A bazaar (from Persian بازار (bāzār), meaning "market"; from Middle Persian بهاچار (bahā-chār), meaning "place of prices") is a permanent enclosed merchandising area, marketplace, or street of shops where goods and services are exchanged or sold. (A souq, by contrast, is an open-air marketplace or commercial quarter.) The term is sometimes also used to refer to the "network of merchants, bankers and craftsmen" who work that area. Although the current meaning of the word is believed to have originated in Persia, its use has spread and now has been accepted into the vernacular in countries around the world. The rise of large bazaars and stock trading centers in the Muslim World allowed the creation of new capitals and eventually new empires. New and wealthy cities such as Isfahan, Golconda, Samarkand, Cairo, Baghdad, and Timbuktu were founded along trade routes and bazaars.

Its name in other languages includes Arabic and Urdu: بازار, Albanian, Serbian and Turkish: pazar, Bengali: বাজার, Bulgarian and Macedonian: пазар, Cypriot Greek: pantopoula,Greek: παζάρι (pazari), Hindi: बज़ार्, Hungarian: vásár (Persian influence around the 7th-8th century, meaning regular market, but also special occasion markets, such as Karácsonyi Vásár (Christmas Market)) and bazár (Turkish influence around the 16th-17th century, meaning Oriental-style market or shop), Indonesian and Malay: pasar, Polish: bazar, Russian: базар and Uzbek: bozor.

Naseeruddin Shah (born 20 July 1950) is an Indian / Bollywood film actor and director. He is widely considered to be one of the best actors produced by India. In 2003, the Government of India honored him with the Padma Bhushan for his contributions towards Indian cinema.

Shah was born on 20 July 1950 in Barabanki, Uttar Pradesh, India where his father was a Navy Officer. Shah's family hails from Sardhana in District Meerut (Uttar Pradesh).He is a descendant of the 19th-century Afghan warlord Jan Fishan Khan. Naseeruddin Shah did his schooling at St. Anselm's Ajmer and St Joseph's College, Nainital. He graduated in arts from Aligarh Muslim University in 1971 and attended National School of Drama in Delhi. He has been successful in mainstream Bollywood cinema as well as in Parallel Cinema. He has also appeared in international films, notably playing Captain Nemo in the Hollywood comic book adaptation The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. His elder brother is Lt. General Zameerud-din Shah PVSM, SM, VSM, recently appointed as the Vice-Chancellor of Aligarh Muslim University.

Farooq Sheikh or Farooque Sheikh (born 25 March 1948) is an Indian actor, philanthropist and a popular television presenter. He is best known for his films during the 1970s and 1980s. His major contribution was in Parallel Cinema or the New Indian Cinema. He has worked with directors like Satyajit Ray, Muzaffar Ali, Hrishikesh Mukherjee and Ketan Mehta.

He has acted in many serials and shows on television and performed on stage in famous productions such as Tumhari Amrita (1992), alongside Shabana Azmi, directed by Feroz Abbas Khan, and presented the TV show, Jeena Isi Ka Naam Hai (Season 1). He won the 2010 National Film Award for Best Supporting Actor for Lahore.

Shaikh was born to Mustafa Shaikh, a Mumbai lawyer and Farida Shaikh in Amroli in Gujarat's Surat District. His family were Zamindaris, and he grew up in luxurious surroundings. He was the eldest of five children.

He went to St. Mary's School, Mumbai and then to St. Xavier's College, Mumbai. He studied law at Siddharth College of Law.

Smita Patil (17 October 1955 – 13 December 1986) was an Indian actress of film, television and theatre. Regarded among the finest stage and film actresses of her times, Patil appeared in over 75 Hindi and Marathi films in a career that spanned just over a decade. During her career, she received two National Film Awards and a Filmfare Award. She was the recipient of the Padma Shri, India's fourth-highest civilian honour in 1985.

Patil graduated from the Film and Television Institute of India in Pune and made her film debut with Shyam Benegal's Charandas Chor (1975). She became one of the leading actresses of parallel cinema, a New Wave movement in India cinema, though she also appeared in several mainstream movies throughout her career. Her performances were often acclaimed, and her most notable roles include Manthan (1977), Bhumika (1977), Aakrosh (1980), Chakra (1981), Chidambaram (1985) and Mirch Masala (1985).

Apart from acting, Patil was an active feminist (in a distinctly Indian context) and a member of the Women's Centre in Mumbai. She was deeply committed to the advancement of women's issues, and gave her endorsement to films which sought to explore the role of women in traditional Indian society, their sexuality, and the changes facing the middle-class woman in an urban milieu.

Lata Mangeshkar (born September 28, 1929) is a singer from India. She is one of the best-known and most respected playback singers in India. Mangeshkar's career started in 1942 and has spanned over six and a half decades. She has recorded songs for over a thousand Hindi films and has sung songs in over thirty-six regional Indian languages and foreign languages, though primarily in Hindi. She is the elder sister of singer Asha Bhosle, Hridayanath Mangeshkar, Usha Mangeshkar and Meena Mangeshkar. She is the second vocalist to have ever been awarded the Bharat Ratna, India's highest civilian honour.

Mangeshkar was featured in the Guinness Book of World Records from 1974 to 1991 for having made the most recordings in the world. The claim was that she had recorded approximately 25,000 solo, duet, and chorus-backed songs in 20 Indian languages between 1948 to 1974. Over the years, while several sources have supported this claim, others have raised concerns over its veracity, claiming that this number was highly exaggerated and that Mangeshkar's younger sister, Asha Bhosle, had more song recordings than she had. In 2011 Guinness officially acknowledged Bhosle as the most recorded artist in music history.