Soon, a fakir tells Navbahaar she will give birth to a boy but she must find a necklace tied around a fish's neck—which will appear once at the palace's lake—if she wants her son to live past his 18th birthday.

As a result, Qamar comes alive every night when Dilbahaar removes the necklace from her neck and later dies when she wears it in the morning.

Everyone in the palace subsequently learns about Dilbahaar's foul play and finally retrieve the real necklace, with Adil being released.

[7] After watching Harry A. Pollard's 1929 American romantic drama part-talkie Show Boat at Excelsior Theatre in Bombay (present-day Mumbai), Ardeshir Irani was inspired to make his next project a sound film which he would direct and produce.

[9] The project was subsequently titled Alam Ara and produced by Irani for Imperial Film Company (IFC), an entertainment studio he co-founded with the tent showman Abdulally Esoofally in 1926.

With help from his lawyer Muhammad Ali Jinnah, he won the case and moved to IFC to play the male lead of Alam Ara.

[17] Principal photography was completed by Adi M. Irani at Jyoti Studios in Bombay within four months, using equipment that was bought from Bell & Howell.

[19] As the studio was located near a railway track, the film was shot mostly during the nighttime—between 1:00 am and 4:00 am—to avoid noise from the active trains, which according to Ardeshir Irani would pass every several minutes.

[3] Irani and Rustom Bharucha, a lawyer and the manager of his other production company, Imperial Studios, worked as sound technicians for the film.

When Deming came to Mumbai to give them the sound machines, he charged ₹100 (equivalent to ₹30,000 or US$350 in 2023), which Irani considered a large number at the time.

[22] In 2012, the magazine Outlook reported that the cast and crew were pleased to be parts of the film and ready to receive lesser pays for their work.

[23] The soundtrack to Alam Ara was released by Saregama,[24] and has a total of seven songs: "De De Khuda Ke Naam Pe Pyaare", "Badla Dilwayega Yaar Ab Tu Sitamgaroon Se", "Rootha Hai Aasmaan", "Teri Kateelee Nigaahon Ne Mara", "De Dil Ko Aaram Aey Saaki Gulfaam", "Bhar Bhar Ke Jaam Pila Ja", and "Daras Bin Morey Hain Tarse Nayna Pyare".

[9] Distributed by Sagar Movietone, Alam Ara premiered at Majestic Cinema, Bombay on 14 March 1931, and the screenings ran for eight weeks.

[27] Sharmistha Gooptu, in her article published in The Times of India, reported: "[Alam Ara] is proving to a great attraction at the Majestic Cinema, and crowded houses have been the order of the day.

[31] In 2012, the writer of Outlook observed that the film's commercial performance "dealt a body blow to the careers of the reining stars of [silent] cinema", including Vithal especially since he was not fluent in Hindustani language.

[33] A writer of The Times of India observed how the actors lacked experience in talking near microphones, which made them sound like they were screaming.

[35] It has been described as the rise of the Indian cinema of the early 1930s, and in its 2013 report, The Times of India added, "... edging out the advantage enjoyed by imported films in the silent era, when the largest share of the Indian market was taken by American films ... this transition also made for the rise of a host of new operators, who would become the industry’s vanguard in the first talkie era.

[36] Writing for The Rough Guide to World Music (1999), Mark Ellingham reported that the film's success has influenced India, Sri Lanka, and Myanmar.

[38] Impressed by it, producer Birendranath Sircar acquired the recording equipment of the film and contacted Deming to work with him in Calcutta (present-day Kolkata).