Sasadhar Mukherjee is a name to be reckoned with, even today, a hundred years down the line. Just a couple of days ago, his family celebrated his 100th birth anniversary in Mumbai at a function, where veteran actor Shammi Kapoor was present as well along with his family. Sasadhar Mukherjee may not be alive today but his legacy lives on in the lives of his children and grandchildren.

The founder of Filmistan Studio, and later, the production house of Filmalaya, he began his career with Bombay Talkies, along with his brother in law Ashok Kumar, whose sister he had married. He is believed to have been instrumental in getting Dadamuni into films. Just like the Kapoor khandaan founded by the late Prithviraj Kapoor, the Mukherjees are another khandaan which has contributed in a big way to Hindi cinema. Yesteryear actresses like Asha Parekh and Sadhana all owe their success to him. But his biggest contribution was perhaps to the career of Shammi Kapoor. It was S Mukherjee's 'Junglee' which established Shammi as the Yahoo star They also worked together in 'Dil Deke Dekho' and 'Tumsa Nahin Dekha', both of which were directed by Nasir Hussain, who too was given a break by the producer. RK Nayyar too was another director who worked for Mukherjee. Music composer OP Nayyar was also a part of Filmalaya. The patriarch even launched his son Joy Mukherjee in a film called 'Love In Simla' and even made another film for him called 'Ek Musafir Ek Haseena'. His other sons Shomu and Debu too made their forays into films but were not so successful. However, his granddaughter Kajol and his grandniece Rani Mukherjee would have more than made their grandfather proud. The next star on the Mukherjee horizon may well be his grandson (son of Subir), young Ayaan Mukherjee, whose directorial debut, 'Wake Up Sid' is all set to release on Friday.