Love is in the air. None can escape from its magic whatsoever! We have a rich history of many immortal love stories, of which Salim-Anarkali’s holds a special significance. It’s a tragic love story between Mughal emperor Salim and his beautiful courtesan Anarkali.

Based on this legendary love story, many plays, poems and films were developed in different languages. Most importantly, it was in 1953, the film Anarkali got released with Pradeep Kumar and Bina Rai playing the lead roles of Salim and Anarkali. It was from the house of Filmsthan Productions with music composed by C. Ramchandra. Again in 1960, the story repeated itself with the film Mughal-e-azam, which had Dilip Kumar, Pridviraj Kapoor and Madhubala in the lead roles. It was a huge commercial and critical success, which was directed by K. Asif. Naushad composed amazing tunes for the film like Pyaar Kiya Toh Darna Kya which is hummed even today.

Amidst these two films, in 1955, our very own Tollywood had witnessed the historic love story on the silver screen. It was through the film Anarkali, directed by Vedantham Raghavayya, which had an epic star cast of ANR, SVR, Anjali Devi and Kannamba. It was a great success and the soothing music by Adi Narayana Rao who composed songs like Jeevithame Safalamu, Madana Manohara Sundara Nari, Kalise Nelaraju Kaluva Chelini and Rajasekhara Neepai added to its essence. The remakes of this wonderful historic love story did not stop there! It repeated once more in 1978 with Akbar Salim Anarkali. It was by none other than the legendary NTR himself, who produced and directed the movie, who also played Akbar’s role. Balakrishna and Dipa portrayed the roles of Salim and Anarkali magnificently on screen. While C. Ramachandra composed the music, Mohammed Rafi lent his voice to Balakrishna, with songs and dialogues written by Dr. C. Narayana Reddy.