In the 1933 Karma Devika Rani & Himansu Rai shared a long full-mouth kiss, with the woman on top.

Sharmila Tagore was the only cast member in Ashtanayika (1999), the first time in Indian cinema that only one person enacted all the roles.

Tamil cinema’s superstar and later Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, MG Ramachandran was actually shot at by co-star MR Radha, allegedly over a romantic dalliance gone awry.

Shashikala the heroine? Yes, well before she achieved fame playing negative roles to nagging perfection, she was the leading lady in a number of films in the late 1940s and early 1950s.

Jaya Bachchan acted in

Hazaar Chaurasi Ki Maa

(1998) after a 17 year hiatus from films. She is on record saying she ‘found no role worthwhile in the interim.’

Screen names have been the norm for some time in Bollywood. But did you know the first ones to do it were two women, Gulabbai and Anasuyabai in the 1919 film, Sairandhri?

Fearless Nadia was, as the discerning auteur will guess, not her real name. She was born Mary Ann Evans in Australia and her career before films included a stint in the circus.