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Ardeshir Irani

Ardeshir Irani

Directing

Biography

Shri. Khan Bahadur Ardeshir Irani was born in Pune, Maharashtra, and was a writer, director, producer, actor, film distributor, film showman, and cinematographer in the silent and sound eras of early Indian cinema. He launched Sagar Movietone and Sagar Productions. He was the director of India's first sound film Alam Ara. He was the producer of India's first color film Kisan Kanya. He was renowned for making films in Hindi, Gujarati, Telugu, English, German, Indonesian, Persian, Urdu and Tamil. He was a successful entrepreneur who owned film theatres, a gramophone agency, a car agency, and Imperial Film Company, the parent company of Sagar. Ardeshir Irani is considered to be the father of Indian talkies.He was the Indian Motion Picture Producers' Association ( IMPPA 1937 to 1939) Became the first president of the Association of Indian Film Industry. In1937 Founder of the Indian Motion Picture Producers' Association .

Known For

Alam Ara
6.5

A period fantasy that told of the ageing king of Kamarpur, and his two rival queens, Navbahar and Dilbahar, and their rivalry when a fakir predicts that Navbahar will bear the king's heir. Dilbahar unsuccessfully tries to seduce the army chief Adil (Vithal) and vengefully destroys his family, leaving his daughter Alam Ara (Zubeida) to be raised by nomads. Eventually, Alam Ara's nomad friends invade the palace, expose Dilbahar's schemes, release Adil from the dungeon and she marries the prince of the realm.

Alam Ara

1931
Kalidas
7.0

A Princess is tricked into marrying a naive and illiterate youth.

Kalidas

1931
Ferdowsi
8.0

Biopic on the classic Persian poet of the 11th century Ferdowsi, and the author of Shahnameh, which is one of the world's longest epic poems created by a single poet, and the greatest epic of Persian speaking countries.

Ferdowsi

1934
Farmer’s Daughter
N/A

Kisan Kanya is a 1937 Indian Hindi-language film directed by Moti Gidwani and produced by Ardeshir Irani under the banner of Imperial Pictures. Made using Cinecolor, the film is based on a novel by Saadat Hasan Manto that highlights the struggles of poor farmers. The film is historically significant as India’s first indigenously made colour film. While V. Shantaram's Sairandhri (1933) featured scenes in colour, it was processed and printed in Germany, distinguishing Kisan Kanya as the first colour film entirely produced within India.

Farmer’s Daughter

1937
Draupadi
8.0

A grand Mahabharata adaptation, this film focuses on Duryodhana's plot to usurp the Pandavas' kingdom. It culminates in the infamous dice game where Yudhishthira loses everything, including Draupadi, whose honor is miraculously saved by Krishna during a public humiliation.

Draupadi

1931
Madhuri
9.0

The story follows a kind princess, facing danger from an evil prince, while a brave warrior helps her and they fell in love, but face unknown dangers.

Madhuri

1928
Lor Girl
6.3

Golnar is a young tea house waitress who was kidnapped as a child and taken to Lorestan with a clan of bandits living among the Lors. The leader of the thieves, Gholi Khan, is beginning to look at her with interest now she is a grown woman. Little did she know that a young man called Jafar is going to be just near.

Lor Girl

1933
My Man
8.0

In a Rajput-style court, the king's younger wife, Taramati, is condemned for infidelity, and her son Chandrakumar is sent away. The king's elder wife has twins: Princess Chanda and the deceitful Jaisingh, who is later revealed to be an imposter. The romantic outlaw Rohil helps restore order to the kingdom, delighting Princess Chanda. It is eventually discovered that Rohil is the long-lost son of the good chief Sajjan Singh. The film features elaborate scenes of a tiger hunt and a cheetah taking away an infant Rohil.

My Man

1934
Bulbul-e-Paristan
10.0

Probably the first Indian film directed by a woman. It was a big-budget fantasy abounding with special effects set in a Parastan or fairyland.

Bulbul-e-Paristan

1926
Shirin and Farhad
10.0

A Princess is forbidden to see her childhood sweetheart and forced to marry an emperor.

Shirin and Farhad

1935
No image
7.0

A moralistic social film in a contemporary setting. The plot concerns a young woman, Sarojini, who, under the influence of her jailbird cousin Jairam swindles her aged husband and ruins her lover, the next door neighbor Thakurdas.

The Debt of Sin

1924
Bhakta Prahlada
8.0

Bhakta Prahlada is the first full length Telugu talkie film based on the story of Narasimha and Prahlada in Hindu epics. The film is now lost; surviving artefacts include a few stills, advertisements, and reviews.

Bhakta Prahlada

1932