IndianScreen.com was started by the late Amarjit Singh Anand (February 1939- May 2002) in 1999. The site was born out of Anand’s love and passion for Indian music and the movies through which he heard that music. The purpose of IndianScreen.com cannot be adequately explained without understanding its founder.
Anand’s childhood was filled with old Bollywood movies and music. Anand had an obsession with Bollywood and would often skip school to go to the cinema. Despite his frequent “holidays” from school to watch movies, he had a keen intellect and attended IIT Bombay where he obtained a degree in chemical engineering. After obtaining his masters degree from the University of Oklahoma, he married and permanently moved to the United States in 1969. Like so many immigrants at the time, Anand had no money, no job and no assets. He lived out most of his life in San Diego, California where he worked as a computer programmer and started several businesses.
Anand’s love for music and movies fueled a passion for the latest technology. He was always the first amongst his peers to obtain tape recorders, big screen TVs, VCRs, Betamaxes (which he of course later threw out), Laser Discs, DVD players, etc. He also amassed an impressive collection of thousands of Bollywood movies and opened a little Indian video store out of his house. His collection consisted of such rare prints that Bollywood directors, producers, actors and actresses would contact him to obtain copies of movies they could no longer find.
The one thing he loved more than listening to music and watching movies was sharing that love for music and movies. Whenever anyone visited his home (including unsuspecting video store customers), he would subject them to ghazals and songs from the old movies when Bollywood was in its infancy. Kishore Kumar, Lata Mangeshkar, Nargis, Dev Anand and Raj Kapoor were as much a part of his home as the furniture. Finding the sharing of music only to his houseguests too limiting, Anand purchased duplication machines and created compilations of rare old songs from Bollywood’s past that he could distribute. He began selling his compilations and grew his little enterprise into a successfull business called Advance Recording Products. While the Bollywood compilations eventually became a small part of Anand’s recording business, they always remained the heart.
In 1999 Anand realized the internet would become an incredible vehicle through which he could further share his love of music and movies.He registered www.indianscreen.com and www.searchamovie.com and began meticulously compiling a database of all Bollywood movies and songs ever created. He also posted rare songs for his website visitors to listen to and began selling DVDs of his song compilations over the internet. Anand also created a web based “Classic Movie Club” where people who shared his love for old Bollywood could gather and obtain information.
Unfortunately, in 2001, Anand was diagnosed with stage four cancer of the small intestine and he passed away in May of 2002. He was survived by his wife Rosie Anand and his children Sunjina Kaur Ahuja and Wayneinder Singh Anand. Anand’s database project remained unfinished and his vision to further share Bollywood music online remained unrealized. After his death, his wife and dear friends kept his site alive and continued to post music and information for Indian classic movie lovers. However, without Anand’s presence, the site never flourished nor realized its full potential.
We are now attempting to accomplish what Anand set out to do. We are completing the database of movies and music and creating a site that lovers of classic and modern Bollywood can both appreciate. We hope you enjoy your visit.