অশোক কুমার গঙ্গোপাধ্যায়ের অভিনীত প্রথম চলচ্চিত্রের নাম কী ?
Kumudlal's sister Sati Devi was married at a very young age to Sashadhar Mukherjee, who lived in Mumbai and worked as a technician in the film industry. This connection resulted in Kumudlal becoming somewhat interested in the technical aspects of film-making (not of acting). He failed his law exams and, to escape acrimony at home, came to live with his sister for a few months, until the exams were held again. In order to earn some livelihood, he requested his brother-in-law to find him a job. Sashadhar Mukherjee was working in a fairly senior position in the technical department of Bombay Talkies, a pioneering Indian film studio, and he used his influence to get Kumudlal a job there. He started off as a laboratory assistant in Bombay Talkies and lived with his sister's family in Chembur, not far from the studio. This was in the early 1930s. The salary was fairly decent; furthermore, he was successful at his job and enthusiastic about it, which had not been the case with law college. He managed to convince his father that he would not become successful as a lawyer and would be able to earn a living as lab assistant. His father finally reconciled himself to the situation and granted permission to abandon his law studies. Thus began his film career, albeit as laboratory assistant in a film studio.
He was happy working as a laboratory assistant and remained in that position for some five years. His acting career started purely by accident. Shooting was already underway on the Bombay Talkies production "Jeevan Naiya" in 1936 when the male lead Najmul Hassan eloped with his co-star Devika Rani, who also happened to be the wife of studio head Himanshu Rai. Rani subsequently returned to her husband who, out of spite, dismissed Hassan and called upon Kumudlal to replace him against the advice of director Franz Osten, who reckoned that the young man did not have the looks needed for an actor. Kumudlal was given the screen name Ashok Kumar, in keeping with the general trend in an era when actors concealed their real identities behind screen names.
Ashok Kumar, as Kumudlal Ganguly was now known, started off his acting career reluctantly. His subsequent venture with Devika Rani in "Achhut Kanya", the same year was one of the early blockbusters of Hindi cinema. Like several movies of that era, "Achhut Kanya" was a reformist piece featuring a Brahmin boy falling in love with a girl from the so-called untouchables in Indian society. The runaway success of "Achhut Kanya" cemented Ashok Kumar and Devika Rani as the most popular on-screen couple of that era.
"Achhut Kanya"