Chandulal Shah

Chandulal Shah was born on 13th April 1898 in Jamnagar, Gujarat. He is regarded as one of the greatest minds in Hindi movie industry. Chandulal was a great director, producer and screenwriter. Upon completing his schooling, Chandulal moved to Mumbai for his college education where he studied at Sydenham College.

Chandulal was an exceptional student and he was great with numerical and mathematics. Eventually after finishing his college, Chandulal got a job at the Bombay Stock Exchange in 1924. Chandulal also had a brother J.D. Shah who was a writer and he wrote mythological films. Simultaneously there was a movie called Vimla, which was about to being shooting, but the director of the film got bedridden, hence JD Shah through his connections with the industry helped Chandulal to get the director’s job.

Vimla was a great success, it did so well at the box office that Chandulal went on to direct two more movies, before returning to his stock exchange job two years later. During his brief stint in the film industry, Chandulal became close friends with Amarchand Shroff, a producer at the time who was working with Laxmi Film Company. Amarchand led Chandulal to the Kohinoor Film Company.

The first movie that he directed for Kohinoor was Typist Girl in 1926. Chandulal made the whole movie in just 17 days which was quite impressive. The stars of Typist Girl were Sulochana and Gohar. It was then, when he first met Gohar who he would later go on to marry. Typist Girl was a massive success at the box office, after impressing the head of the studio with his impressive work and an even impressive result, Chandulal went on to direct five other movies for Kohinoor. All of them had Gohar as their stars.

One of the five movies he directed was Gunsundari in 1927 which became the biggest hit at that time. Soon after finishing the five movies, Chandulal founded Ranjit Studios in 1929. The studios were opened in partnership with Gohar and their financier Vithaldas Thakoredas. Chandulal efficiently made about 39 silent movies in the space of just three years from 1929-1932. Soon after adding voice to their movies, Chandulal renamed their studios as Ranjit Movietone Company.

For decades, Chandulal dominated the film industry and was regarded as the most powerful man in Bollywood at one point. Chandulal passed away on 25th November 1975 in Mumbai.