In this weekend topic, I am still on Bollywood. You all are aware that Bollywood is more than 100 years old industry. When it started it was frowned upon as low grade business, and no person from respected family chose this as profession, mainly in front of camera. Yes in the back of camera there were many from the good families who entered this field but female had reservations in this field and in the initial years, even female roles were performed by male artists. After this medium started becoming popular, more and more people got attracted to this field including females. When the talkies film started in early 1930s, which brought the revolution, and so many stage artists, both male & females started entering this field. This included members of Royal families even, earlier for them it was untouchable field. Similar situations prevailed in the film industries of the other language.
In this weekend blog, I am writing about some members from the Royal families who entered the Bollywood and became popular.
1 Sachin Dev Burman– Popularly known as SD Burman or Burman Da, was revered as one of the most creative and talented music composers of all times. He was born on 1st Oct 1906, his father at the time of his birt was Price of Tripura, being son of Maharaj of Tripura Ishanachandra Manikya Burman, and his mother was raj Kumari Nirmala Devi, the Royal princess of Manipur.
In 1944, Burman moved to Mumbai, at the request of S Mukherjee of Filmistan. Mukherjee wanted Burman to score music for two films of superstar Ashok Kumar – ‘Shikari’ (1946) and ‘Aath Din’. Burman achieved success and recognition with ‘Do Bhai’ (1947). The song ‘Mera Sundar Sapna Beet Gaya’, which was rendered in the voice of Geeta Dutt, was his breakthrough song. The overnight success of the movie catapulted Burman to the peak of fame. Within no time, he emerged as the leading music composers in the industry.
S D Burman scored music for more than 100 films in Hindi and Bengali with his excellent music. His songs have been sung by all the established singers of the period including Lata Mangeshkar, Asha Bhosle, Geeta Dutt, Shamshad Begum, Mohammed Rafi, Manna Dey, Kishore Kumar, Hemant Kumar, Mukesh and Talat Mahmood.
The famous music composer Rahul Dev Burman (RD Burman) also known as Pancham was his son.
2 Saif Ali Khan– Born on 16th Aug 1970, he is son of former Indian cricket captain Mansoor Ali Khan Pataudi and film actress Sharmila Tagore. In addition his father was from Royal family of Pataudi. Mansoor Ali was Nawab of Pataudi from 1952-71, and Mansoor’s mother also belonged to Royal family of Bhopal. Saif Ali started his film career as actor in 1993 with film called Parampara.
Till the 1990s, Khan had a handsome number of movies to his name, but he was unable to get a role that could have made him a prominent star of the film industry as per his expectation. However, the commencement of the new centaury turned out to be a hallmark for his life. He exhibited the best performance of his career in ‘Dil Chahta Hai’ (2001) directed by Farhan Akhtar. The movie turned out to be a big success and proved to be a major turning point in the career of the actor. In fact, the movie, Dil Chahta Hai’ (2001), saved his career from sinking. And after that he has not looked back. Saif Ali’s younger sister Soha Ali Khan also acted in few Hindi films, but could not achieve much success. Last year Saif’s daughter Sara Ali has also entered Bolywood as actress .
3 Kiran Rao– She is the wife of film actor Aamir Khan, she is also a film producer, screen writer and director. She was born on 7th Nov 1973. into a Royal family, her grand father was J Rameshwar Rao, Raja of Wanaparthy, in Telangana.Though Rao was born in Telangana, she was raised in Kolkata where she completed her schooling. In the year of 1992, her parents decided to leave Kolkata so she moved to Mumbai and did her graduation from the prestigious Sophia College for Women in 1995. Then she did Masters at AJK Mass Communication Research Center at Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi. After completing the course, she moved back to Mumbai and started working in films as an assistant director. During the making of Lagaan, she was assistant Director, came in contact with Aamir Khan. She has directed film called Dhobi Ghat.
4 Sonal Chauhan– She is well known model and actress , who has worked in Hindi and Telugu films. She belonged to the Royal family from Rajasthan’s princely state. She won coveted Miss World Tourism Title in 2005, and afterwards became model, and endorsed many brands, and soon made her debut in 2008 film Jannat. She did not get mush opportunity in Bollywood and she shifted to Telugu films.
5 Bhagyashree– she is best known for first and only successful film Maine Pyar Kya. She belongs to the Royal family of Sangli, her father was the last king of Sangli. . However, Bhagyashree surprised one and all when she married Sindhi Businessman Himalaya Dassani decided to star opposite her husband only.
Her decision of doing films with her husband only did not work in her favor as, after marriage, she did three films: ‘Qaid Main Hai Bulbul’, ‘Tyagi’ and ‘Payal’ with her husband Himalaya in 1992. Unfortunately, all three films tanked at the box office. In 1993, she also did ‘Ghar Aaya Mera Pardesi’, which was her last Hindi movie in the 1990s and she quit films for the rest of the decade. She made a comeback to Hindi films with ‘Hello Girls’ in 2001 and later appeared in ‘Janani’ (2006), ‘Humko Deewana Kar Gaye’ (2006) and ‘Red Alert: The War Within’ (2008). Now, she is seen in television shows more than films.
6 Riya Sen– she is well known model and actress, who is acting in Hindi & Bangla films. She is related to a Royal family from her father side, her father Bharat Dev Varma is from Royal family of Tripura. Her paternal grand mother was the Princess of Cooch Behar, whose younger sister was the maharani of Jaipur, Gayatri Devi. Her paternal great-grand mother was the daughter of Maharaja Sayajirao Gaekwad III of Baroda. Riya’s mother is actress Moon Moon Sen and her maternal grandmother if legendry actress Suchitra Sen.
She made her debut as heroine in 2001, in a film called style. After that she has acted in many Hindi, Bengali & South Indian films.
Friends, I hope you like this information.
Waiting for your comments/vies/feed backs.
Anil Malik
Mumbai, India
20th Dec 2019