1930s and 1940s were dominated by singing stars. The whole narrative was fashioned by them. Although playback singing was discovered in mid 30s, it could not find strong roots until late 1940s due to the dominance of singing stars like K L Saigal, Noorjehan, Suraiya and several others. Even our Dadamoni, Ashok Kumar, who was a popular actor in 1940s, sang his songs in films like Kismat.