Ardeshir Irani was an early director, actor, and producer in Bollywood. His career began with him co-producing his first film, Nala Damyanti in 1920, which was made in cooperation with a crew from Italy. His film Alam Ara was revolutionary in that it was the first sound film or talkie in Bollywood. Ardeshir Irani belonged to the Irani Zoroastrian community of India. Typical Bollywood movie poster—Devdas (2002) Bollywood is the informal name given to the popular Mumbai-based Hindi language film industry in India. ... 1920 (MCMXX) was a leap year starting on Thursday (link will take you to calendar) // Events January January 7 - Forces of Russian White admiral Kolchak surrender in Krasnoyarsk. ... Alam Ara, (English Translation: The Light of the World) a 1931 film directed by Ardeshir Irani, was the first Indian film with sound. ... Typical Bollywood movie poster—Devdas (2002) Bollywood is the informal name given to the popular Mumbai-based Hindi language film industry in India. ... Irani is a term used to denote Indian Zoroastrians whose ancestors emigrated from Iran within the last two centuries, as opposed to the longer residing Parsis. ... Zoroastrianism was adapted from an earlier, polytheistic faith by Zarathushtra (Zoroaster) in Persia very roughly around 1000 BC (although, in the absence of written records, some scholars estimates are as late as 600 BC). ...