Babubhai Mistry

Recognized as the Trick Master of the film fraternity, Babubhai Mistry is one of the country’s most respected and talented Special effect artists, art director, and director. Babubhai Mistry was born on 5th September 1918 and brought up in Surat in Gujarat. He is the eldest son among the nine siblings in his family. At his age of fourteen, Babubhai joined as an assistant painter in a Gujarati Natak Company in Wardha and gradually shifted to writing the title boards of the company. When the company got shut, he moved to Mumbai, where he served as an assistant in the Poster department. He got hired as the head of the Setting and Painting department in Prakash Picture company which belonged to Vijayshankar Bhatt.

Because of working a lot with the cameramen, Babubhai Mistry even attained the skill to make a trailer, and that’s how the trailer of the film ‘Top ka Gola’ got made. Inspired by the camera tricks used in the movie Invisible Man, director Vijayshankar Bhatt made Babubhai Mistry watch the film. After seeing the film, he tried to replicate some of the tricks using black threads, and that’s how he earned the name Kaala Dhaga (Black Thread). So, when Vijayshankar Bhatt directed the movie ‘Khwaab ki Duniya,’ Babubhai Mistry assisted him in the film with the camera tricks, thus making his debut in the film industry as an art director. Later, for a while, he worked at the Circo film Company and Wadia Movietone. Babubhai Mistry worked in the Direction department of the 1942 movie ‘Jungle Princess.’

He is one of the first people in India to use split-screen technology for a film with double roles. Babubhai Mistry’s desire to direct made him co-direct the movies Muqabala and Mauj with Nanabhai Bhatt Nanabhai Bhatt is an Indian-Director. He was also >> Read More... in 1942 and 1943, respectively. Around the same time, he got the opportunity to fly to Chennai to create a movie set for the film ‘ Meera Meera is Tamil mega serial that is being aired in >> Read More... .’ His hard work and dedication he had for his work got well replicated in the set he made. The arrangement impressed the Kollywood film fraternity very much and made him a popular name in Chennai. After returning from Chennai, he started working on his movies, out of which many did well at the box office.

He directed his first color film called ‘Sampoorna Ramayana,’ which made vast amounts of money. Babubhai Mistry directed and also did special effects for several mythological movies like Kalyug Aur Ramayan, Mahamayi, Parasmani, Shiv Mahapuran The episode opens like this, “Glory to Lord Shiva, >> Read More... , BR Chopra’s Mahabharat, and more. For his insane contribution to Indian cinema, Babubhai Mistry won the Lifetime Achievement Award at the Zee Cine Awards in 1999. Because of his health, Babubhai Mistry stayed away from the industry since 1991, and in 2010, he left the world behind with his beautiful films.