24th January marks the birthday of the Showman of Hindi Cinema, Subhash Ghai, who is credited for making epic films on rich themes which portray Bollywood in all its grandeur and glory.

 

Born to a non filmi Punjabi family on 24th January 1945, Ghai joined the Film and Television Institute of India, Pune, to fulfill his dream of working in movies. Not many people know that he started off as an actor with small roles in movies like Taqdeer and Aradhana, and even bagged male lead roles in films like Gumraah and Umang, which were box office failures. However, his destiny flipped when he wore the shoes of a director with film Kalicharan in 1976, which is still remembered as one of the biggest blockbusters and highest grossing films of those days. Subsequently, he launched his own banner 'Mukta Arts' and went on to make and direct many super hit movies like Vidhata, Karma, Saudagar, Hero, Meri Jung, Ram Lakhan,Trimurti, Khalnayak, Pardes and Taal. He is credited for having launched and given a boost to the acting careers of Anil Kapoor, Jackie Shroff, Manisha Koirala and Manisha Chaudhary. A unique attribute of his films is that he has a given a brief cameo in each of them.

 

In 2006, Ghai set up his own film institute, The Whistling Wood International, which trains students in various aspects of film making. He has also turned a successful producer, churning out films as diverse as Good Boy Bad Boy, Black and White and Iqbal. The films directed by him in the recent past namely Yaadein, Kisna and Yuvraaj haven't done too well commercially and critically, but that hasn't deterred people who have loved his movies in the past. After all, who can forget the controversial yet popular 'Choli ke peeche kya hai..', the melodies of Yuvvraaj, or the stirring love story of Manav and Mansi in Taal? There's no denial that his films just stand out, and even though he is down as of now, he's not out of the race completely.