The legendary filmmaker who shocked the nation by marrying three women and an 18-year-old actress at 55

The 1950s and 1960s are often referred to as the Golden Age of Hindi cinema, an era of experimentation and innovation. Filmmakers were driven by new storytelling devices directed by genre, technique, social constructs, etc., that challenged previous movie-making conventions. This period would be a precursor to modern Bollywood and strike a balance of artistry and entertainment and would also be the first time audiences would be presented with forward-thinking filmmakers who shaped the canon of Indian cinema.

V Shantaram is an important filmmaker in both Marathi and Hindi cinema, who also made films that translated to the screen in new and innovative forms. Working across genres, he produced films that were hybrids of social commentary and art cinema. From his body of work, there are three significant films, 'Dr Kotnis Ki Amar Kahani' (1946), a medical drama, 'Jhanak Jhanak Jhanak Payal Baaje' (1955), which is a musical, and 'Do Aankhen Baarah Haath' (1957), which is an ethical, prison-drama. Over his career he earned many awards including a Filmfare Award, Golden Globe, National Award, and two Berlin International Film Festival prizes.

Although he had rarely acted in the films themselves, Shantaram is held in mind as a genuine visionary in the role of director. He adopted a technique which was highly lauded for reintroducing social advocacy messages in enjoyable plot lines, producing engaging approbation from both critics and through audiences nationwide. The themes he examined nonetheless supported the moral dilemmas of social change and human values, occupying a central position in his stories - arguably accounting for his reputation as one of India's very finest filmmakers in the Twentieth century.

Shantaram was born in 1901 in Kolhapur, and the details of his personal life receiving even more publicity than his films were not unknown. At 20, he married Vimlabai in an arranged marriage, with whom he had four children. While Shantaram was in his late twenties, he started working in the film industry, and he later married actress Jayashree in 1941, shortly after he had already married Vimlabai and with her had a further three children, one of whom, actress Rajshree, starred in Jhanak Jhanak Jhanak Payal Baaje. His entangled personal life frequently exceeded his professional life.

In 1956, shortly before a proposed alteration to Indian law aimed at making polygamy a crime, Shantaram married 18-year-old actress Sandhya (the lead of Jhanak Jhanak Jhanak Payal Baaje) at the age of 55. While this marriage was perfectly legal at the time, it did raise eyebrows amongst some members of the public. In any case, over the following decades, Shantaram's household remained a happy one, with both Sandhya and Vimlabai living under the same roof. Shantaram died in 1990 at the age of 88, with a long cinematic legacy to his credit.