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Published: 12 February 2023

Last Updated: 12 February 2023

Recent tremendous success of the special-effects-laden of Indian films reminded me of what I had read about such effects during the Parsi Stage Era.

Here is an add for the drama Nal Damayanti describing Eleven special effects and persuading the patrons to come, See?, See?, See?

[From the book The Indian Theatre by R K Yajnik (1933)]

 Naturally, they would need people to create and produce such effects live on stage during every performance. Luckily, I was able to find a brief bio of one such pioneer, Dinshaw Irani.

[From the book Bengali Stage 1795-1873 by  B N Banerjee.]

 Now You Know!

New 432.

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Published: 25 January 2023

Last Updated: 25 January 2023

From Phalke Centenary Volume.

 Now You Know!'

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Published: 21 October 2023

Last Updated: 21 October 2023

As was pointed by Arunkumar Deshmukh, there was an oversight in the earliest list; I had forgotten about Mukhtar Begum.

The revised list is:

1. Ishrat Jahan (Bibbo). Adal-e-Jahangir (1934)

2. Jaddan Bai (Nargis Mother). Talash-e-Haq (1935)

3. Saraswati Devi (Khorshed Minocher-Homji) Jawani Ki Hawa (1935)

4. Mukhtar Begum. Prem Ki Aag (1936)

5. Amirbai Karnataki. Shahanaz (1948)

6. Usha Khanna. Dil Deke Dekho (1959)

7. Sudha Malhotra (one song in) Didi (1959)

Mukhtar Begum from the book by BD Garg

Now You Know!

New 33. Salil Chaudhary