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Published: 15 May 2022

Last Updated: 15 May 2022

When that Julie song (My Heart is Beating) came, many ignorant people said that that was the first English song in a Hindi film. Many websites still say that.

People with a little more knowledge pointed to the poem read by Shanta Apte in Duniya Na Mane (1937) and many people still believe that.

However, people who have the first volume of Hindi Film Geet Kosh know that the first English song in a Hindi film is from Karma (1933) sung by Devika Rani. All songs of this film, including the English song, can be heard here (in the Girdharilal Vishwakarma Collection)

Karma and other songs

Disclaimer: We know that full information of Indian films is not available, many early films are lost, records were not made, magazines and books do not mention every single film ever certified, therefore, the first of anything must remain tentative, as of now, based on the present information.

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Published: 26 October 2022

Last Updated: 26 October 2022

Dancer, actress, about 45 films, 1952-1960.

 Baazooband (1954) song, Kis Sautan Ki Lagi

Adalat (1958) song, Ja Ja Re Ja Sajna

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Published: 23 July 2021

Last Updated: 23 July 2021

Let us go over it again. Note SS is me.

In preparation for the book, SS watched more than one hundred videos of her (put together by Tom Daniel), he was struck by the other faces in the background who danced in many of these songs. It occurred to him that a book should be written about them while we can still identify them.

So, SS requested his friend Narsingh D Agnish to watch all the videos and capture still images of her co-dancers. He painstakingly captured almost 1,000 images, of which about 500 were selected to be sent to Edu by email. She responded promptly identifying most of them and writing little notes about them in the bargain!

We have selected about 300 of those images for this book. We are thrilled that we have been able to put names to so many faces of her co-dancers.

All three of us loved working on this book, we hope you will enjoy it too and have the excitement of saying, “I know her, she is Pamela, Edu’s best friend. Or, I recognize him, he is Terence, Edu’s brother!”

It was supposed to be a gift for her 80th birthday, but we announced it earlier because of her India trip.

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