Postal Department's tribute to Bollywood

Mumbai: She remains the heartthrob of an entire generation of Indian men and now the achingly beautiful Madhubala has been captured for posterity.

Madhubala is among the few leading lights of Indian cinema to be immortalised on a postage stamp. Here's a look at how the Indian film industry is stamped forever in the Indian mindset.

Her beauty once lit up the silver screen and now she's left her mark indelibly in the minds of the Indian public.

Madhubala is only the second actress after Nargis to be honoured with a postage stamp.

The postal department has in the past has issued stamps to commemorate the stalwarts of the Indian film industry, from filmmakers like Dadasaheb Phalke, Satyajit Ray, Guru Dutt, Raj Kapoor, to actors like Gemini Ganesan, and singers like Mukesh and Mohammed Rafi.

But getting a stamp is not as easy as posting a letter. The postal department usually releases commemorative stamps to mark the birth centenary or death anniversaries, and any citizen or relative of the subject can propose the issue of the stamp.

In 2007, after consistent efforts by director Bimal Roy's family, the late filmmaker was honoured with a postage stamp on his 44th death anniversary.

But fame doesn't always dazzle the department of posts. Going by the guidelines, it cannot issue more than 25 per cent of stamps in a year based on famous personalities.

In the past year itself, Ritwik Ghatak, SD Burman and Mehboob khan were posthumously honoured with commemorative stamps. In the era of e-mail and SMS, this comes as a quaint tribute to the magic of cinema.