Shaheed Latif


Shaheed Lateef was Hindi film director, writer, and producer. He was the maker of films like Ziddi which launched Dev Anand's career and Arzoo starring Dilip Kumar and Kamini Kaushal. Noted Urdu poet Kaifi Azmi started his career as a lyricist with his film Buzdil in 1951.

Early life and background

He was born in Chandausi, Uttar Pradesh and studied at Aligarh Muslim University, here he not just befriended Saadat Hasan Manto, but also Ismat Chughtai, who also went to become a noted Urdu writer. They married in 1941, and later had two daughters.

Career

Lateef shifted to Bombay and started his career with Bombay Talkies, a noted film studio of Hindi film industry, where he wrote dialogues for Ashok Kumar-starrer, Naya Sansar, followed by Amiya Chakravarty's Anjaan and Gyan Mukherjee's Jhoola. This led to his directorial debut with Ziddi, on a story by Ismat Chughtai. The film also established the career of actor Dev Anand. The husband wife duo worked together on many films, where Ismat was sometimes a scenarist, a writer or at times even producer.
He died in Mumbai, Maharashtra on 16 April 1967.

Filmography