ByDeepa Gahlot

September 10, 2019 (IANSlife) A new stage production by Lillete Dubey pays tribute to Devika Rani, undoubtedly the first star of Indian cinema — a woman of beauty, talent, intelligence and courage.

With our usual disdain for the film history, only the ardent movie buff would know of her contribution to cinema. And the life she led which makes for a great story.

Born into a wealthy and educated zamindar family, Devika Rani Choudhary, was sent to boarding school in England at age nine and grew up there. After completing her schooling, she joined the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA) and the Royal Academy of Music to study acting and music, at a time when aristocratic women did not enter showbiz. She also did for courses in textile and décor design.

In 1928, she met filmmaker and actor Himanshu Rai in London. He was so captivated by her beauty that he asked her to join his production company. Which is how, Devika Rani, the great grand niece of Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore, assisted in costume design and art direction for Rai's film A Throw of Dice. The two married in 1929, and went to Germany, where she studied filmmaking in Berlin.

Rai then cast himself as hero and her as heroine in his next production, the bilingual film Karma (1933) made simultaneously in English and Hindi. Karma was Devika Rani’s first film as an actor and Himanshu Rai’s last. After it flopped in India, he concentrated on movie-making.

In 1934, she and Rai co-founded the production company, Bombay Talkies, which.produced over a hundred films and launched dozens of careers. Bombay Talkies was the first cinema company to be listed on the stock exchange and was considered a world-class studio in line with international standards.

A major scandal ensued when Devika Rani eloped with the handsome actor Najmul Hassan, who was acting with her in Jeevan Naiya. She was eventually persuaded to return, but because of this incident, Hassan’s career as a leading man was ruined. Hassan’s loss proved to be Ashok Kumar’s gain. Rai chose his laboratory assistant, then known by his real name Kumudlal Kunjilal Ganguly, to be the film’s new hero. Devika Rani's marriage to Rai never recovered from this blow. After his death in 1940, she took over the management of Bombay Talkies and produced several films along with Ashok Kumar and Sasadhar Mukherjee. Interestingly, to Devika Rani goes the credit of discovering a fruit merchant’s handsome son, Yusuf Khan, today known as Dilip Kumar, and casting him in Jwar Bhata (1944).

In Karma, Devika Rani played the Maharani of Sitapur, who is in love with the prince (Himanshu Rai) of the neighbouring kingdom of Jahanagar. His father disapproves of the Maharani, because of her modern ideas on education and healthcare for all. The prince, however, defies his father to woo her. This film has the famous four-minute kiss, said to be the longest in Indian cinema.

However, the better known and more successful film was Franz Osten's 1936 film Achhut Kanya, starring Devika Rani and Ashok Kumar tells of star-crossed sweethearts -- the 'Untouchable' Kasturi, daughter of a lowly railway-crossing guard, and Pratap, a young Brahmin boy.

In 1936, even with waves of progressive thought slowing creeping through a deeply traditional and caste-ridden country, it was a bold subject to select. It was reportedly the only feature fllm Mahatma Gandhi saw.

In 1945, Rani married the Russian painter Svetoslav Roerich and retired to an estate outside Bangalore. The smoking-drinking-fiery actress eventually settled for a reclusive life. She was the first recipient of the Dadasaheb Phalke Award, when it was instituted in 1970.

Devika Rani was given labels like The First Lady of Indian Cinema and Dragon Lady, but it was a life filled with achievement, and worthy of a tribute on stage, and perhaps at a later date, on film with a well-deserved biopic.

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Deepa Gahlot is an entertainment columnist.

Editing by Ritu Pandey and N. Lothungbeni Humtsoe