Nanubhai Vakil

Nanubhai Vakil (23 May 1902 – 29 December 1980) was a Hindi and Gujarati film director. He directed the first Gujarati feature film, in 1932, with a biopic on the saint Narsinh Mehta, Narsinh Mehta, whose cast included the actress Mehtab.

Career
Vakil frequently collaborated with Zubeida and Patience Cooper. The twelve-year-old Suraiya, who had done minor roles as a child artist in films like Usne Kya Socha (1937) was cast as the young Mumtaz in Taj Mahal (1941) by Vakil. Vakil later remade several of the silent films "based on Parsi theatre plays". W. M. Khan, who became famous as the first person to sing in an Indian film, "De De Allah Ke Naam Pe Pyare" in Alam Ara (1931) was made to reprise that song and role when he was seventy-one years old by Nanubhai Vakil. The film was Vakil's version of Alam Ara (1973), produced by Maffatlal Shah, with music by Iqbal Qureshi.