• Home
• People
• Devika Rani

Devika Rani

Devika Rani Chaudhuri, usually known as Devika Rani (30 March 1908 – 9 March 1994), was an actress in Indian films who was active during the 1930s and 1940s. Widely acknowledged as the first lady of Indian cinema, Devika Rani had a successful film career that spanned 10 years.Devika Rani's early years were mostly spent in the UK where she studied at a boarding school. In 1928, she met Himanshu Rai, an Indian film-producer, who persuaded her to join his production crew, although not at first as an actress. She assisted in costumes design and art direction for Rai's film A Throw of Dice (1929). The two married in 1929, and went to Germany where Devika Rani learned various aspects of film-making in the UFA Studios in Berlin. Rai then cast her as an actress in the 1933 talkie Karma, and her performance was well received. Returning to India in 1934, Rai established a production studio, Bombay Talkies, and produced several successful films over the next 5-6 years. Devika Rani portraying the lead role in many of these films.Following Rai's death in 1940, Devika Rani took over control of the studio and produced several more films in partnership with Ashok Kumar and Sashadhar Mukherjee. These films did not prove successful and Devika Rani quit the film industry. In 1945, she married the Russian painter and aristocrat Svetoslav Roerich and retired to a large estate on the outskirts of Bangalore, becoming a recluse over the years. Her persona in real life and her roles in films were both considered socially unconventional. Her awards include the Padmashri (1958), Dadasaheb Phalke Award (1970) and the Soviet Land Nehru Award (1990).