Himanshu Rai was the founder of Bombay Talkies and the man who introduced a sophisticated attitude towards film making. Himself a lawyer with a degree from London , everyone working for him had to be a graduate.
He was the first enterprising actor to get a German studio, Emelka, to co-produce a silent film 'Light of Asia' (1927) with him in the lead. The film was based on the life of Gautam Buddha, a role Himanshu played. After that, he became a producer and co-produced two more films ' Shiraz ' and 'A Throw of Dice', along with another German studio.
His marriage to the beautiful and influential Devika Rani further added to his rise, as he could now join hands with IBP of England and make the first Hindi-English bilingual called 'Karma'. Powerful and well-connected now, he founded Bombay Talkies and began the production of quality films like 'Achhut Kanya' (1936) and 'Bhabhi' (1938). Rai was the pioneer of Hindustani in Hindi films. It was he who insisted on the kind of simple Hindi used in day-to-day life, instead of high-flown Urdu which few understood.
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