Ardeshir Irani

Ardeshir Irani (5 December 1886 – 14 October 1969) was a key figure in early Indian cinema, working as a writer, director, producer, actor, distributor, showman, and cinematographer during both the silent and sound eras. He directed India’s first sound film, Alam Ara, and produced its first colour film, Kisan Kanya. His films were made in Hindi, Telugu, English, German, Indonesian, Persian, Urdu, and Tamil. He also ran film theatres, a gramophone agency, and a car agency.

Born into a Parsi Zoroastrian family in Pune on 5 December 1886, Irani became the Indian representative for Universal Studios in 1905. He co-ran Alexander Cinema in Bombay with Abdulally Esoofally for over forty years, where he learned filmmaking.

He produced his first silent feature, Nala Damayanti, released in 1920. In 1922, he partnered with Bhogilal Dave to form Star Films, releasing Veer Abhimanyu that year, with Fatma Begum in the lead. Dave shot the films while Irani directed and produced; the partnership dissolved after seventeen films.

In 1924, Irani founded Majestic Film Company with B.P. Mishra and Naval Gandhi. Irani produced while either Mishra or Gandhi directed. After fifteen films, Majestic closed, followed by the short-lived Royal Art Studios, known for romantic films.

In 1925, he founded Imperial Films, where he made sixty-two films. By age forty, he was an established filmmaker. With Alam Ara (14 March 1931), he became the father of Indian talkies.

Many of his silent films were later remade as talkies with the same cast. He also made India’s first English feature, Noor Jahan (1934), and completed a hat-trick with the first colour feature, Kisan Kanya (1937). His 158 films covered a wide range of themes still used today.

In 1933, Irani produced and directed the first Persian talkie, Dokhtar-e-Lor, with a script by Abdolhossein Sepanta, who also acted. At Imperial Films, he introduced actors like Prithviraj Kapoor and Mehboob Khan.

He produced Kalidas as a Telugu-Tamil bilingual talkie on the sets of Alam Ara. He visited London for fifteen days to study sound recording, then used that knowledge for Alam Ara. Disturbed by outdoor noise, he shot entire sequences in the studio under heavy lights, starting the trend of artificial lighting.

Death

Irani made 158 films over a 25-year career between the World Wars. His last film was Pujari (1945).

He suspended his film business during the war, unlike Dadasaheb Phalke, because he felt it was an unsuitable time. He died on 14 October 1969 in Mumbai at age 82. He served as the first president of the Indian Motion Picture Producers’ Association from 1937 to 1939.