Kundan Lal Saigal

Name : K. L. Saigal
Birthday : April 11, 1904
Star Sign: Aries
First film : Mohabbat Ke Ansoo (1932)

Kundan Lal ( K.L. ) Saigal (April 11, 1904 – January 18, 1947) was an Indian singer and actor who is considered the first superstar of Bollywood. In the early 1930s, Kundan met R.C. Boral, the highly respected music composer of the pioneering film company. R.C. Boral took instant liking to his talents. Saigal was employed by New Theatres on a contract basis of Rs. 200/month. There he came into contact with contemporaries like Pankaj Mullick, K.C. Dey and Pahari Sanyal. In a short span of time, he stood tallest among them with his brilliant singing and popularity. The first film in which Saigal had a role was the Urdu film Mohabbat Ke Ansoo , followed by Subah Ka Sitara and Zinda Laash , all released in 1932. However, these films did not do very well. It was in 1933 that his four Bhajans for the film Puran Bhagat , created a sensation throughout India. Thereafter, Saigal never looked back. Films that followed were Yahudi Ki Ladki , Chandidas and Rooplekha . As a youngster, India's melody queen herself, Lata Mangeshkar, is alleged to have said that she wanted to marry K.L. Saigal after seeing his performance in Chandidas . In 1935, Saigal played the role that would come to define his acting career, that of the drunken title character in Devdas , based on Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay's novel of the same name, directed by P.C. Barua. His songs in the film, Balam Aaye Baso Moray Man Mein and Dukh Ke Ab Din Beetat Naahi , became feverishly popular throughout the country. In a career of fifteen years, Saigal acted in 36 feature films - 28 in Hindi/Urdu, 7 in Bengali, and 1 in Tamil. Saigal rendered 185 songs which includes 142 film songs and 43 non-film songs. In the film songs category, there are 110 in Hindi/Urdu, 30 in Bengali and 2 in Tamil. In the non-film category, there are 37 in Hindi/Urdu, and 2 each in Bengali, Punjabi and Persian. His non-film songs comprise of Bhajans, Ghazals and Hori. Saigal passed away in his ancestral city of Jalandhar on January 18, 1947, at the age of 42.

Download some of the selected songs of K. L. Saigal ( Left click on the song link)