Niranjan Pal

Niranjan Pal was the son of Indian nationalist Bipin Chandra Pal. In his teens he was attracted to the young extremist movement in Calcutta, and in an altercation with a British officer, beat him up and stole his gun. With an arrest warrant out on him, he escaped to London, where he was lived with nationalists Veer Savarkar and Madanlal Dhingra (later executed for assassinating a British officer). He studied script-writing in London, and was eventually discovered by Franz Osten and Himansu Rai, with whom he went set up Bombay Talkies, one of India's first and most important film studios. His autobiography "Aye Jibon" won the President's National Award in India in 2001.