Bollywood: A book based on the film careers of Raj Kapoor and Nargis has claimed that Bollywood popularized Urdu in Pakistan. In the early years after India's independence, speaking pure Urdu was considered a fashion statement. As the influence of Bollywood started increasing on people and people's inclination towards Hindi cinema increased, the popularity of Urdu also increased in Pakistan. Harjap Singh Aujla, in his book 'Romancing the 50s: Nargis, RK Studio, Radio, and a Wistful Indian', has credited the films of Raj Kapoor and Dilip Kumar for popularizing Urdu in Pakistan.
Explaining the reason for this, he says that Jaddaab Bai (Nargis's mother) was a very proficient speaker of Urdu. Therefore, since childhood, she trained Nargis to speak Urdu fluently. Then Raj Kapoor was an evergreen actor of Bollywood. His passion was for the people. People found themselves different from others by using the words or dialogues spoken by him in their spoken language. Nargis' influence on Raj Kapoor was also through the medium of Urdu in the films he made.
When Morarji Desai did not agree to Nargis's demand
Aujla has written, “In a country like Pakistan, where more than 50 percent people speak Punjabi, Urdu was made very popular by Hindustani films, especially the films of Nargis-Raj Kapoor, Dilip Kumar-Madhubala and Meena Kumari. At that time only Meena Kumari could match Nargis's command over Urdu. Nargis and her stunning hairstyle also remained the center of attraction among the people. It is mentioned in the book that Nargis did not compromise on her hairstyle. “After shooting scenes involving heavy rain and stormy weather, where she would get wet and her hairstyle would get ruined, she liked to visit her hairstylist to bring back her original look.” The author writes about the sourness and breakup in the relationship between Raj Kapoor and Nargis that “Nargis wanted to marry Raj Kapoor from her heart.
Once, he even gathered the courage to meet Morarji Desai, the then Chief Minister of Mumbai Province, to find a way to marry Raj Kapoor and be married to two women at the same time. However, he had to hear scolding from the other side. After not getting the response as per her wish, she gathered courage to break her professional relationship with Raj Kapoor. It was a bold decision, which hurt both of them equally and resulted in their health also deteriorating.
At that time, there was difficulty in getting films due to not knowing Urdu.
Bollywood's role in making Urdu popular in Pakistan was also important because there were many heroes and heroines who had to lose their films due to not knowing Urdu. An incident is related to the film of Zeenat Aman and Rajkumar from which Zeenat was thrown out by the director. There was a discussion that Chetan Anand, director of the film 'Heer Ranjha' released in 1970, did not take Zeenat in his film just because she did not know Urdu.
Whereas seeing her beauty the film producers wanted to sign her. But Zeenat could not speak Urdu during the audition. There was a lot of discussion about Zeenat's audition for the film Heer Ranjha and it is said that Rajkumar also wanted to work with Zeenat in the film but he could not say anything about Chetan's decision. It is said that this story is from the time when Zeenat was trying to make her place in films.
urdu language of india
On the other hand, there are many people who believe that Urdu is the language of India only. At an event in the year 2023, poet and Hindi film lyricist and screenwriter Javed Akhtar and his wife Shabana Azmi, while talking about the importance of Urdu language on the occasion of the launch of an Urdu album 'Shayrana – Sartaj', said that Urdu is Hindustan. Is the language of. 'Urdu has not come from anywhere else. This is our language of India. It is not the language of Pakistan or Egypt.
Pakistan also did not exist earlier. That too has originated from India' According to Javed Akhtar, Punjab has a big role in the development of Urdu. Certainly the author is saying that in the country where Punjabi is spoken the most, Punjabis and Bollywood have played an important role in popularizing Urdu.
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