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For Hindi cinema, Shimla is a beautiful and abiding obsession that has stood firm in the face of constantly changing fads. Kashmir did put it somewhat in shade for a while from the late 1960s onwards before Switzerland threatened to make the hill town redundant in the 1990s. But, despite the ups and downs, the big screen magic of Shimla hasn’t waned one bit. In Prakash Mehra’s 1978 smash hit, Muqaddar Ka Sikandar, an orphaned servant-boy (who grows up to be Amitabh Bachchan) is asked by his oppressive master’s daughter (who, as an adult, is played by Raakhee) why his cheeks are as red as they are. He replies: "Because I am from Shimla`85." Shimla’s association with apples has been embedded in the imagination of Mumbai filmmakers for a long time but its output of the succulent fruit isn’t the only reason why the pretty hill station continues to be such a big draw for Bollywood's dream merchants.
The natural beauty of the Dhauladhar peaks (enhanced many times over when they are wrapped in snow), the town’s incredibly evocative Raj-era buildings and its undeniably romantic ambience make Shimla a favoured location for Bollywood film shoots. In 1960, producer Sashadhar Mukherjee and director R.K. Nayyar launched Sadhana’s career via a film titled Love in Simla. The audience fell in with both the actress and the place. Love in Simla, a romantic comedy replete with robust gags, was a phenomenal commercial success. Not only did the film ensure a longish run in the sun in the 1960s for the lead pair of Joy Mukherjee and Sadhana, it catapulted the picturesque hills into the collective consciousness of Indian moviegoers. More than 50 years later, Shimla, despite having lost much of its greenery to the mushrooming of concrete structures, continues to exercise the same kind of hold on the Mumbai movie industry. At least two major upcoming Bollywood films have just wrapped up their Shimla schedules.
Parts of the Hrithik Roshan-Katrina Kaif starrer, Bang Bang, directed by Siddharth Raj Anand, were recently shot in the hill town, as was Umesh Shukla’s All Is Well, starring Abhishek Bachchan and Asin Thottumkal. Three years after the success of Love in Simla, another filmi romance blossomed in the hills with Dev Anand riding a scooter all the way up to Shimla in search of an elusive Nutan in the Vijay Anand-directed Tere Ghar Ke Saamne. The song that Dev Anand sings in the course of his quest "Tu kahaan yeh bataa/Iss nasheeli raat mein" became just as popular as the film, and emerged as another grand advertisement for the hypnotic charms of Shimla. The hill station has been the site of many a memorable love song since. In 1973’s Daag, helmed by eternal romantic Yash Chopra, Rajesh Khanna crooned "Mere dil mein aaj kya hain/Tu kahen to main bataa du" to Sharmila Tagore against the backdrop of the mountains. The same year, the skiing slopes of Kufri, not very far from Shimla, provided the backdrop to another serenade to Sharmila. This time around, it was the flamboyant Shashi Kapoor singing "Tera mujhse hain pehle ka naata koi/Yun hi nahin dil lubhata koi" in Manmohan Desai’s Aa Gale Lag Jaa. In 1974, Dulal Guha directed Dost, in which, right at the outset of the film, the audience saw a pensive Dharmendra on the Kalka-Shimla toy train, with the theme song, "Gaadi bula rahi hai/Ceeti bajaa rahi hai", playing in the background. He hops off the train at Taradevi.
Nearly two decades later, the Shimla railway station played a crucial part in a two-minute long sequence featuring Shah Rukh Khan as a young man smitten by an older married woman played by Deepa Sahi in Ketan Mehta’s adaptation of French writer Gustave Flaubert’s debut novel Madame Bovary. The young man pleads with the lady not to leave but she refuses to heed his plea. So as the train chugs out of the station, Shah Rukh runs and jumps into the compartment carrying the woman he does not want to lose. Shimla has been witness to many other fictional unions, partings and reunions of this nature. In 2007’s Jab We Met, when a high-spirited Kareena Kapoor runs away from home, she ends up in Shimla. The morose hero (Shahid Kapoor) pursues her all the way to the hills. A desperate search for a friend was also the reason behind two of the 3 Idiots friends — R. Madhavan and Sharman Joshi — to head to Shimla where their separated pal, Rancho (Aamir Khan), resides. The trip, as both Hindi film audiences and movie protagonists have discovered, is always worth it. The joys that Shimla offers on the big screen can hardly be matched. No wonder even Sanjay Leela Bhansali chose to set his intense Black in a mansion up there in the clouds.
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ENTERTAINMENT
Preity Zinta was born in Rohru district. After her debut in Mani Ratnam’s Dil Se, there’s been no looking back for this Liril girl.
The dreaded villain of Hindi cinema, Prem Chopra was born in Lahore but his family moved to Shimla after Partition.
Born in Shimla, Anupam Kher studied in DAV School, Lakkar Bazar and Govt College,
Sanjauli. He then joined NSD, Delhi. 
Born in Lahore, Amrish Puri and his siblings shifted to
Shimla, after Partition. He studied in B.M College, Shimla and later went on to do films.