Ardeshir Irani

Ardeshir Irani was an Indian film producer and director best known for making Alam Ara, the first Indian sound film, released in 1931.

Alam Ara: A 1931 Indian film directed by Ardeshir Irani, recognized as the first Indian sound film. Irani’s landmark production introduced synchronized sound to Indian feature filmmaking.
Sound film: A motion picture in which recorded sound is synchronized with its images. Alam Ara established this form in Indian feature cinema.
Imperial Film Company: An Indian film production company founded by Ardeshir Irani in Bombay in 1926. Irani built the company that produced Alam Ara and many of his earlier films.
Talkies in India: The era of Indian films incorporating synchronized dialogue, music, and other recorded sound. Alam Ara helped begin this transformation of Indian film production.
Kalidas: A 1931 Indian film, generally regarded as the first Tamil-language sound film. Irani produced this early talkie shortly after Alam Ara.
Tanar sound system: An early sound-on-disc system used to record and reproduce synchronized film sound. Irani used the Tanar system to make Alam Ara a talkie.
Bombay cinema: The film industry centered in Bombay, now Mumbai, and a major center of Indian filmmaking. Irani’s production career developed within this industry.
Playback singing: A filmmaking practice in which songs are recorded by singers and later lip-synced by actors on screen. Early talkies made song central to Indian cinema, though playback became standard later.
Nala Damayanti: A 1920 Indian silent film directed by Eugenio De Liguoro and produced by Madan Theatres. Irani’s studio later made films within the mythological tradition exemplified by this earlier production.
Sound-on-disc: A film sound process that stores audio on a separate disc synchronized with the projected picture. Alam Ara used this approach rather than recording sound optically on film.

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