Google honours K L Saigal on his 114th birth anniversary with a doodle, who is considered as one of the renowned personalities of the Hindi film industry. The doodle is designed by Vidhya Nagarajan and portrays Saigal singing with the background of Kolkata.
Born on April 11, 1904, in Jammu, Saigal sahab's father Amarchand Saigal was a Tehsildar in the court of the King in Jammu and his mother Kesarbai was extremely fond of music.
It was in the 1930s when he joined the New Theatres in Kolkata and started working with the film studio for a salary of Rs. 200 per month. R.C Boral made him sign a contract with B N Sircar’s film studio New Theatres.
His first movie was an Urdu film, Mohabbat Ke Ansoo (1932) and thereafter, he starred in several movies like Subah Ke Sitare, Zinda Laash, Chandidas, Devdas and others.
Devdas (1935), based on Sharat Chandra Chattopadhyay novel of the same name, turned out to be his superhit film which established him as a talented actor in the Indian film industry.
In a span of 15 years, Saigal worked on 36 films in three languages and sang over 185 songs throughout his career.
However, the actor-singer resorted to alcohol and the habits started taking a toll on his health. He died at an early age of 42 in 1947 and through his work became an inspiration for his other noted singers like Lata Mangeshkar, Kishore Kumar and Mohammad Rafi.
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