Wadia brothers belong to a
Parsi family, and their ancestors came from the shipbuilding
Wadia family (
Wadia Group), originally from Surat, which also built the British wartime ship
HMS Trincomalee (1817). Their ancestors moved to Bombay in the 18th century. It was co-established in 1933, by producer and screenwriter
J. B. H. Wadia, his younger brother director
Homi Wadia, film distributor Manchersha B. Billimoria, and brothers Burjor and Nadirsha Tata. Thereafter, they made several films based on the
Arabian Nights. The last film made by the company was
Raj Nartaki (1941) under the direction of Madhu Bose. Thereafter, the studio premises were up for sale;
V. Shantaram bought the studio in 1942 and established
Rajkamal Kalamandir on the premises. Homi Wadia, who worked as a director the company, went on to establish Basant Pictures in the same year, though initially as a film production house. Subsequently, he established a film studio under the same banner in 1947, which functioned till 1981.
Riyad Vinci Wadia, grandson of J.B.H. Wadia inherited the studio in 1990. ==Filmography==