Aghajani Kashmeri

Born Syed Wajid Hussain Rizavi on October 16, circa 1908, in Lucknow, North India, he ran away from home in his late teens to become a hero in an early film, Shan e Subha, being shot in Rangoon. Subsequently returned to Calcutta, did bit roles but realized he wasn't six feet plus and the hunk he should be to become a real hero in the Bollywood of that time. Given his literary upbringing in Urdu - he was a pupil of the famous Urdu poet Arzoo Lucknowi and was schooled in the finest tradition of Urdu literature, he joined Bombay Talkies, learned screenplay writing with Hemansu Roy, and wrote his first move in the early 1930's, directed by Franz Osten of Germany who worked in Bombay Talkies at the time. The movie was Vachan and it was a hit. He went on to write more than 50 movies over six generations, became a celebrated movie writer, a poet and a humourist. In 1971, he published in Urdu and Hindi, his autobiography called Sahar Hone Tak, being translated by his son Zuhair Kashmeri in Niagara on the Lake, Ontario, Canada. Aghajani retired in Toronto, Canada, with his wife Khursheed Kashmeri, who passed away on May 7, 1996; Aghajani passed away on March 27, 1998. Both are buried at the York Cemetery in Toronto. Among his well-known Bollywood movies are: Anmol Ghadi, Najma, Taqdeer (in which he introduced the famous actress Nargis), Humayun, Amar, Andaz, Aan, Tohfa, Junglee in which he trained and introduced Saira Banu), Love in Simla (in which he trained and introduced Joy Mukherjee), Ziddi, Love in Tokyo, Mujhe Jeene Do, Ghazal, Yeh Rastey Hain Pyar Ke, Chori Chori, Fifty Fifty, Malkin, Khilona, Naya Zamana, etc. etc. etc.