A vintage collection of photographs of veteran actor, director and producer Gajanan Jagirdar is now part of the collection at the National Film Archive of India (NFAI).
Ashok Jagirdar, son of Gajanan Jagirdar, handed over 130 photographs and other memorabilia from his personal collection to Prakash Magdum, director, NFAI in Pune.
A major highlight of the collection is the original sketch of Gajanan Jagirdar as the protagonist of the 1953 film “Mahatma”, drawn by late Shiv Sena chief and veteran cartoonist Bal Thackeray.
Jagirdar had played the lead in the movie written by PL Deshpande, and directed by Datta Dharmadhikari.
There are several images of Jagirdar from this film,
along with veteran artist David Abraham and actress Rekha, in the collection.
Jagirdar was to play the role of Lokmanya Tilak in a Prabhat Studio production that did not take off.
His black and white photograph in costume and make-up as Tilak is part of the collection.
This iconic image of Jagirdar as Tilak has passed off for an original Tilak image on many occasions.
“We are really delighted to receive this rare collection of photographs of a major artist of Indian cinema. Having started his career in the iconic Prabhat Studio, Gajanan Jagirdar also served as the first principal of the Film Institute of India in
{{/usCountry}}“We are really delighted to receive this rare collection of photographs of a major artist of Indian cinema. Having started his career in the iconic Prabhat Studio, Gajanan Jagirdar also served as the first principal of the Film Institute of India in
{{/usCountry}}1961-62,” said Magdum.
One of the oldest photographs from the collection is from a 1935 film “Asire Havis”, apart from an image of a 1938 film “Meetha Jahar”, where Jagirdar is seen appearing with Naseem Banu.
“I was in touch with Ashok Jagirdar for the past few days and I am really grateful to him for this wonderful gesture of donating these photographs. We will now digitise these photographs so that it can be accessed by researchers of Indian cinema,” said Prakash Magdum. As part of NFAI’s research programme this year, a monograph on the life and works of Jagirdar is being written by Prof Milind Damle, head of TV Direction at FTII.