Baba Alam Siaposh(1911-1970)

Baba Alam Siaposh was considered a 'father figure' in the Pakistani film industry. He played a key role in film-making by writing film stories, film dialogue, film screenplay and film songs for dozens of super-hit Pakistani films in the early years of Pakistan between 1949 until up to his death in 1970. For example, famous Pakistani film actress Swaran Lata had lost touch with her mother-tongue Punjabi, as a young girl, by being away from her native Punjab and having been educated and also having lived at Hindi and Urdu speaking area of Lucknow, India, and needed a 'refresher course' in Punjabi language before starting to act in Punjabi language films back in 1949. Baba Alam Siaposh was then selected as her language coach for film Pheray (1949).He had graduated from the University of Punjab,Lahore before beginning his film-related career in Mumbai in the 1940s.His book 'Hanerian Raatan' included a list of his film songs. Besides films, he wrote the lyrics of a run-away super-hit Pakistan TV song-"Jhaanjhar phabdi naa mutiar bina" sung by Tahira Syed in 1974. He died on 2 March 1970 at Lahore,Pakistan and left behind a legacy that people still fondly remember him by.