Sashadhar Mukherjee

He was a producer in Hindi films. He is part of the distinguished Mukherjee clan of Bollywood.

Sashadhar was Ashok Kumar and Kishore Kumar's brother-in-law, being married to their only sister, Sati Rani. He was also instrumental in getting Ashok Kumar into films. His children are Rono Mukherjee, Joy Mukherjee, Deb Mukherjee, Shomu Mukherjee, Shibani Maulik/nee Mukherjee, and Subir Mukherjee. Shomu married actress Tanuja and together they had two children: Kajol and Tanisha. Sashadhar's great niece is actress Rani Mukerji, whose grandfather Ravidramohan Mukherjee was Sashadhar's older brother. Sashadhar had two more brothers, film director Subodh Mukherjee and film producer Prabodh Mukherjee.

He was a producer for Bombay Talkies, and after the death of Himanshu Rai was involved in a tussle for control of Bombay Talkies with Devika Rani the actress, Devika was the widow of Himanshu and wanted control.

In 1943 Sashadhar Mukherjee with Rai Bahadur Chunilal, Ashok Kumar and Gyan Mukherjee formed a partnership and started the studio Filmistan in Goregaon.

In the 1950s Sashadhar formed his own production house called Filmalaya in Andheri, near Amboli. He also ran an acting school and was instrumental in giving actresses like Asha Parekh and Sadhana a break in films. Nasir Hussain was a director involved with his productions as was R. K. Nayyar and Gyan Mukherjee , music director O. P. Nayyar was also associated with his solo productions. He launched his son Joy with the film Love in Simla, he also produced films like Ek Musafir Ek Hasina to further his son's career. Dilip Kumar's Leader was his last production.

Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sashadhar_Mukherjee

IMDb: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm2549358/

Mukherjee-Samarth family: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mukherjee-Samarth_family