DIRECTOR ARDESHIR IRANI’S IMPORTANT FILM CELEBRATES ITS 90TH ANNIVERSARY THIS MONTH
by ASJAD NAZIR
MARCH 14 marks the 90th anniversary of Indian cinema’s first talkie Alam Ara.
When the film released in 1931 it completely transformed Bollywood forever and laid the foundation for the Indian musical, as we know it today. One of the most important movies of the 20th century left a remarkable legacy, which can be seen in commercial Indian cinema today.
That extraordinary journey led towards cinema in the sub-continent changing forever and began decades earlier with a young man becoming captivated by moving pictures.
Born in 1886, Ardeshir Irani went from co-running a cinema in a tent and then a theatre, as a teenager, to producing his first silent feature film Nala Damayanti in 1920. That first success led to more productions, including under the Majestic Films banner. By the time he founded his studio Imperial Films in 1925, Irani was a huge power player in Indian cinema and entertaining audiences with big screen silent releases.
Meanwhile, in 1927 Hollywood’s first talkie The Jazz Singer became a blockbuster hit and signalled a death of the flourishing silent cinema industry. The following year, Hollywood talkie Showboat screened at the Excelsior cinema in Bombay, India, and one of the audience members was Ardeshir Irani. This inspired the producer-director to make India’s first talkie and by 1929 his ambitious plan had begun to take shape.
Firstly, Irani had to learn about how talkies were made and secondly, he had to keep the plan a top-secret, so as not to alert rival studios. He would adapt the stage play Alam Ara by local dramatist Joseph David and turn it into a historical epic about the daughter of a banished queen, brought up by nomads, who returns to the palace to free her father. He decided to make the movie in Hindi so it would reach the widest possible audience.
Ardeshir Irani while editing the film
Young aspiring hopeful Mehboob Khan was considered for the male lead and was overlooked as Irani wanted a major name. Mehboob Khan would later become a massively successful filmmaker, delivering record-breaking blockbusters like Andaz (1949), Aan (1952) and Bollywood’s first Oscar-nominated film Mother India (1957).
Irani instead zeroed in on reigning male swashbuckling superstar Master Vithal, who was called the Douglas Fairbanks of India. Vithal was so eager to be part of the project that he broke an existing contract with a rival studio. This led to a high-profile court case and coming to their aid was leading legal expert Muhammad Ali Jinnah, who would later be the founding father of Pakistan. Even though the odds were against them, they won the case and Bollywood’s highest paid leading man was signed for the film. It was only after production commenced that Irani realised magnificent silent screen star Master Vithal had very poor Hindi, but it was too late, so they rewrote the screenplay, and he spent a majority of Alam Ara in a coma.
Master Vithal and Zubeida in Alam Ara
Irani wanted to sign Bollywood’s reigning silent screen queen Sulochana for the title role, but she couldn’t speak Hindi and he instead signed her fierce rival Zubeida. This was a devastating blow for Bollywood’s biggest silent screen star and signalled the end of Sulochana’s career at the top. Another key member of the cast was relative newcomer Prithviraj Kapoor, who would later become a huge star and found a powerful film dynasty, which is now well into its fourth generation, with his great-grandchildren Kareena Kapoor Khan and Ranbir Kapoor. The cast also included fresh-faced newcomer LV Prasad, who would go onto become a great legend and win Indian cinema’s highest honour The Dadasaheb Phalke Award in 1982.
Irani would have to learn all aspects of sound himself as foreign technicians were too expensive. As there were no soundproof stages, the film with a strong cast of 78 was shot mostly at night between 1am-4am, with large microphones strategically hidden. This would invent the Bollywood night shoot, which would dominate the first decade of talkies.
The film had seven songs and all were performed live in front of the camera by the cast, with only a harmonium and tabla being played behind camera. The film’s opening number De De Kuda Ke Naam Pe Pyaare became the first Bollywood song in history.
It would cost Rs 40,000 to make the entire film and what would normally take a month, took four months to shoot. When Alam Ara was finally released no one knew what to expect and only eye-catching posters were used for publicity, but they were enough. There was a massive stampede to see the film and tickets were exchanging price for upto 20 times the face value. The film broke box office records and ran for eight weeks in Bombay, before being toured around the country. The huge success not only ended the silent era but launched the musical, which laid the template for all Bollywood films that would follow.
Sadly, no copies of the film remain and although lost forever, its legacy remains. Google celebrated the 80th anniversary of the film in 2011 with a Google Doodle and this year, many globally will celebrate 90 years since the film changed everything.
Eli Lilly had announced a steep price rise of up to 170% for Mounjaro.
A new discount deal with UK suppliers will limit the increase for patients.
Pharmacies will still apply a mark-up, but consumer costs are expected to rise less than initially feared.
NHS pricing remains unaffected due to separate arrangements.
Eli Lilly has agreed a discounted supply deal for its weight-loss drug Mounjaro, easing fears of a sharp rise in costs for UK patients. The new arrangement means that, from September, pharmacies and private services will face smaller wholesale increases than first expected, limiting the impact on consumers.
Why the price rise was announced
Earlier this month, Eli Lilly said it would raise Mounjaro’s list price by as much as 170%, which could have pushed the highest monthly dose from £122 to £330. The company argued that UK pricing needed to align more closely with higher costs in Europe and the United States.
Discount deal for UK suppliers
The revised agreement will see the top-dose price set at £247.50 for suppliers. While pharmacies and private providers will still add their own margins, the increase for patients is now likely to remain under 50% for higher doses, and even lower for smaller doses.
Eli Lilly confirmed:
“We are working with private providers on commercial arrangements to maintain affordability and expect these to be passed onto patients when the change is effective on 1 September.”
Impact on consumers
Around 1.5 million people in the UK are currently on weight-loss drugs, with more than half using Mounjaro. Most of these patients—around 90%—pay privately through online services or high street pharmacies.
Prices vary between providers, depending on the level of lifestyle and dietary support offered alongside the injections.
Olivier Picard of the National Pharmacy Association said:
“This rebate will mitigate some of the impact of the increase, but patients should still anticipate seeing a rise in prices from 1 September.”
NHS pricing unchanged
The deal does not affect the NHS, which has secured its own heavily-discounted price for patients prescribed the weekly injection.
Mounjaro works by helping patients feel fuller for longer, reducing food intake and supporting weight loss of up to 20% of body weight.
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The Department of Health said the rollout would reduce missed days at nursery and school, cut time parents take off work, and save the NHS about £15 million a year. (Representational image: iStock)
CHILDREN in England will be offered a free chickenpox vaccine for the first time from January 2026, the government has announced.
GP practices will give eligible children a combined vaccine for measles, mumps, rubella and varicella (MMRV) as part of the routine childhood vaccination schedule. Around half a million children each year are expected to be protected.
The Department of Health said the rollout would reduce missed days at nursery and school, cut time parents take off work, and save the NHS about £15 million a year. Research estimates chickenpox in childhood leads to £24 million in lost income and productivity annually.
Minister of State for Care, Stephen Kinnock, said: “We’re giving parents the power to protect their children from chickenpox and its serious complications, while keeping them in nursery or the classroom where they belong and preventing parents from scrambling for childcare or having to miss work. This vaccine puts children’s health first and gives working families the support they deserve. As part of our Plan for Change, we want to give every child the best possible start in life, and this rollout will help to do exactly that.”
Dr Gayatri Amirthalingam, Deputy Director of Immunisation at the UK Health Security Agency, said: “Most parents probably consider chickenpox to be a common and mild illness, but for some babies, young children and even adults, chickenpox can be very serious, leading to hospital admission and tragically, while rare, it can be fatal. It is excellent news that from next January we will be introducing a vaccine to protect against chickenpox into the NHS routine childhood vaccination programme – helping prevent what is for most a nasty illness and for those who develop severe symptoms, it could be a life saver.”
Amanda Doyle, National Director for Primary Care and Community Services at NHS England, said: “This is a hugely positive moment for families as the NHS gets ready to roll out a vaccine to protect children against chickenpox for the first time, adding to the arsenal of other routine jabs that safeguard against serious illness.”
The eligibility criteria will be set out in clinical guidance, and parents will be contacted by their GP surgery if their child is eligible.
WHEN broadcaster and journalist Naga Munchetty began speaking openly about her experiences with adenomyosis and debilitating menstrual pain, the response was overwhelming.
Emails and messages poured in from women who had endured years of dismissal, silence and shame when it came to their health. That outpouring became the driving force behind her new book, It’s Probably Nothing, which calls for women to be heard and to advocate for themselves in a medical system that has too often ignored them.
“For so long, so many women haven’t been listened to by the world of medicine,” Munchetty said. “I knew this from my own experience of not being given adequate pain relief, or waiting years for a diagnosis. My motivation was to help women and people who love women to advocate better for women’s health.”
The book blends Munchetty’s personal journey with the voices of other women who have faced similar struggles, alongside expert insights from medical professionals. Its purpose, she said, is clear: to empower people to fight for their health.
“We need to be unafraid of saying how we have been weakened by our symptoms,” the BBC presenter said.
“Too often, we try to keep afloat, keep our head above water, but we don’t want to seem weak. That needs to change.”
Munchetty’s candour is striking. She describes the shame of being told her excruciating periods were “just normal,” leaving her to feel weak and whiny for struggling.
“You might as well have told me people have heart attacks while I’m having a heart attack,” she said. “Debilitating pain is serious — it may not be lifelimiting, but it is life-impacting.”
Her determination to challenge that culture led to her giving evidence in parliament, contributing to what became a Women and Equalities Committee report, published in December 2024.
The report made headlines for its stark conclusion: medical misogyny exists.
For Munchetty, seeing that phrase in black and white was transformative. “It was almost self-affirming,” she said. “We now know it’s there, so we can challenge it. Women can say: I know my body, I know there’s not enough research, and I am entitled to push for answers.”
The parliamentary report went further than acknowledgement. It called for ring-fenced funding for women’s health hubs, better training for GPs, and greater investment in research into reproductive conditions like adenomyosis and endometriosis.
It highlighted how symptoms are routinely dismissed as “normal,” delaying diagnosis and disrupting women’s careers, education and daily lives. Munchetty wrote in her book — referencing the report — that medical misogyny is not about blaming individual doctors, but about challenging a system built on insufficient research into women’s bodies.
“It gives women the language and the confidence to not just be heard, but to insist on being taken seriously,” she wrote.
Her book also tackles the additional barriers faced by women from minority communities, who may be discouraged by stigma or embarrassment from speaking about menstruation or menopause. To them, Munchetty has a clear message: “You are so much more valuable than you realise. If you don’t prioritise your health, you are lessening your ability to hold up everyone around you.”
Those featured in the book are friends, colleagues, charities and everyday women who contributed their stories, many for the first time. “I was surprised at how many friends are in that book with such powerful experiences,” Munchetty said.
“It told me all the more that we’re not speaking about it, and that it is sadly so very common.”
At a launch event for the book, contributors, family and experts filled the room with what Munchetty describes as an “electric and inspiring atmosphere.”
She said, “It was full of joy, of women who felt safe to speak up and be heard. This is not a whiny book — it’s a positive book. People felt they were part of making things better, part of this women’s health revolution.”
For Munchetty, writing the book was exhausting, but transformative, she said.
“I never thought I’d be an author. I’m a journalist. But this is journalism — facilitating people’s stories to be told powerfully and truthfully. People trusted me, and I’m proud of that.”
And Munchetty’s aim is for the book to be a tool for change: arming women with the language, confidence and strategies to advocate for their health.
“It’s not easy to admit you need help, and it’s not instinctive for women to prioritise themselves,” she said. “But this book will help you do that. It’s the silent friend who has your back and gives you strength.”
It’s Probably Nothing - Critical Conversations on the Women’s Health Crisis is now available in all good bookshops
The Shree Kunj Bihari Vrindavan (UK) Temple has officially launched its project to establish a grand home for Shree Banke Bihari in London.
The inaugural event, held in Harrow from 4 pm, featured devotional chants, the Deep Pragtya ceremony, and a presentation outlining the temple’s vision. Speaking at the gathering, Shalini Bhargava described the planned temple as “a spiritual home promoting bhakti, unity and seva for generations to come.”
Several dignitaries were honoured at the ceremony, including Cllr Anjana Patel, Mayor of Harrow; Anuradha Pandey, Hindi and Cultural Attaché at the High Commission of India; Kamakshi Jani of the Royal Navy; Councillors Janet Mote, Nitin Parikh and Mina Parmar; Krishnaben Pujara, Chairperson of ALL UK; and Truptiben Patel, President of the Hindu Forum of Britain.
Organisers said the launch marks the beginning of a new spiritual and cultural hub for London’s Hindu community, offering a centre for devotion, learning and community service.
Martin Dickie has announced his departure from BrewDog and the alcohol industry.
He co-founded the Ellon-based brewer with James Watt in 2007.
Dickie cited family time and personal reasons for his exit.
His departure follows recent bar closures as part of a company restructuring.
BrewDog confirmed no further leadership changes will follow.
BrewDog co-founder Martin Dickie has announced he is leaving the Scottish brewer and the wider alcohol industry for “personal reasons.” Dickie, who founded the Ellon-based business with James Watt in 2007, said he wanted to spend more time with his family after more than two decades in brewing and distilling.
Early beginnings
Dickie and Watt launched BrewDog at the age of 24, starting from a garage in Fraserburgh and selling hand-filled bottles from a van at local markets. The company grew rapidly to become one of the UK’s best-known craft brewers.
Leadership changes
James Watt stepped down as chief executive last year after 17 years in the role, moving into a non-executive position as “captain and co-founder.” Dickie’s exit marks another major shift in the company’s founding leadership.
Dickie’s statement
“Leaving BrewDog isn’t easy, but I’m ready to spend less time travelling and spend some more time at home with my young family,” Dickie said. He added: “It has been an honour to have worked with incredible, like-minded colleagues who live in a world of flavour and experimentation. In James Taylor and Lauren Carrol, BrewDog is in very strong hands and I will always remain a massive fan.”
Company response
BrewDog chief executive James Taylor praised Dickie’s contribution, highlighting his focus on product quality, workplace safety, sustainable supplier relationships, and new product development. “Martin’s contributions to BrewDog have been immeasurable,” Taylor said. “His creativity, passion, and relentless drive have shaped our company over the years and inspired countless others in the industry.”
Recent challenges
The announcement comes a month after BrewDog closed ten of its bars, including its flagship Aberdeen Gallowgate site and a Dundee outlet, citing commercial unviability. The company stressed that Dickie’s departure will not result in further leadership changes.