This article is about the film producer. For the cricketer, see Nasser Hussain. For the actor, see Nazir Hussain.
Nasir Husain
Born 16 November 1926[1]
Bhopal, Bhopal State, British India[2][3]
Died 13 March 2002 (aged 76)
Mumbai, Maharashtra, India
Occupation Director, Producer, Screenwriter
Years active 1948–1996
Spouse(s) Ayesha Khan
Children Mansoor Khan
Nuzhat Khan
Relatives Tahir Hussain (brother)
Tariq Khan (nephew)
Aamir Khan (nephew)
Faisal Khan (nephew)
Imran Khan (grandson)
Nasir Hussain (16 November 1926 – 13 March 2002) was an Indian film producer, director and screenwriter.[4] With a career spanning decades, Hussain has been credited as a major trendsetter in the history of Hindi cinema. For example, he directed Yaadon Ki Baraat (1973), which created the Bollywood masala film genre that defined Hindi cinema in the 1970s and 1980s,[5] and he wrote and produced Qayamat Se Qayamat Tak (1988), which set the Bollywood musical romance template that defined Hindi cinema in the 1990s.[6][7] Akshay Manwani wrote a book on Hussain's cinema titled Music, Masti, Modernity: The Cinema of Nasir Husain.
Hussain first worked with A.R. Kardar when he joined Filmistan as a writer in 1948. The famous films he wrote for Filmistan include Anarkali (1953), Munimji (1955), and Paying Guest (1957). Filmistan was the breakaway studio from Bombay Talkies; it used mid-budget formula productions and sold on star value and music. Sashadhar Mukherjee was a part of the breakaway team, and he gave Hussain Tumsa Nahin Dekha to direct. The film made a star of Shammi Kapoor.
Kapoor and Hussain made another hit, Dil Deke Dekho (1959), for Filmalaya, the breakaway group of Filmistan. The film introduced Asha Parekh, who would be the lead in all of Hussain's films until Caravan (1971). He was also in a long romantic relationship with her, but it ended because he was already a married man with two children, and Parekh didn't want to be labeled a homewrecker.[9] Hussain's wife was Margaret Francina Lewis, an assistant choreographer he met at Filmistan. They married and then she changed her name to Ayesha Khan. She worked as an assistant choreographer on some of his productions.[8] He outlived his wife.[10