Madhubala filmography

Madhubala (14 February 1933- 23 February 1969), born as Mumtaz Jehan Begum Dehlavi was an Indian actress who appeared in 74 Hindi films and also sang three songs in her early films. She was active between 1942 and 1964.

Template:Infobox actor performances Her father Ataullah Khan lost his job due to being short tempered at the Imperial Tobacco Company in 1941, and with no source of income, he decided to make his eight-years old daughter Mumtaz foray into the film industry. She was soon spotted by Himanshu Rai and began her career as a child artist with Basant (1942). She became the sole breadwinner of her poor family and continued working in films as a child till Rajputani (1946), and was credited as "Baby Mumtaz" in these films.

Mumtaz, now 14, was selected to play lead role by Kidar Sharma in Neel Kamal in 1947. The film was not a box office success, but her performance was noticed, and director Mohan Sinha, while signing her for his film Mere Bhagwaan (1947) rechristened her with the name "Madhubala". Therefore, she was credited as Madhubala from then in her all films.

Her work in Lal Dupatta (1948) and Mahal (1949), the latter being a huge hit, established her as a leading lady of Bollywood and turned her into an "overnight superstar". She continued to star in commercial successes which include Singaar (1949), Dulari (1949), Beqasoor (1950), Nirala (1950), Badal (1951) and Tarana (1951). By the time the decade ended, she had big producers standing at her doors.

Madhubala's major films released between 1952 and 1955 like Sangdil (1952), Armaan (1953) and Amar (1954) did not do well which lead to a brief career setback. Since her birth, she suffered from ventricular septal defect, and this was discovered in 1954 when she was shooting for S.S. Vasan's Bahut Din Huwe. However, she didn't take it seriously and continued working and signing projects. Guru Dutt's satire Mr. & Mrs. '55 helped her once again rise to prominence. She also produced the film named Naata in the same year. In 1956, her two big-budgeted films Raj Hath and Shirin Farhad too emerged as box office successes.

Greater success came in 1958 when her four releases- Chalti Ka Naam Gaadi, Howrah Bridge, Phagun and Kala Pani ranked among the top ten grossers of that year, and her all films in 1959 managed to do good business at the box office too.

Madhubala acted in her career's biggest hits in 1960- Barsaat Ki Raat and Mughal-e-Azam. The latter, at the time of its release, was the highest grossing film of all time and retains its position even today if its collection are inflated. Her performance is known as her best one, as well as is counted among best performances of Hindi Cinema. However, some scenes of the film took a physical toll on her, and with a failing health due to her illness, she did some hard dance sequences as the court dancer Anarkali; director K. Asif shackled her in heavy chains which were almost double of her weight. She was nominated for the Filmfare Award for Best Actress in Filmfare Awards of 1961 but lost it to actress Bina Rai, who won it for Ghunghat. Many recall this as the "worst decision of Filmfare". On the other hand, Barsaat Ki Raat too was the second biggest hit of 1960, and also ranked among the top ten grossers of that time.

Now on the peak of her career and popularity, she was offered several woman-oriented films but had to refuse owing to her health condition. She had only few, that too intermittent releases in the 60s. These films included Jhumroo (1961), Boy Friend (1961), Half Ticket (1962) and Sharabi (1964). All these films were moderately successful at the box office. Jwala, which was filmed in mid fifties, had a delayed release in 1971, two years after her death. It is her only film in colour and marked her last film appearance.

During a career spanning over two decades, Madhubala was one of the biggest, or by some ways the biggest star of Bollywood. The issue of August 1952 of Theatre Arts Magazine had called her "The Biggest Star in the International Film Industry- (And She is not in the Beverly Hills)". Apart from India, Madhubala enjoyed the same popularity in countries such as Russia and Greece. Her name used to appear at the top in the film credits, even before the trio of Dilip Kumar, Raj Kapoor and Dev Anand, and she was the highest-paid actress of Bollywood from 1949 to 1962.

Filmography

Madhubala as a child artist (middle) with Mumtaz Shanti (left) and Ulhas (right) in her first film appearance Basant (1942).

File:Madhuhala and Guru Dutt in Mr. & Mrs. '55.jpg

Madhubala's performance in Guru Dutt's satire Mr. & Mrs. '55 (1955) is counted among her best performances.

File:Kala Pani Madhubala.jpg

Madhubala in Kala Pani (1958). The film features the song "Accha Ji Main Haari".

Year	Film	Role	Notes
1942	Basant	Manju	Credited as Baby Mumtaz Sang a song
1944	Mumtaz Mahal	Jahanara	Child artist
1945	Dhanna Bhagat	Munni	Child artist
1946	Pujari		Child artist also sang a song
	Phoolwari	Lali's younger sister	Child artist
	Rajputani		Last film as a child artist
1947	Neel Kamal	Ganga	Debut film as a heroine Credited as Mumtaz
	Chittor Vijay	Sobhagya Devi
	Mere Bhagwan	Sunita
	Khoobsoorat Duniya	Rajkumari
	Dil Ki Rani	Raj Kumari Singh
	Saat Samundaron ki Mallika	Mallika
1948	Parai Aag
	Lal Dupatta	Shobha
	Desh Sewa
	Amar Prem	Radha
1949	Sipahiya	Rani
	Singaar	Sitara
	Paras	Priya
	Neki Aur Badi	Sushila
	Mahal	Kamini/Asha	Turning point of her career
	Imtihaan	Roopa
	Dulari	Shobha/Dulari
	Daulat	Nirmala
	Aparadhi	Sheela Rani
1950	Pardes	Chanda
	Nishana	Greta
	Nirala	Poonam
	Madhubala	Madhubala
	Hanste Aansoo	Usha	First Indian film to get an 'A' certificate
	Beqasoor	Usha
1951	Tarana	Tarana
	Saiyan	Saiyan
	Nazneen	Seema
	Nadaan	Lalita
	Khazana	Asha
	Baadal	Ratna
	Aaram	Leela
1952	Saqi	Rukhsana
	Sangdil	Kamla
1953	Rail Ka Dibba	Chanda
	Armaan	Radha
1954	Bahut Din Huwe	Chandrakanta	During its shooting, her illness was discovered
	Amar	Anju
1955	Teerandaz	Rajkumari
	Naqab	Princess Yasmin
	Naata	Tara	First film as a producer
	Mr. & Mrs. '55	Anita Verma
1956	Shirin Farhad	Shirin
	Raj Hath	Raja Beti/Rajkumari
	Dhake Ki Malmal	Shivana
1957	Yahudi Ki Ladki	Roohi/Farida
	Gateway Of India	Anju
	Ek Saal	Usha Sinha
1958	Police	Manju
	Phagun	Banani
	Kala Pani	Asha
	Howrah Bridge	Edna
	Chalti Ka Naam Gaadi	Renu
	Baghi Sipahi	Rajkumari Ranjana
1959	Kal Hamara Hai	Madhu/Bela
	Insaan Jaag Utha	Gauri
	Do Ustad	Madhu Sharma
1960	Mehlon Ke Khwab	Asha	Also the producer of the film
	Jaali Note	Renu/Beena
	Barsaat Ki Raat	Shabnam
	Mughal-e-Azam	Anarkali	Nominated—Filmfare Award for Best Actress
1961	Passport	Rita Bhagwandas
	Jhumroo	Anjana
	Boy Friend	Sangeeta
1962	Half Ticket	Rajnidevi/Asha
1964	Sharabi	Kamala
1971	Jwala	Jwala	Released posthumously Only colour film

Incomplete films

Replaced

Film	Director	Replaced by	Reason
Naughty Boy	Shakti Samanta	Kalpana Mohan	Health issues
Bombai Ka Babu	Raj Khosla	Suchitra Sen	Health issues
Ek Dil Sau Afsaane	R.C. Talwar	Waheeda Rehman	Health issues
Naya Daur	B.R. Chopra	Vyjayanthimala	Madhubala's father did not allow to shoot outside the city; scandalous court case
Meenar	Hemen Gupta	Bina Rai	Date issues
Biraj Bahu	Bimal Roy	Kamini Kaushal	Roy considered but did not cast her for he wanted to make film in a little budget
Shagufa	S.H. Rawail	Bina Rai	Date issues
Jwar Bhata	Amiya Chakravarty	Child artist; after Madhubala refused the character was not used in the film	Not known

Shelved

Film	Director	Co-stars	Reason
Farz Aur Ishq	Madhubala	Directorial debut; shelved before production	Death
Chalaak	J.K. Nanda	Raj Kapoor	Fainting on the sets
Suhana Geet	Phani Majumdar	Kishore Kumar, Ashok Kumar	Health issues
Yeh Basti, Ye Log	Vinod Kumar	Balraj Sahni	Health issues
Dil Farosh		Shammi Kapoor	Financial problems in production
Shaan-e-Awadh		First film as a producer	Not known
Hum, Tum Aur Woh	Aspi Irani	Raj Kapoor, Shammi Kapoor, Prithviraj Kapoor	Not known
Bade Log	Nitin Bose	Balraj Sahni	Not known
Gohar	Prem Narayan Arora	Dilip Kumar	Not known
Anarkali	Kamal Amrohi	Kamal Kapoor	Financial problems in production
Haar Singaar	Mahesh Kaul	Dilip Kumar	Not known
Angrai	K.B. Lall	Ulhas (as her father)	Lall wanted to cast her once again in his film after the success of Lal Dupatta; later he began concentrating on his other projects