jackie Shroff,Ranjeet,Amitabh Bachchan and Film maker Subhash Ghai are his admirer. 

Among the actresses who not only respected him but showed their reverence for him was Hema Malini who did six films with him, Waheeda Rehman who did seven films with him and Raakhee who did three. In fact, Hema and Raakhee used to visit temples and pray for Dev on his birthdays and especially on the days his new films were released. Tabu was the one female star of the new generation who looked up to Dev like her “godfather”.

Dev Anand was always down to earth. Style and simplicity ran parallel for him.Making the other person comfortable was his magic mantra. He always treated his fans with love and respect.His fans were his second love after movies.
One of his fan Yuvraj Shah of Pune dedicated a garden in his name which is situated on the campus of Mahavir Jain Vidyalaya Pune. The name of the garden is Sadabhaar Dev Anand Udyan.

Another great fan of Dev Anand is Anand Thirani of Kolkata.He met Dev Saab when he was studying in college many years ago, later he became a successful businessman and used to travel all over the world. He used to bring the signature scarves the star wore in many of his films.

Another fan the ex DGP of Maharashtra whom Dev treated as his son feels himself lucky to “did his duty” by performing last rites of the actor along with Dev Anand 's son by immersing his ashes in Godavari, Nashik.

Among all his fans Mr. Mohan Churiwala was his closest associate. Iin the last 15 years of the actor's life, streamlining his work, meetings with people, media management. All this for free. He accompanied him on his foreign trips. His exclusive pictures with Dev Saab were published in Filmfare September 2017 issue.

The Deleted Scenes of Sholay

Sholay is more than just a film. It is one film nobody ever forgets.This legendary film came into being after a lot of cuts and chops and what stood in front us was a portion of a genius film. Say for example this scene where you can see Amitabh Bachchan and Dharmendrahaving food at a dhaba. This was kept aside from the final cut.

Here's one more deleted scene for you to check out...

Unreleased end of Sholay

Rajesh Khanna- Dev Anand was his Inspiration

Rajesh Khanna in an interview said that he was an ardent admirer of Dev Anand from his teens.When I joined films in 1967, I was highly inspired by his acting style. He was amongst the first to view Aradhana and compliment me genuinely. As I rose in stature as an actor in the early 70s, I received healthy and clean competition from Anand, who was still going strong with a super hit like Johny Mera Naam. 
He allowed Kishore Kumar to sing for me in Aradhana without a second thought. The songs of Aradhana made him the super star.
Rajesh Khanna was first taken by Chetan Anand in Aakhri Khat.It was during the muhurat he met ehis idol Dev Anand. Before that he used to come to see the shooting of Jewel Thief.

Rajesh Khanna, Yash Chopra's with Dev Anand

There were talks of Amit Khanna producing a film in which both were to have acted together. The film never went on floors. In fact, when Khanna’s films started flopping in the late 70s, Anand was the first to encourage him by saying, “Why are you losing confidence? You are a brilliant actor. Look at me and my ups and downs. You termed me the leap year hero. Have confidence in yourself and march forward keeping in mind that the coming days are yours.”

Song of Aradhana 1969

Des Pardes was the last hit of Navketan

Des Pardes  is a 1978 Hindi film, produced and directed by Dev Anand.It dealt with the subject of illegal immigration.  It was on a flight that Dev Anand struck upon the idea of making this film as he read a story on illegal immigrants. Issue-based stories always caught his imagination and here was a subject that begged attention. 
It was a burning issue during the 70s when youngsters, driven by an ambition to make money, took enormous risks at the behest of corrupt agents and explored a future in distant lands. United Kingdom.
 It was a pleasing debut by one of the most beautiful faces that Dev Anand introduced as a filmmaker with amazing vision. Dev Anand always claimed that she was special.
Tina Munim had approached Dev Anand as a 16-year-old, seeking an autograph, before she was picked to play the role of Gauri in “Des Pardes”. 
Dev Anand, at that time was producing 3 films (no other film maker attempted that) together each film was being directed individually by the three brothers. Janeman by Chetan Anand, Bullet by Vijay Anand & Des Pardes by Dev himself. Out of the three Des Pardes was Super Hit. As the years goes by, the film, Des Pardes becomes more fresher and more good, the film grows to become more new as the years goes. This film will always remain evergreen.
The highlight of the film was its music. 
Music composer Rajesh Roshan had just made his debut with Julie. Dev Saab signed him for Des Pardes and song writer Amit Khanna, they all created the big successful, hit music, the songs also had became very popular and memorable till now. Rajesh Roshan was nominated as the best music composer, by Filmfare. 
Dev Anand had insisted to music composer Rajesh Roshan to compose the song tu pee aur jee......in 3 antras, which was difficult and songs were not compose that way, it was something new, but Rajesh Roshan composed it successfuly with kishore Kumar's energetic singing. The other difficult song was Lata's aap kahe aur hum na aye aise baat nahin hai...many days Dev saab heard several tunes from Roshan, but he was not satisfied and rejected. Finaly one day Rajesh Roshan made Dev Saab hear Mehdi Hassan's song and Dev liked it very much and then the song was recorded. Des Pardes's music and songs are the best work of Amit Khanna and Rajesh Roshan. The best combination.
One of Des Pardes 's song Nazrana Bheja Kisi Ne Pyaar Ka' is inspired from Cliff Richard's 'The Young Ones
When this film was released in London many people thought that the pub shown in the film, is an real pub which is some where in East London. That pub was made in Mehboob studio in Bombay, under the supervision of art director T.K..Desai, who won the award of the best art director.
One interesting fact was that Dev Anad had fixed the date to release Des Pardes on the same day Satyam Shivam Sundaram, was to be released, Dev Anand wanted both films to be released toghether, but then Raj Kapoor, last moment, he decided to change the release date of his film.

Song of Des Pardes 1978

Song of Des Pardes 1978

Song of Des Pardes 1978

Song of Des Pardes 1978

Song of Des Pardes 1978

Once Indian Cinema was ruled by the Jews

These days for the past 2 months I am in Australia and watching a lot of T V programmes. A few days ago I heard about Danny Ben Moshe,  a documentary filmmaker and an Associate Professor at Deakin University in Melbourne, Australia. He has an interest in studying the Jew community in various trades and settling in various part of Globe. He also came to India to make a documentary on Jews contribution to Indian Cinema. 
On this subject, I wrote a blog in July 2017 on the occasion of Indian Prime Minister Modi's visit to Israel. In continuation of this subject, I am writing another blog on this subject.
We all know that Jewish people are a very innovative and enterprising community. They were the first to make a studio and made cinema in Hollywood. In India also they entered into the Cinema industry. Initially, they financed Silent Cinema but later they entered into the other fields of cinema.
The ‘30s were a key decade for Indian cinema. Sound — and the dancing format that has characterized Bollywood ever since — was introduced in 1931 with “Alam Ara,” written by Indian Jewish playwright David Joseph Penkar. In 1932, another Indian Jew, Ezra Mir (born Edwin Myers), created a sensation with “Zarina,” which included a record 86 kiss scenes.
 The Jewish were active in Bollywood during the period – the ’30s and the ’40s – when anti-Semitism was at its peak in other parts of the world.

Arati-Devi-AKA-Rachel-Sofare-in-Life-Devine

 In the early days of Bollywood,  it was a taboo for Hindu and Muslim women to act in movies. so initially female roles were played by men, the Jewish community in India was more liberal and progressive and they were prepared to take these role[s]. The fact that they had lighter skin made them all the more suited for celluloid. Initially, the cinema was silent so it was easy for the Jewish ladies to play the female lead as the language was not a barrier to them. They couldn't speak Hindi or Urdu.
During the silent era, most of India’s film stars were Jewish. But barring a few, they could not continue with their successful careers once the talkies were introduced as they were incapable of delivering dialogues in Hindi because of their Anglicised upbringing.
While in the early days of Hollywood the Jewish influence was behind the camera, in India it was front-and-centre onscreen.

The first female superstar was the Jewish actress Sulochana (aka Ruby Myers), and she and other Jewish stars had a formative impact on the development of Indian cinema. In her heyday, she was the highest paid actresses of her times, when she was pairing with, 'DinshawBillimoria' in 'Imperial Studios' films. In 1930, Sulochana made headlines when filmgoers saw her do a protracted kissing scene in the film “Hamara Hindustan." In mid-1930 she opened 'RubiPics', a film production House.

Among her popular films were Typist Girl (1926), Balidaan (1927) and Wildcat of Bombay (1927) where she essayed eight roles including a gardener, a policeman, a Hyderabadi gentleman, a street urchin, a banana seller and a European blonde! In 1953, she acted in her third Anarkali, but this time in a supporting role as Salim's mother. She received the Dada Sahab Phalke Award in 1973 for her lifetime contribution to Indian cinema. She died in 1983.
Sulochana was joined by other Indian Jewish actresses. Miss Rose, nee Rose Ezra, had endured a divorce and financial difficulties before finding silent-screen success in the 1920s. Rose’s cousin Pramila, who was born Esther Victoria Abraham, began her long career in the 1930s. Sulochana and Pramila would go on to become producers as well.

In the 40s another heroine made the name, Ramala Devi was born as Rachel Cohen. She is known for her work on Hit film Khazanchi (1941) where she appeared in the famous cycling song Saawan Ke Nazaare Hain. , one of her famous movies was Hum Bhi Insaan Hain (1948) with Dev Anand and. Jhooti Kasmen (1948). And as was the fashion with famous film stars of the time, she endorsed Lux soap in the 1940s. 

Post-independence Jewish Indian star Nadira was born Florence (or Farhat) Ezekiel Nadira, and debuted as Princess Rajshree in the 1952 film “Aan.”
In 1955, she played a rich socialite named Maya in Shree 420. She played pivotal roles in a number of films such as "Dil Apna Aur Preet Parai", Hanste Zakhm, Amar Akbar Anthony and Pakeezah. She was often cast as a temptress or vamp and played opposite the chaste heroines then favoured by the Bollywood film industry. She was well paid for her efforts and was one of the first Indian actresses to own a Rolls-Royce. She won a Filmfare Award for Best Supporting Actress, her role as Julie's mother Margaret, 'Maggie', in the 1975 film Julie. During the 1980s and 1990s, she entered a new phase of her career, playing elderly women as a supporting actress. Her last role was in the film Josh (2000). She died at the age of 73 at the Bhatia Hospital at Tardeo, Mumbai,

David Abraham Cheulkar (1908 - 1981), popularly known as David was a Jewish-Indian Hindi-language film actor, who started his film career with 1941 film Naya Sansar and went on to act in over 110 films. He was a member of Mumbai's Bene Israel community. With the help of his close friend Mr Nayampalli, a veteran character actor, he managed to land himself his first role in a movie. The movie was Zambo (1937) it was being produced and directed by Mohan Bhavnani. Beside Character actor   David is best known for his portrayal of "John Chacha" in the 1954 hit and Filmfare Award for Best Film winner and Palme d'Or nominee, Boot Polish, directed by Prakash Arora, for which he won the 1955 Filmfare Best Supporting Actor Award. The song "Nanhe Munne Bachche" from the film, picturized with him became a memorable song of that era. David was one of the best and the well-known anchor, compare and the host of the prominent award shows and other functions, He hosted many Filmfare Awards in the early years of Filmfare Awards. Some of his memorable films were  Anupama (1966),Ek Phool Do Maali (1969), Abhimaan (1973), Chupke Chupke (1975), Gol Maal (1979) and Khubsoorat (1980).He was awarded the Padma Shri award in 1969 by Government of India, He died on 28 December 1981 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada of a heart attack at the age of 73.

The First Indian Fim was Released on 3rd May 1913

Raja Harishchandra was the First Indian Film produced and directed by Dada Saheb Phalke. It was released on 3rd May 1913 at Coronation Cinema, Girgaon. Bombay though the film premiered at the Olympia Theatre, Bombay on 21 April 1913. It was a Silent Film, it had English, Marathi, and Hindi-language intertitles. The running time of the film was 40 minutes.
An advertisement for the film published in The Bombay Chronicle had a note added at the end that the ticket rates would be double the usual rates. The film had an overfull run for a week, and it was extended for twelve more days. A special show was scheduled for 17 May for women and children only at half rates. Initially, 18 May was advertised as the last show, but the film continued its run due to popular demand. It ran continuously for twenty-three days until 25 May and was re-run at the Alexandra Theatre on 28 June. The Bombay Chronicle in its issue of 5 May 1913 mentioned that "this wonderful drama is splendidly represented by the company of actors" and praised the "beauty and ingenuity" with which Phalke succeeded in presenting the film scenes.

The success of the film in Bombay created a demand from other parts of the country.  As there were no film distributors in those days, Phalke had to move the film, the projector, an operator, and some assistants from place to place.
Due to the film’s massive success, Phalke had to make more prints for rural areas as well. He was established as a producer and later came to be known as ‘The father of Indian cinema.’
 The film opens with a scene of tableaux patterned on the painting by Raja Ravi Varma, of Raja Harishchandra and his wife with their son. The film revolves around the noble and righteous king, Harishchandra, who first sacrifices his kingdom, followed by his wife and eventually his children to honour his promise to the sage Vishwamitra. Though, in the end, pleased by his high morals, the Gods restore his former glory and further bestow him with divine blessings
Phalke watched several foreign films to learn about screenplay writing and then completed the script for Raja Harishchandra. The film had an all-male cast as no women were available to play female leads. After coming to the studio, male actors playing female roles were asked to wear saris and do women's chores like sifting rice, and making flour to help Saraswatibai.
Filming was completed in six months and twenty-seven days to produce a film of 3,700 feet (1,100 m), about four reels. Phalke used trick photography to shoot one of the scenes where the god appears and disappears from behind the smoke of sage Vishvamitra's Yajna-kund.

Scene from Raja Harishchandra 1913

Jeetendra - The First Dancing Star of Bollywood

Though Shammi Kapoor invented rock and roll in Bollywood, it was Jeetendra who really gave a new dimension to dancing In Bollywood. With filmmaker Ravikant Nagaich’s bond thriller FARZ, Jeetendra set the ball rolling and became the First Bollywood hero who left his heroines behind in the dance movements.
One can recollect the super hit song Mast Baharon Ka Main Aashiq from the film FARZ, Jeetendra’s fast-paced dance movement in the song is truly breathtaking. That was unique in Hindi films that the hero is dancing in such a way. After the success of this movie and particularly the mega success of this song, the media coined the term Jumping Jack for Jeetendra.
His mass appeal and naughty on-screen persona were what won the heart of the audience. They expected him to dance and songs in every film. There were many films like,Jeene Ki Raah, Jigri Dost, Waris  ‘Caravan’ and ‘Humjoli’, in which Jeetendra had more dance numbers.

In the 80s he was most frequently cast opposite heroines like Sridevi and Jaya Prada, and his career mostly consisted of South Indian film remakes of makers like Rama Rao Tatineni, K Bapayya and K. Raghavendra Rao. Among them, the most noteworthy were: Sanjog, Aulad, Majaal, Justice Chaudhry, Mawaali, Himmatwala, Jaani Dushman and Tohfa.
 Jeetendra was visible flaunting white trousers and a crisp white shirt dancing with his lead heroines. He jollily tossed around heroines in film after film, from ’60sto the ’90s but a willing audience never got tired of his dancing steps. Remember the songs like Kanwarlal Naam Hai Mera from Meri Awaz Suno

Here are some of his Dancing songs.

Song of Farz 1967

Song of Farz 1967

Song of Jeene Ki Raah 1969

Song of Jigri Dost 1969

Song of Waris 1969

Song of Humjoli 1970

Song of Caravan 1971

Song of Anokhi Ada  1973

Song of Aap Ke Diwane 1980

Song of Meri Aawaz Suno 1981

Song of Himmatwala 1983

Song of Mawaali 1983

Song of Tohfa 1984