Biography of Devika Rani

(March 30, 1907 - March 9, 1994)

Devika Rani was born in 1907. She was the granddaughter of Rabindranath Tagore's sister, Sukumari Devi. She left India in the twenties to take up a scholarship to study architecture in London. In 1933, Himanshu Rai cast Devika Rani as a heroine in his first talkie Karma'. She achieved great fame and accolades through this film. Two years later, when Himanshu Rai started his ambitious studio "Bombay Talkies', she became its main female lead.

Though she did only fourteen films during her entire film career spanning ten years, the public memory is etched with her lovely face and creamy mother-of-pearl-like complexion.

In 1936, the film 'Acchut Kanya' established her reputation as an actress. The success of this film made her the prima donna' of films. In 1941, after the death of Himanshu Rai, Devika Rani took up the reigns of Bombay Talkies and became the first and only female studio chief ever in Mumbai. She died in 1994.