ARDESHIR IRANI ,PIONEER OF INDIAN CINEMA BORN 1886 DECEMBER 5-1969 OCTOBER 14

ARDESHIR IRANI ,PIONEER OF INDIAN CINEMA

BORN 1886 DECEMBER 5-1969 OCTOBER 14

Khan Bahadur Ardeshir Irani (5 December 1886 – 14 October 1969); popularly known as Ardeshir Irani, was a writer, director, producer, actor, film distributor, film showman and cinematographer in the silent and sound eras of early Indian cinema. He was renowned for making films in Hindi, Telugu, English, German, Indonesian, Persian, Urdu and Tamil. He was a successful entrepreneur who owned film theatres, a gramophone agency, and a car agency.

Life and career
Ardeshir Irani was born into a Zoroastrian family on 5 December 1886 in Poona, Bombay Presidency. In 1905, Irani became the Indian representative of Universal Studios and he ran Alexander Cinema in Bombay with Abdulally Esoofally for over forty years. It was at Alexander Cinema that Ardeshir Irani learnt the rules of the art of filmmaking and became fascinated by the medium. In 1917, Irani entered the field of film production and produced his first silent feature film, Nala Dayamanti, which released in 1920.

In 1922, Irani joined Bhogilal Dave, the former manager of Dadasaheb Phalke's Hindustan Films, and established Star Films. Their first silent feature film, Veer Abhimanyu was released in 1922 and starred Fatima Begum in the female lead. Dave, a graduate of the New York School of Photography, shot the films while Irani directed and produced them. Star Films produced seventeen films before Irani and Dave dissolved the partnership.

Ardeshir Irani on the sets of Alam Ara. Circa 1931
In 1924, Irani founded Majestic Films, joined by two talented youngsters, B.P. Mishra and Naval Gandhi. At this establishment, Irani produced the films and either Mishra or Gandhi directed the films. Despite its success, fifteen films later, Majestic Films closed, giving way to the equally short-lived Royal Art Studios which had exactly the same life-span as the earlier two, however, it became famous for a certain type of romantic films. Irani improved on it, using new talent to great effect.

In 1925, Irani founded Imperial Films, where he made sixty-two films. By the age of forty, Irani was an established filmmaker of Indian cinema. Ardeshir Irani became the father of talkie films with the release of his sound feature film, Alam Ara on 14 March 1931. Many of the films he produced were later made into talkie films with the same cast and crew. He is also accredited with making the first Indian English feature film, Noor Jahan (1931). He completed his hat-trick of earning fame when he made the first colour feature film of India, Kisan Kanya (1937). His contribution does not end only with giving voice to the silent cinema and colour to black-and-white films. He gave a new courageous outlook to filmmaking in India and provided such a wide range of choice for stories in films that till date, there are films being made which have a theme relating to one of the one hundred fifty-eight films made by Irani.

In 1933, Irani produced and directed the first Persian talkie, Dokhtar-e-Lor. The script was written by Abdolhossein Sepanta who also acted in the film along with members of the local Parsi community.[1]

Irani's Imperial Films introduced a number of new actors to Indian Cinema, including Prithviraj Kapoor and Mehboob Khan. He also interfered with the medium. He produced Kalidas in Tamil on the sets of Alam Ara, with songs in Telugu. Also, Irani visited London, England for fifteen days to study sound recording and recorded the sounds of Alam Ara on the basis of this knowledge. In the process, he created a whole new trend unknowingly. In those days, outdoor shootings were shot in sunlight with the help of reflectors. However, the outdoor undesirable sounds were disturbing him so greatly that he shot the entire sequence in the studio under heavy lights. Thus, he began the trend of shooting under artificial light.

Irani made one hundred fifty-eight films in a long and illustrious career of twenty-five years, between the First and Second World Wars. He made his last film, Pujari, in 1945. Irani was not compelled to live like Dadasaheb Phalke for he realised that the war was a time not suitable for film business and therefore he suspended his film business during that time. He died on 14 October 1969 at the age of eighty-two, in Mumbai, Maharashtra.

Filmography
As director
1922 : Veer Abhimanyu- Silent
1924: Vir Durgadhar - Silent
1924: Paap No Fej - Silent
1924: Bombay Ni Sethani/Call of Satan - Silent
1924: Shahjehan - Silent
1925: Narsingh Dakoo - Silent
1925: Navalsha Hirji - Silent
1927: Wild Cat of Bombay - Silent
1931: Alam Ara - First Indian Talkie
1937: "carlos"
As producer
Draupadi (1931)
Shirin and Farhad (1934)
Kisan Kanya - First Indian Colour (1937)
As actor
Ferdowsi (1934)




The story of Alam Ara, the first Indian talkie film is woven around the two queens - Navabahar and Dilbahar - of the king of Kumarpur. Both were childless. A fakir’s prediction that a son will be born to Navabahar makes Dilbahar, who hates the king for his devotion to his second queen, jealous. Dilbahar has designs on Adil, the Army Chief. When she is spurned by him, she gets him imprisoned and his wife banished. Adil’s wife dies while giving birth to Alam Ara.

A charm around Alam Ara’s neck reveals that she is the daughter of Adil. One night she secretly leaves the nomad camp where she has been brought up and goes to the palace to seek her father’s release. In the palace she encounters the young prince, (Navabahar’s son) who falls in love with her.

n the final dramatic scene, the nomads arrive in the city in search of Alam Ara and to secure her father’s release. Aslam, their leader, manages to enter the dungeon where Adil is imprisoned. Just then, Dilbahar enters, wanting to give Adil his last chance of returning her love. Finding Adil relentless, she gets infuriated and is about to kill him when Aslam rushes out of his hiding place. So do the king and his party. Dilbahar is exposed. In the end, Adil is released and the young prince marries Alam Ara.

Following are two excerpts from two interviews that I conducted with Ardeshir Irani. The first took place in 1949 and the second in 1964 after a lapse of nearly 15 years. During the course of the first interview Mr. Rustom Bharucha (a versatile lawyer who later managed Imperial Studios) who assisted Mr.Irani in recording the songs and dialogues of Alam Ara was also present.

Since our studio is located near a railway track, trains would pass every few minutes. So, most of the shooting was done between hours that the train ceased operation

Garga: How did the idea of making a talkie film occur to you?

Irani: About a year before I set upon producing Alam Ara, I had seen Universal Pictures’ Show Boat, a 40% talkie at Excelsior. This gave me an idea of making an Indian talkie film. But we had no experience and no precedents to follow. Anyhow, we decided to go ahead.

Garga: How did you chose the subject for your first film?

Irani: Alam Ara was a popular stage play by that doyen of Bombay dramatists, Joseph David,  who also adapted it for the screen.

Garga: What were the hazards of shooting a talkie film in those days?

Irani: There were no sound-proof stages, we preferred to shoot indoors and at night. Since our studio is located near a railway track, trains would pass every few minutes. So, most of the shooting was done between hours that the train ceased operation. We worked with single system Tanar recording equipment unlike today’s double system which allows a separate negative system for picture and sound. There were also no booms. Microphones had to be hidden in incredible places to keep out of camera range.

Irani, on set, Alam Ara (1931), recording soundIrani, on set, Alam Ara (1931), recording sound
Garga: Did you get some training in sound recording before you came to do the sound for Alam Ara?

Irani: Rustom Bharucha and myself picked up the rudiments of recording from Mr. Deming, a foreign expert, who had come to Bombay to assemble the machine for us. He was charging us Rs.100 per day, a huge sum for those days, which we could ill afford, so I took upon myself the recording of the film with help from Bharucha. 

Garga: I notice from the credits of the film that there was no music director?

Irani: We had no music director for the film. I chose the lyrics and the tunes. We used only a harmonium and a tabla player who were out of camera range and the singer sang into a hidden microphone.

Garga: How long did it take to complete the film?

Irani: in those days we completed a silent film in a month or so. But Alam Ara took months because of the hazards of sound recording under very trying conditions. Besides, we had to be very careful not to disclose the fact that we were making a talkie. It was a closely guarded secret.


Garga: What was the total cost of the film?

Irani: The film cost us only about Rs. 40,000 thanks to the cooperation of the artists and technicians who shared my excitement in making the first Indian talkie. The film was a tremendous success when released on March 14, 1931 when released at the Majestic Cinema. The theatre was mobbed and tickets were not available for weeks. The black-marketeers made a bonanza. Almost all the songs were hits particularly the one sung by W.M.Khan (who played the role of the fakir)

De de khuda ke naam par pyare
Taqat hai gar dene ki
Kuch chahe agar to mangle mujhse

Himmat hai gar lene ki