Dev Anand

In Sandip Ray’s 1988 documentary Zindagi Ek Safar, Rajesh Khanna recalls his first meeting with Kishore Kumar. The ace singer had called him to his place, where he listened to the actor talking and reacting to his questions for more than 30 minutes. Khanna later figured out that Kishore was studying his face, voice and style of speech so he could adapt their characteristics into his own voice. He was so successful at it that when Khanna first heard Mere Sapnon Ki Rani from Aradhana, he felt like he was singing it…

In Sandip Ray’s 1988 documentary Zindagi Ek Safar, Rajesh Khanna recalls his first meeting with Kishore Kumar. The ace singer had called him to his place, where he listened to the actor talking and reacting to his questions for more than 30 minutes. Khanna later figured out that Kishore was studying his face, voice and style of speech so he could adapt their characteristics into his own voice. He was so successful at it that when Khanna first heard Mere Sapnon Ki Rani from Aradhana, he felt like he was singing it…

A quarter of a century since his last screen appearance and two decades after he died, film buffs still recall Ashok Kumar’s (1911–2001) multiple contributions to Indian cinema. Starting as a reluctant actor in 1936, his career, that spanned 64 years and 350 movies, spanned the evolution of cinema in the country. Launched opposite Devika Rani in Jeevan Naiya, Kumar went on to become Hindi cinema’s first super star. Such was his popular appeal that, for seven continuous years, Roxy Cinema in Bombay showed only Ashok Kumar…