Ardeshir Irani

Khan Bahadur Ardeshir Irani, popularly known as Ardeshir Irani, is India's famous writer, director, producer, cinematographer, film showman, actor, and composer. Born on 5 December 1886 in Pune, Bombay Presidency, Ardeshir has worked for the silent and sound eras of Indian cinema in Hindi, English, Telugu, German, Indonesia, Persian, Urdu, and Tamil. He was born in a Persian family and has completed his education at Sir JJ School of Art. He studied sound recording for fifteen days in London, England. Ardeshir was also a successful entrepreneur and owned film theatres, a car, and a gramophone agency. He became the Indian representative of an American Film Production Company, Universal Studios, in 1905. He learned the art of filmmaking at the Alexander Cinema, managed by himself and Abdulally Esoofally for over forty years.

His debut film as a producer was Nala Damayanti, a silent feature film released in 1920. Ardeshir established Star Films in 1922 with the former manager of Dadasaheb Phalke's Hindustan Films, Bhogilal Dave, and released their silent film Veer Abhimanyu in the same year. Later in 1924, he formed Majestic Films, which produced films directed by BP Mishra and Naval Gandhi. Royal Art Studios was another company opened by Ardeshir and became famous for romantic films. 1n 1925, he founded Imperial Films. Star films produced seventeen films, and Imperial films produced sixty-two films, which has made him a renowned filmmaker in Indian Cinema. Ardeshir Irani gained name and fame after producing the first sound feature film, Alam Ara, released on 14 March 1931, the first English feature film in 1931, Noor Jahan Noor Jahan is a famous Pakistani Urdu television d >> Read More... , and the first color feature movie Kisan Kanya, in 1937.

Ardeshir introduced many superstars of the Bollywood Film Industry, including Prithvi Raj Kapoor and Mehboob Khan Mehboob Khan was a pioneer producer-director of Hi >> Read More... . In 1933, Irani directed and produced his first Persian film, Dokhtar - e - Lor, under Imperial Films, the first ever Persian sound film. He made a bilingual talkie Kalidas in Tamil and Telugu languages. Irani made around a hundred and fifty-eight movies in the career span of twenty-five years, including silent, sound feature, black and white, and color films. The blockbuster hits by Irani as a producer are Anarkali (1928), Draupadi (1931), The Light of the World (1931), Shirni and Farhad (1934), Kisan Kanya (1937), and Puajri (1946).

He acted in a Persian film by Abdolhossein Sepanta, Ferdowsi, in 1934. Ardeshir wrote the screenplay for the movies Shahjehan (1934), The Light of The World (1931), and Piya Pyare (1934). As a director, Irani worked in silent films Veer Abhimanyu in 1922, Vir Durgadhar in 1924, Paap No Fej, Bombay Ni Sethani in 1924, Shahjehan, Navalsha Hirji, and Wild Cat of Bombay. One of the greatest legends of today's Indian Cinema, Ardeshir Irani, died on 14 October 1969 in Mumbai, Maharashtra.