Mehboob Khan (1907 – 28 May 1964) was a pioneer, producer-director of Hindi cinema, best known for directing Mother India (1957), which won the Filmfare Awards for Best Film and Best Director and was a nominee for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. He set up his production company, Mehboob Productions, and later a film studio, the Mehboob Studios in Bandra, Mumbai in 1954.
Khan was born Mehboob Khan Ramzan Khan in Bilimora, Gujarat in Gandevi Taluka of Navsari District, Gujarat.
He ran away from home to work small jobs in the studios of Bombay. He started as an assistant in the silent era and an extra in the studios of the Imperial Film Company of Ardeshir Irani, before directing his first film, Judgement of Allah (1935), when he started he started directing films for the Sagar Film Company. Directorial features like Aurat followed, with the studios Sagar Movietone and National Studios. In 1945, Khan set up his own production house, Mehboob Productions.
Noorjehan or Noorjehan (Punjabi, Urdu: نور جہاں) was the adopted stage name for Allah Wasai (September 21, 1926 – December 23, 2000) who was a legendary singer and actress in British India and Pakistan. Her career spanned seven decades. She was renowned as one of the greatest and most influential singers of her time in South Asia and was given the honorific title of Malika-e-Tarannum (Urdu: ملکہ ترنم, English: the queen of melody).
Born in a Punjabi family of musicians, Wasai was pushed by her parents to follow in their musical footsteps and become a singer but she was more interested in acting in films and graced the earliest Pakistani films with her performances. She holds a remarkable record of 10,000 songs to her singing credits in various languages of India and Pakistan including Urdu, Hindi, Punjabi and Sindhi languages. Along with Ahmed Rushdi, she holds the highest record of film songs in the history of Pakistani cinema. She is also considered to be the first female Pakistani film director.