The history of Indian cinema began in the early 1910s when Dadasaheb Phalke pioneered motion pictures. But it was the advent of the talkies created a new phenomenon – the cine icons. Today, we call them superstars. KL Saigal, Karan Dewan, and Ashok Kumar were among the first screen icons in Indian cinema. And their counterpart was a teenager who ruled the screens, setting records that were broken only eight decades later. (Also read: India’s first crorepati singer challenged Viceroys, travelled by personal train, out-earned Lata Mangeshkar, Md Rafi)

India’s first female superstar

Mumtaz Shanti was one of the earliest successful female stars in what would become Bollywood. Mumtaz began her career as a child artist in Punjabi films in 1937, before moving to lead roles with Mangti in 1942. In the same year, she made her Hindi debut as a lead star with Basant. She was 16 years old at the time. Basant was a roaring success, running in theatres for 76 weeks and becoming the highest-grossing Indian film of the year. The following year, Mumtaz again tasted success with Kismet, the first Indian film to earn ₹1 crore. All of 17, Mumtaz was now called the ‘Jubilee Girl’ as all her four releases had been jubilee hits.

Over the next few years, Mumtaz appeared in more hits like Ghar Ki Izzat (1948) and Aahuti (1950). She worked with all the top stars of the time and even played a senior lead to ‘younger’ stars like Dilip Kumar.

Mumtaz Shanti’s sudden retirement

In the late 40s, Mumtaz married Wali Sahab, a filmmaker. And even though she continued acting after that, family soon became her priority. In 1952, the couple decided to move to Pakistan and with this, Mumtaz’s fledgling movie career came to an end. The actor was only 26 at the time. She lived in Lahore for the remainder of her life, where she died in 1989, at the age of 63.

Mumtaz Shanti’s legacy

Many of the records set by her films lasted decades. For instance, Kismet ran in one theatre for three years, a record that was only broken in 1978 by Sholay and eventually by Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge. Two of her films – Basant and Kismet – remained in the most-watched Indian films’ top 50 list till 2021, almost eight decades after release.