Real Story of Jubliee: India’s first lady superstar whose scandal shook the Bollywood

New Delhi: Vikramaditya Motwane’s Jubliee is receiving much appreciation from the audiences for being so perfectly nostalgic and engaging.

The drama uncovers hidden stories from the genesis of Indian Cinema in the backdrop of partition. Although the characters are fictional, they are based on real stars of the golden period of Hindi cinema.

Now that many viewers are turned in to watch the visually aesthetic period drama, curious heads are wondering about the real-life story of the incident shown in Jubilee’s first episode.

The first episode features Shrikant Roy ( Prosenjit Chatterjee) and his wife Sumitra Kumari (Aditi Rao Hydari).

Shrikant Roy owns Roy Talkies and is searching for a fresh face to be the rising star of emerging Hindi Cinema. His wife, Sumitra Roy is a leading actress.

Shrikant’s search ends with a young man named Jamshed Khan. Life takes an unexpected turn when Sumitra falls in love with Jamshed and the duo elopes to Lucknow. Roy’s aid Binod Das is sent to get the lovers back from Lucknow, but the coin of fate is tossed once again. And the next thing you see is that Binod Das becomes Bollywood’s superstar Madan Kumar.

Real Story of Jubliee’s first episode

The real story goes as back as 1936. Producer Himanshu Raj owned Bombay Talkies and India’s first female superstar, Devika Rani was his wife. Raj, who was looking for new talent for his film Jeevan Naiya, zeroed in on a young handsome man Najm Ul Hassan.

However, Devika ended up falling for Hassan during the shoot of the film, and the duo eloped to Lucknow. To get them back, Himanshu sought the help of his friend Sashadhar Mukherjee, who was like a brother to Devika.

After a lot of convincing as well as a financial deal, Devika returned to Bombay with her lover. While Hassan’s career got over before it even began, Himanshu forgave Devika and restarted the shooting of Jeevan Naiya. This time, Devika’s hero was Sashadhar Mukherjee’s brother-in-law.

And he went on to become the superstar of the emerging Hindi Cinema. He was none other than Ashok Kumar, brother of legendary singer Kishore Kumar.

Meanwhile, Najm-ul- Hassan failed to find work in India and later migrated to Pakistan during the partition. He acted in several Pakistani films but couldn’t emerge as a superstar.

On the other hand, Devika Rani came out untouched by his scandal and continued to rule Bollywood as the top actress of her time till her retirement in 1945. She received the name ‘Dragon-lady’ for a 30-sec long kissing scene, the first one to do so in the history of Hindi Cinema.