Biography

He cast two unknown actresses in Shri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu (1954): Ameeta in the heroine role and Asha Parekh in a child's role. A few years later, he offered a grown-up Asha the chance to make her debut as a heroine in Goonj Uthi Shehnai (1959), but fired her claiming she wasn't star material. He then hired Ameeta to replace Asha in his film, since she was just coming off of Nasir Hussain's hit film Tumsa Nahin Dekha (1957) with Shammi Kapoor. But Hussain didn't want to work with Ameeta again, complaining that she had never fit his concept of a heroine and hired Asha for Dil Deke Dekho (1959), which made her a star. Although Goonj Uthi Shehnai was a hit, Ameeta didn't become a major star and her career ended in 1968, while Asha went on to become a major star, an award-winning actress, and a Bollywood icon .

In 1943, Ram Rajya celebrated a successful run of over a 100 days - a rare feat indeed, those days.

Vijay Bhatt's Ram Rajya was the only Indian film seen by Mahatma Gandhi during his lifetime.

Older brother of Harsukh Jagneshwar Bhatt

He gave actress Ameeta her screen name after he published an advertisement in newspapers and asked readers to suggest a name for her, when he cast her in the heroine role in Shri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu (1954). The film flopped, but he cast her a few years later in Goonj Uthi Shehnai (1959) which became a hit.