J. B. H. Wadia

Jamshed Boman Homi Wadia (13 September 1901 - 4 January 1986), commonly referred to as JBH Wadia, was a prominent Bollywood movie director, screenwriter, producer and founder of Wadia Movietone Studio. JBH was born in prominent Parsi family which hailed from Surat, Gujarat whose ancestral business was ship building. Their family name of Wadia stands for master shipbuilders. In a family of entrepreneurs JBH is credited with creation of movies involving populist stunt roles including those by Fearless Nadia and bringing concept of stunt actresses to Indian cinema.

Film career

JBH began his film making career with silent movies. Being an intellect and writer he wrote scripts for his movies while Homi Wadia being an pragmatic brother was responsible for executing these. JBH and Homi co-produced their first movie Vasant Leela in year 1928, along with 11 other silent movies in Kohinoor Studios in Dadar. These movies were modest success and were mostly remakes of populist Hollywood classics. In the year 1933 he founded Wadia Movietone company and made their first Talkie movie Lal-E-Yaman. This movie's success helped establish Wadia Movietone studio in Dadar, in partnership brother Homi, distributor M B Billimoria and Tata brothers Burjore and Nadirshaw.