Jayant Desai

Jayant Desai is one of the pioneering figures of Indian cinema. The director-producer defined a whole era of Bollywood with his movies. Jayantilal Jhunabhai Desai was born in Surat during the period of British India. He graduated from Bombay University and joined Ranjit Studios, one of the premiere production houses at the time. Cinema was not a particularly conventional field of work when Desai took on his first job as an assistant director. He soon went on to independently direct many movies, the first of which was ‘Noor-E-Watan’ in 1930.

Many of his films like ‘Tansen (1943),’ ‘Toofani Toli (1937),’ ‘Lahari Lala (1936),’ and ‘Amber (1952),’ are today considered classics. His work overwhelms the senses with its flamboyant characters and its bizarre adventures. His films laid out the plots for generations of future movies to duplicate. Many like Tansen, which was the second-largest grossing film of 1943, became great hits. He also acted in many of his movies.

He found ‘Jayant Desai Productions’ in 1943 through which he produced and directed many of his later films. He also went on to establish Jupiter Films and Hemlata Pictures. During his career, he introduced a lot of new talent to the industry who would go on to be famous themselves. Desai worked on over fifty different movies throughout his career and created a vast legacy that lives on to this day.