In the small Bombay theater that showed big films, his father brought him — over and over again — to see the biggest of them all. With every one of his 18 viewings of “Mughal-e-Azam,” a hit 1960 musical about a forbidden romance between a prince and a courtesan, the young boy fell more in love. The rays of light, beamed in black and white, opened to him a world at once majestic and lost. The music swept him to places that only later in life would he fully understand. India, cinema and music — they would all change, too.

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Persons: —, ”, Sanjay Leela Bhansali — Organizations: Alankar Talkies Locations: Bombay, Mumbai, India