Himanshu Rai
Himanshu Rail (1892 – 16 May 1940), one of the pioneers of Indian cinema, is best known as the founder of the Bombay Talkies studio in 1934, along with Devika Rani. He was associated with a number of movies, including Goddess (1922), The Light of Asia (1925), Siraj (1926), A Throw of Dice (1928) and Karma (1933). He was married to actress Devika Rani Chaudhuri (1908-1994).
Biography
Born in an aristocratic family, he spent several years in Santiniketan for his schooling. After obtaining a law-degree from Kolkata, he went to London to become a barrister. There he met a playwright and screenwriter Niranjan Pal. That association led to making of a film The Light of Asia, which he co-directed with Franz Osten. Rai was also one of the main actors in this film. While making his third film, A Throw of Dice, he met and fell in love with beautiful Devika Rani, a great-grandniece of the Nobel Laureate Rabindranath Tagore. Before this film was complete, he married her.
Bombay Talkies
At Bombay Talkies studio, Rai partnered with Sashadhar Mukherjee, and Mukherjee's brother in law worked as a technician in the studio. Due to suspected romantic liaisons between his wife and the leading man in one film, Himanshu sacked the leading man and cast the gawky, awkward-looking and reluctant brother-in-law Ashok Kumar as the leading man. Kumar went on to have a successful career in films.