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Samaranayake writes in his Preface.
"About 15 years ago I began the process of getting back in touch with my cultural identity by studying the history of Sri Lankan film and music history. This was in the 2000s and I noticed that a lot of the internet had no documentation of Sri Lankan artists – not even their film roles. That is how I got started creating filmographies. I am proud to say that today most of the film knowledge about Sri Lankan cinema that is floating around the internet is as a result of my work.
In the process of studying Sri Lankan film and music history I noticed that there was a great deal of influence and impact that Hindi cinema has had on it over the decades. This is how I started looking into Hindi cinema – 15 or so years later and after 1,192 Hindi films later – my pursuit of unnamed artists had led me to identify over 250+ junior artist by their appearance (a lot with names I could identify but a great deal still remain anonymous.)
In terms of junior artists specifically, one of the earliest faces that stood out was an older Parsi gentleman that still remains unnamed who would be visible throughout the 50s films. Spurred by his roles I would look for more faces in the backgrounds and slowly build up my memory of faces. One of the most impactful events was me seeing Kedar Sehgal in Namak Haram and also Abhimaan (both 1973) and scanning cast lists trying to find out who he is with no luck. It was with some more digging I would come to know his name and now I have identified him in over 426 films.
Once you start to see these individuals they become like a family one could always count on to show up in a party or a crowd scene. Or so it was till the 2000s when Hindi films started moving away from junior artists and started hiring more models. They still show up now and then when a movie needs a large crowd but its not the same sadly. Still all is not lost as you can go back and watch films from the 50s thru the 90s and reconnect with these great individuals who formed the backbone of the industry for at least half a century. Their impact was vital and should be celebrated."
Now You Know!
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in 1952, from Sangeet Magazine (Hathras), my father's collection. He subscribed to it from the beginning 1935 to 70s.
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Surinder Dhall is a good friend of mine from Toronto, Canada. About 30 months ago he called excitedly to say that he is in touch with Hema Singh, daughter of Kanhaiya Lal and I should talk to her. I did and we started chatting about her illustrious dad. Once she found out that I wrote books on lesser know people, she asked me to talk to Mohammed Ashfaque Butt, a Senior Bombay Journalist. That was about nine months ago. Boy, it turns out he knew everybody from the silent stars to the latest filmi people. We talked for hours at a time. He said that he would get me in touch with children and grand-children of long-forgotten actors and he did!
Among them is the youngest son of Master Ebrahim, Iqbal Ajmeri. I found out that his family had saved documents concerning his father since 1936! He must have sent me more than 200 images of contracts, letters, 78 labels, photos with film people that I had a hard time to decide what to leave out. I ended up using almost 120 images.
So, thank you from the bottom of my heart, the book would not have been possible without you!
MA Butt, Hema Singh, Iqbal Ajmeri, S Dhall
Now You Know!
- Musing 993. Shinde. J 76
- Mohammed Farooqui
- A Year in HIndi Movies 1944-45
- Musing 852: Tune by Master Ebrahim. New 34
- Musing 1012. More cinematographers J 94
- Musings 101-200
- Musings 201-300
- Musing 100: Karwan-e-Hayat (1935)
- Musing 1041. W M Khan. J 121
- Musings 301-400
- Musings 401-500
- A Year in Hindi Movies 1946
- Naushad letterhead
- Musing 1015. Sajjan misbehaves. J 97
- Musing 143: Hollywood perspective 1923, RMIM 06
