THE UNFORGETTABLES

Remembering the many female icons of Bollywood’s Golden Era and beyond whose light still shines bright

- ROSHMILA BHATTACHARYA

In today’s digital world, the only thoughts that come to mind when one mentions the word ‘icon’ would be that of a graphic symbol of an app, a file, or even a function as seen on a computer screen. However, the said word has another meaning that is not lost to the world yet. We are referring to a person who is widely admired for having great influence or significance in a particular domain. Among the many icons we know of in India, are the yesteryear actresses who ruled the Indian cinema industry for over four decades.

Let’s start with Devika Rani—the First Lady of Indian Cinema. The grand-niece of Nobel Laureate Rabindranath Tagore schooled in England, locked lips with her husband, Himanshu Rai, in the 1933 film Karma in what was then the longest kiss, and relocated to India the following year to set up Bombay Talkies Studio with him. Through the ’30s and ’40s, Rani starred in socially relevant films such as Jeevan Naiya (1936), Achhut Kanya (1936), and Jeevan Prabhat (1937), turning the spotlight on issues such as prostitution, casteism, and childlessness, and introducing several emerging talent, which included Ashok Kumar and Dilip Kumar.

Devika Rani remained the studio boss even after Rai’s untimely demise in 1940, till she sold her shares, married Russian painter Svetoslav Roerich in 1945, and moved to Manali to make wildlife documentaries. She was a Padma Shri awardee (1954) and was also the first recipient of the Dadasaheb Phalke Award (1970), which is the country’s highest honour for cinema.