Google honours India's 1st superstar K L Saigal on 114th birth anniversary

Google doodle today honoured the 114th birth anniversary of noted Indian singer and actor KL Saigal. Today's doodle designed by Vidhya Nagarajan, shows KL Saigal singing with the background of Calcutta (now Kolkata), where the Hindi film industry or 'Bollywood' was based during his time.

Saigal considered to be the first superstar of Indian cinema has worked on 36 films in three languages in a span of 15 years. He sang 200 film and non-film songs that are evergreen and are hummed even today.

Saigal worked as a timekeeper with Punjab railways and also a salesman before he chose music as a vocation. Those days, his singing was limited to his friend's circle. During one such occasion of his singing, a sales representative of Hindustan Record Company happened to be present in the congregation. He recognized Saigal's potential and persuaded him to sign a contract for recordings with the company. One of his earliest records "Jhulana Jhulao" in Dev Gandhar raga was a huge hit.

Some of Saigal's popular songs include Koi Preet Ki Reet Bata De, Tu Aa Gayi Dil Ki Tamanna Jag Gayi, Kadam Chale Aage Man Paachhe Bhaage, Jhumar Jhumar Nupur Baaje.

Saigal ventured into films during 1931-32. He became the most popular actor-singer for Indian films between 1935 and 1947. Having entered films at the dawn of the talkie era, he acted in 36 feature films - 28 in Hindi, seven in Bengali, and one in Tamil - during the fifteen years of his career.

He has inspired legends like Kishore Kumar and Mukesh to copy his style to make their mark in the industry before developing their own signature tones.

For his final films, KL Saigal moved back to New Theatres. His last film Parwana (1947), was released posthumously.