Did You Know – This Bollywood Movie Has A Whopping 70 Songs
Old records say the first English language song in Bollywood was “The Psalm of Life” in the Hindi film “Duniya Na Maane” (Kunku in Marathi) released in 1937.
Old records say the first English language song in Bollywood was “The Psalm of Life” in the Hindi film “Duniya Na Maane” (Kunku in Marathi) released in 1937. The twin film was produced by Prabhat Films and directed by V. Shantaram. The song was basically a poem by American poet Henry W. Longfellow.
Did You Know that till well into the late 1960s, your nearest paan/cigarette shop sold books containing Bollywood film songs, and that it cost all of one anna or the equivalent of six naye paise? Ha ha… we are talking of times when even fifty paise (no longer naye) coin has ceased to matter!
But we are on a song, literally, and a lot of them. The songbook gave details of the film, singer, composer and lyricist. Songs were so popular that many would memorise them with the help of those books. We are talking of the times when kids collected postage stamps, marbles and conch shells. Possession of songbooks was also a matter of pride. This is history!
One reason for their popularity was that each Bollywood film had too many songs and the songbook would run them on eight sides. Their number fell in the 1970s onwards, and the songbook, published from Burhanpur and Jhoomritalaiya in present day Madhya Pradesh, also went out of vogue.
Songs are integral to Bollywood, rest assured, whether they are lip-synced by the actors or are played in the background. Here is the list of the top 10 Bollywood movies with the maximum number Of songs:
1. Inder Sabha was a Bollywood Movie with a maximum number of songs. The movie was released in 1932 with over 70 songs. It revolves around a King and celestial power.
2. Hum Aapke Hain Kaun, the 1994 star-studded hit starring Salman Khan and Madhuri Dixit had 14 songs, and all the songs are hits.
3. ‘Silsila’, another star-studded triangle with Amitabh Bachchan, Rekha and Jaya Bhaduri, released in 1981, had 12 songs, and all are super hits.
4. ‘Taal’ had 12 songs. Released in 1999, it was directed by Subhash Ghai. It had Anil Kapoor, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, and Akshaye Khanna playing the main roles.
5. Tere Naam, another Salman Khan starrer released in 2003, also had 12 songs.
6. ‘Devdas’ (2002), directed by Sanjay Leela Bhansali, had ten songs. It had the Shah Rukh Khan, Aishwarya Rai and Madhuri triangle.
7. “Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam” had both Salman and Aishwarya, with Ajay Devgn playing the key roles. It had 11 songs.
8. Rockstar, the Ranbir Kapoor starrer (2011) had 14 songs, which was but natural for a movie about the rise and rise of a singer.
9. “Hum Saath Saath Hain” the 1999 film had 10 songs, all beautifully shot in keeping with the theme of a family drama.
10. ‘Mohabbatein’ again featured Shah Rukh Khan and Aishwarya Rai. It had eight songs.
Now, let us end with a film with NO song at all. ‘Kanoon’ (1960) of B R Chopra had Ashok Kumar, Rajendra Kumar and Nanda playing the lead roles. The songless film had music by Salil Chaudhury. And despite there being no song, it was a big hit.
