Hindi Tv Show Classic Legends Season 1 - Cast & Crew

Nargis Dutt was indeed the first lady of Indian screen. She was the first superstar. Nargis was the first actor to be paid Rs 1 lakh, even Dilip Kumar did not get paid that much of money back then. It was the talk of the industry. Her method of acting is still studied and emulated by other generation actresses. She began her career as a child artiste in Talash-E-Haq (1935) and later on went to act in films like Mother India (1957) which was shortlisted for Oscar. This film even today remains as the greatest work of Bollywood. In this film, she played an older woman than herself as Radha, and despite being aged 26 then, she played the role of wife, a single mother and aged mother of two sons. Nargis, who was then the reigning queen of Indian Cinema took this role as a challenge and Mother India, is still regarded as Nargis’ best performance.

Shammi Kapoor: - 'Elvis Presley' of India. Shammi Kapoor was born to Prithviraj Kapoor, the patriarch of the Kapoor family who’s been an important part of Bollywood movies and to Ramsarni Mehra Kapoor as Shamsher Raj Kapoor on October 21, 1931, in Bombay Presidency, British India. He was the second of three sons born to Prithviraj Kapoor. Shammi Kapoor’s father was one of the pioneers of Indian theatre and Hindi movies. Ever since his birth, Shammi Kapoor was interested in film and theatre. He was brought up in Peshawar, Pakistan and Kapoor Haveli in Kolkata. After his education, he joined his father’s New Theatres Studio. After few months, he entered the film industry as a junior artiste in the year 1948. He made his debut with the film Jeevan Jyoti, which was directed by Mahesh Kaul. He initially started his career by taking serious roles like Naqaband Daku, later in 1957, he attained the image of light-hearted playboy through movies like Tumsa Nahin Dekha and Dil Deko Dekho. He struggled from 1953-1957. His first breakthrough movie was Tumsa Nahin Dekha. After 1959, Shammi Kapoor was on a roll.

Majrooh Sultanpuri was born in Sultanpur on October 1, 1919. He is an Urdu poet and Hindi lyricist and songwriter. His birth name is Asrar Ul Hassan Khan. He was born in Uttar Pradesh and belongs to Tarin Pashtun family. His father was a policeman. As his father was not able to afford expensive schools, he did not receive English education. So, he went for ‘Madarsa Education.’ He completed Dars- e-Nizami in both Persian and Arabic. It was a seven course, and he went on to be an Alim. He then went to Takmeen-Ut-Tib College of Unani in Lucknow.

Rahul Dev Burman, better known as Pancham by the film fraternity, is a famous Bollywood music director who introduced a western style of music in Indian cinema.  He is the son of veteran music director Sachin Dev Burman and his wife, Meera. R D Burman filmography can be found here. The music composer was born in Calcutta on 27 June 1939. It is said that he has derived his name from the fifth note of Indian scale (musical scale).  His crying in childhood always resembled the fifth note of Indian scale (music), so his parents called him ‘Pancham.' 

Kishore Kumar is an Indian playback singer, who had no formal training in music world. The most easily recalled image of Kishore Kumar that comes in our mind is of his smiling with eyes. He was not just the singer, but a composer, actor and even a script-writer. He is also known for having lent his voice for innumerable hit songs for superstars like Rajesh Khanna and Amitabh Bachchan. At the age of 18, Kishore had set off to Mumbai with a passion for singing. His brother Ashok Kumar was already an established actor and he got a break to sing for Ziddi, which established the leading actor Dev Anand in the industry, but Kishore Kumar did not get any recognition. He acted with top actresses like Nimmi, Meena Kumari, Madhubala, Nutan and Vyjayanthimala Bali and every film with them were declared a hit. 

Later on, in 1958, the trio Ashok-Anup-Kishore teamed up to do a zany comedy with Madhubala in a film Chalti Ka Naam Gaadi, which was again a hit. With the success of Chalti Ka Naam Gaadi, kishore Kumar married Madhubala. Later on, Kishore’s popularity went down as his films flopped and even his numbers were not popular. He sang song for S D Burman’s Guide and Jewel Thief, but music lovers had found Mohammad Rafi’s voice more appealing. He started to establish his neglected singing career then, but failed. It was with Aradhana, where S D Burman had given a actual break to the popularity of this genius and his voice and every song that he had sung for Rajesh Khanna was a craze. 

After the release of Aradhana, Kishore scored over Mohammad Rafi and reigned as the only popular singer in Hindi cinema. The legendary singer had married four times. It is a history that after Aradhana, he never looked back. Every hero in Hindi cinema wanted him to sing a song for him. Even Dilip Kumar, who was the supporter of Mohammad Rafi wanted a Kishore number for his films Bairaag and Sagina. Kishore Kuamr also sang some popular numbers in Bengali cinema too. He also has sung in other languages too. 

The legendary singer passed away in 1987. He left behind his golden voice. Considered as one of the greatest singers in the country, Kishore Kumar represented what is widely known as the “golden period” of Indian popular music and cinema.

Bimal Roy was born on 12 July 1909 in Suapur, Eastern Bengal to a zamindar family. He was the director of Hindi cinema and the well-acclaimed filmmaker of all time Indian film industry. He was known for his realistic approach towards the film. He was the pride of Bengal, who won most of Filmfare award for the Best Director. He was the one who won International Film Award of Cannes Film Festival. He was from East Bengal, a part of Bengal province of British India and now the capital of Bangladesh. After Independence, he moved to India. He started his film career in the film industry named New Theaters Pvt. Ltd as an assistant cameraman. During that time, he worked with P. C. Barua in one of the hit movie Devdas in 1935.

Raj Kapoor was a renowned actor, director, and producer of Bollywood cinema. He was given the title of “The Showman” as his film attracted a huge number of audiences from Asia and Europe. He was honored with the Padma Bhushan and Dadasaheb Phalke Award for his contribution to Indian cinema.

Born on 9th July 1925, Guru Dutt was an Indian actor, producer and director. His original name is Vasanth Kumar Shivashankar Padukone. Pyaasa, Sahib Biwi aur Ghulam, Kaagaz ke Phool and Chaudvin Ka Chand were some of his memorable films. In fact, Kaagaz ke Phool and Pyaasa are considered as best films of all time by a leading magazine (Kaagaz Ke Phool was a flop and Guru Dutt who worked very hard for it gave up direction ever since). Guru Dutt is included in the list of all-time best film directors. Also, CNN credited him as one of the top 25 Asian actors during the year 2010. 

Artistic films are Guru Dutt’s forte. Most of the works that he did during the later stages had a passionate fan base. When his films are released again in theaters, they receive good response even in foreign countries. 

Since Guru Dutt was influenced by the Bengali culture, he added the surname Dutt. Though Bengali is not his mother tongue, he became fluent in it. Guru Dutt started his career as a telephone operator, but he was not interested in the same. Later he worked under a contract with Prabhat Film Company and Studio in Pune and this is where, he got the life-long friendship of Dev Anand and Rehman. 

Guru Dutt started his acting career in a minute role in the film Chand (1944) where he enacted the role of Shri Krishna. Later he worked as assistant director and choreographer in few films. When Guru Dutt was unemployed for some time he developed a passion for writing and wrote “Pyaasa”. 

The film “Baazi” which starred Dev Anand and directed by Guru Dutt was a hit and considered to be a trend setter for forthcoming crime movies. Dutt took up acting with the film Baaz in which he acted as well as directed. But this film was an average grosser and Guru Dutt came to limelight only with the film Aar-Paar in 1954. After quitting direction Dutt didn’t forsake production and acting. 

Gurudutt may have worked only in 50 films, but his films are still viewed with regard for their artistic flavor. There is no doubt that Guru Dutt is a genius, but his death is indeed a tragedy since he reportedly died of overdose of pills, at the age of 39. Though Guru Dutt died very early, he would always be considered as one of the greatest icons of Indian cinema.

Sahir Ludhianvi is one of the celebrated lyricists that Hindi film industry has ever had. Coming from Urdu background from Ludhiana Punjab (undivided then), Sahir was enormously gifted and this gift was exploited royally in Indian film industry. Born on 8th of March 1921 in Ludhiana, Sahir had to face parental separation during his childhood. Born as Abdul Hayee, Sahir adopted this pen name which has so deeply imbibed among people’s memories. He hails from a wealthy family and his grandparents and parents were zamindars in Ludhiana.

Javed Akhtar is an Indian poet, lyricist, film scriptwriter from Bellwood. He is best known for teaming up with Salim Khan. Javed Akhtar came to recognition as a scriptwriter duo of Salim-Javed. Salim-Javed was instrumental in making of Amitabh Bachchan the superstar and 'angry young' image in Indian cinema, While Salim had ideated stories, Javed used to write the dialogues. Javed Saab used to write in Urdu, which was written in Hindi by some assistant writers. In his initial days, Javed was an assistant to Urdu writer and film lyricist Kaifi Azmi. Later, he married Kaifi Azmi’s daughter, Shabana Azmi, after divorcing his first wife, Honey Irani. Javed had married Honey Iran while he met her during the making of Seeta Aur Geeta.