MUMBAI MIRROR (March 15, 2016)

No print of Alam Ara, India's first talkie which pioneered song-and-dance routines in Hindi cinema exists today. The black-and-white classic opened on March 14, 1931.

"Alam Ara pioneered something extraordinary, it should have been preserved like the majestic Taj Mahal," Celluloid Man director Shivendra Singh Dungarpur.

Shivendra who is the founder-director of the Mumbai-based Film Heritage Foundation, admits that one of the goals of his foundation is to find a print of Alam Ara, "because its finding will open a new window into the understanding of evolution of Indian cinema".

Directed by Ardeshir Irani the film starred Master Vithal and Zubeida.