Bombay Cinema - A melting pot of cultures

Nadira, a Baghdadi Jew played many pivotal roles in Bombay cinema.

Many Jewish women like Ruby Myers (Sulochana), Iris Gasper (Sabita Devi) were superstars in Bombay cinema.
Esther Victoria Abraham(Pramila) was a Baghdadi Jew. She was the winner of first miss India pageant.

Helen who became synonymous with cabaret dance in Bombay cinema is of Anglo Indian descent.
 
Eurasian women addressed the fantasy of English memsahib and Indian heroine. They played a wide range of roles ranging from protagonists to dancers.

Gohar Mamajiwala hailing from Dawoodi Bohra family was an actor, singer, producer who founded Ranjit Studios with Chandulal Shah. Ranjit Studio was a successful business enterprise which was churning out six films a year by 1935. It had several in house stars and experts.

Jaddanbai, mother of Nargis was one of the first female music composers in Bombay cinema. A director, producer, singer and actor, she came from the courtesan culture of Allahabad.

Coming from Maharashtra Durga Khote became a super star in Bombay. Her most famous role was as a pirate in Amar jyoti (1936). Devika Rani was another early super star who also led Bombay Studios.

Bombay cinema was greatly influenced by the song dance tradition of Parsee theatre, Sohrab Modi comes from that tradition. He founded Minerva Movietone and made several films. He wrote, directed and acted in most of them. Modi was known for historical films such as Pukar(1939), Sikandar (1941), Jhansi ki Rani(1953), Mirza Ghalib (1954).

Ardeshir Irani started the Imperial Film studio with Abdulally Esoofally. The early movie mogul produced more than 200 films including the first Iranian sound film, Dukhtar-e-Lur.

J.B.H. Wadia and Homi Wadia started Wadia Movietone, which produced Western films in Bombay cinema. It produced fearless Nadia films with the first stunt heroine Nadia.

Another Parsee movie moghul Jamshedji Fareedoonji Madan (J.F. Madan) controlled many cinema theatres allover in India.

Chandulal Shah, a Gujarati stock broker became a movie mogul and later on the first president of Film Federation of India. He invested the earnings from stock market in film. This is the beginning of investment of trader money into film production, for reaping very high returns.

Geza Herczeg, an Austro-Hungarian screen writer wrote several films for Sohrab Modi. Many other Europeans worked in Bombay cinema, such as Franz Osten who collaborated with Himanshu Rai

V.Shantaram initially collaborated with Damle, Fatehlal and Babu Rao Painter. Painter hailed from the Princely state of Kolhapur.
 
Many princely states patronized films in early days.

L.V. Prasad who did a small role in Alam Ara and sometimes acted in Prithvi Theatre went on to become a renowned producer in South India and produced films in Telugu, Tamil, and Hindi. He represents the talent from south in Bombay cinema