J. B. H. Wadia

Jamshed Boman Homi Wadia (13 September 1901 – 4 January 1986), commonly referred to as J. B. H. Wadia, was an Indian film director, screenwriter, producer and founder of Wadia Movietone Studio. He was born in prominent Parsi family which hailed from Surat, Gujarat whose ancestral business was ship building. Their family name of Wadia stands for master shipbuilders. In a family of entrepreneurs Wadia is credited with creation of movies involving populist stunt roles including those by Fearless Nadia and bringing concept of stunt actresses in Indian cinema.

Film career Wadia began his film making career with silent movies. Being an intellectual and avid writer he wrote scripts for his movies while his younger brother Homi Wadia who joined him in the business a few years later was usually tasked with directing them. He produced his first movie Vasant Leela in 1928, along with 11 other silent movies at the Kohinoor Studios in Dadar as well as under Deware Laboratories. These movies were modest successes and were mostly remakes of populist Hollywood classics. In the year 1933 he founded Wadia Movietone company and made his first Talkie movie Lal-E-Yaman, inspired by the Orientalist fantasy world espoused by the Arabian Nights and related themes. This movie's success helped establish Wadia Movietone as a studio to contend with, in partnership with his brother Homi, their distributor Manchesa B Billimoria and the Tata brothers Burjore and Nadirshaw.

Under the Wadia Movietone Studio banner Wadia introduced a variety of new concepts to Indian cinema starting with a stunt actress playing a leading role to a documentary newsreel, The Indian Gazette, to a feature-length documentary, Haripura Congress. As part of capturing cinematic recordings of early classical and semi-classical musicians and singers he made a series titled Wadia Movietone's Variety Programme, featuring legendary artistes such as Feroz Dastur, Bal Gandharva, Malika Pukhraj and Pandit Tirthankar. Wadia Movietone was also the first to create an Indian film without songs, Nav Jawan, the first Indian movie to be filmed in English (along with parallel Hindi and Bengali versions), The Court Dancer, the first Sindhi-language movie post-Partition, Ekta, and the very first Indian television series, Hotel Taj Mahal.

Vinci married Nargis Khambata, who eventually became the first woman in Asia to start her own advertising agency, Interpublicity, or Interpub. Haidee married a German, Gerhard Meier, and moved to Boblingen, Germany.

Vinci and Nargis had two children: Roy (named after M.N. Roy), who became a journalist at CNN) and eventually joined the United Nations, and Riyad, who resurrected the Wadia Movietone banner and the Fearless Nadia legend during his brief life with an award-winning documentary on Nadia, titled "Fearless: The Hunterwali Story." Riyad also produced India's first gay-themed film, a short titled BOMgAY. Riyad died in 2003 at the age of 36.

JBH Wadia died in 1986 due to cancer, triggered by a fall endured when crossing the road near his home and being struck by a car.