NAKARAJAN

SILENT FILMS ACTRESS / EARLY BOLLYWOOD IN INDIA Innovative roles of women in Indian films, especially mainstream cinema, are very few. However, some creative directors, working within the mainstream format, have given us some wonderful characters. Several Women Centric Films were made in the early days of Indian cinema. Strong female roles have also been witnessed in parallel cinema. Thus, several filmmakers right from the inception of Indian films, till date, have earnestly tried to portray women in a dignified, realistic, and an intriguing way and have succeeded considerably. Of the recent genre, many filmmakers have given us the best of such women centric films.  Bollywood ActressesSulochana (1907-83)  Sulochana, a former telephone operator, went on to become the highest paid actress of her day. Her finest period was with Imperial Studios where her on-screen pairing with Dinshaw Billimoria was especially popular. They were among the few stars to successfully t...

The story of Fatma Begum, India’s first woman film director While pulling out playback singer Shamshad Begum’s version of Katiya Karoon, we at TCRC realised that she was one of the earliest female playback singers in the Hindi film industry. This set us off on a search for India’s first woman film director and led us to this interesting piece on Fatma Begum, written by Rohit Vats for IBN Live as a part of their “100 years of Indian cinema” series. Here’s an excerpt from that piece (click here to read the entire story): Born in an Urdu speaking family, Fatma Begum was related to Nawab Sidi Ibrahim Muhammad Yakut Khan III. She was the mother of Zubeida, Sultana and Shehzadi, who were popular actors of the silent era. She started working in films in 1922 after getting trained in plays. Fatma worked with filmmakers like Ardeshir Irani and Nanubhai Desai before founding her own production company Fatma Films which was later rechristened as Victoria-Fatma Films. ‘Bulbul-E-Parist...

LIFE STORY OF SHAH RUKH KHAN Here is my new attempt. The Life Story of Shah Rukh Khan. I started to write for Japanese readers since there are only few information of him available in Japanese . I know it has no meaning for international readers because there are numerous of such stories covered in English . So, this is just for my own sake to organize his biography and digest the information as well as the writing exercise.  The story is based on several books, interviews and documentaries. Some of them I don't even remember where I got from. So please forgive me if there are, and I'm sure there are lots, any inaccuracy or inappropriate parts. Please take it as a light-hearted attempt of an indiscreet SRK fan. Here comes "The Life Story of Shah Rukh Khan #1" … Meer Taj Mohammad Khan, Shah Rukh's father was a beautiful man with tall slim figure, fair skin and bright eyes. He was born in 1928 as the sixth child in a Pathan family who lived near t...

FIROZA BEGAM, THE SINGING BIRD Firoza Begum ,the singing bird was born in Gopalganj on July 28, 1930 to the zamindars of Ratail Ghonaparha. Her father was Khan Bahadur Mohammad Ismail, mother Begum Kaokabunnesa. At that time it was almost unthinkable for a Bengali Muslim girl to be allowed to train in music. But even before she was ten, National Poet Nazrul Islam was impressed by her vocal talent. They met when Firoza was auditioning at the HMV, at the encouragement of All India Radio's Sunil Bose. She was the artist with whom Nazrul began his single long play records. Nazrul was then the chief trainer of HMV. Even when she was in class VI, she set her place in the hearts of Bengali audience by singing two Nazrul songs in the All India Radio. Her first record was published in 1942 from HMV when she was 12. In the illustrious career that followed, Firoza sang Rabindra Sangeet, "Adhunik Bangla" songs, Gazhal, Kawali and Bhajan for her audience. She ...

 JEWS ACTRESS ,IN INDIA ,HIDED THEIR IDENTIDIES IN SILENT FILMS ERA jewish women were Indian cinema's first actresses Jewish women were an integral part of early Indian cinema, especially the silent era The Indian Cinema owes a deep debt of gratitude to the Baghdadi Jewish community for its women among all the communities in India were the first to act in films, at a great risk to their reputation, at a time when the participation of women in performing arts was a taboo. During the silent era, most of India’s film stars were Jewish. But they, except a few, could not continue with their successful careers, once the talkies were introduced as they were incapable of delivering dialogues in Hindi because of their Anglicized upbringing. In this photo-essay, first published on Café Dissensus in December 2014 under the title “Indian Jews in Cinema”, Kenneth X. Robbins draws our attention to the Jewish contributions to Indian cinema. It has been reproduced in full with the perm...

Monica Anna Maria Bellucci   Ranked #6  on Maxim magazine's Hot 50 Women of 1999 list. Monica Anna Maria Bellucci Born September 30, 1964 in Città di Castello, Umbria, Italy Birth Name Monica Anna Maria Bellucci Height 5' 7¼" (1.71 m) Mini Bio (1) Monica Anna Maria Bellucci was born on September 30, 1964 in the Italian village of Città di Castello, Umbria, the only child of Brunella Briganti and Pasquale Bellucci. She originally pursued a career in the legal profession. While attending the University of Perugia, she modeled on the side to earn money for school, and this led to her modeling career. In 1988, she moved to one of Europe's fashion centers, Milan, and joined Elite Model Management. Although enjoying great success as a model, she made her acting debut on television in 1990, and her American film debut in Bram Stoker's Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992). Her role in the French thriller The Apartment (1996), shot her to stardom as she wo...