Chetan Anand

Today is the 21st death anniversary of Chetan Anand, the well known Film Director, Producer, Actor and Screenplay writer.In his early years he was for some time a member of the Indian National Congress, had a stint with the BBC and also taught at the Doon School.The lure of films took him to Bombay and he remained associated with the Indian People's Theatre Association . He came to  limelight when his maiden directorial venture Neecha Nagar won the Palme d'Or Award for the Best Feature film at the Cannes  Film Festival in 1946 and became the first Indian Film to win international acclaim.This was also the debut film of Kamini Kaushal as an actress and of Pt. Ravi Shankar as a music composer.Later he established a production House called Navketan Films along with his younger brother Dev Anand and produced Afsar ,Taxi Driver and Andhiyan.As an actor he appeared in the film Humsafar and later in films Arpan and Anjali which were his directorial ventures too .The other films in which he   acted   were Kala Pani,Kinare Kinare, Aman, Kanch aur Heera and Hindustan Ki Kasam which he directed also.
Later Chetan Anand started his own  production house called Himalaya Films.Teaming up with the lyricist Kaifi Azmi, the photographer Jaal Mistri and the actress Priya Rajwansh, he produced Haqeeqat, Heer Ranjha and Hindustan Ki Kasam , incidentally all starting with the letter 'H' .
Chetan Anand is said to have discovered Rajesh Khanna and given him break with the film Aakhri Khat though this was not the first released film of the  super star.Later Rajesh Khanna also appeared in his film Kudrat.
In all Chetan Anand produced/directed 17 feature films and also a TV serial Param Vir Chakra, which was telecast by Doordarshan.

Our humble tributes to the great film personality  !