Who is Devika Rani & What She Does?

Her beauty and impeccable style added to her identity. During her time training for filmmaking, she was highly influenced by the likes of German actress Marlene Dietrich and Greta Garbo. Her classic style and acting style gave her the name of ‘Indian Garbo’.

After the death of her husband and multiple flops under the production house, she finally called it quits. She would then remarry a Russian painter Svetoslav Roerich years later and live a more reclusive life in Bangalore.

It was bronchitis that damped her tough spirit and she passed away on 9th March 1994.

Karma went on to premiere in London and it was internationally acclaimed. Devika Rani put Indian cinema on a world map with her eloquent performance. She and her husband would partner again for their production house Bombay Talkies.

The studio would go on to make 40 films which included hits like Kangan, Bandhan, and Kismet.

Through her choices in film, she was known as a gutsy actress. She proceeded in making films that revolved around societal issues. Acchut Kanya was a commentary about the caste system . Nirmala spoke about blind-faith and superstitions

But what Devika Rani will most be remembered for is not giving a damn in an era that cared too much about the status quo and ‘log kya kahenge’. She was feisty in an era where women were expected to be docile and meek.

Devika Rani was born on March 30, 1908 in Waltair, Madras Presidency, British India as Devika Rani Choudhury. She was a producer and actress, known for Achhut Kanya (1936), Jawani Ki Hawa (1935) and Jeevan Naya (1936). She was married to Dr. Svetoslav Roerich and Himansu Rai. She died on March 8, 1994 in Bangalore, Karnataka, India.

The actress Devika Rani was Rabindranath Tagore’s grand-niece and the daughter of the first Indian surgeon general M. N. Chaudhuri. Devika Rani lived in London in the mid-1920s, studying at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts (RADA) and the Royal Academy of Music

She also studied architecture and textile design and was for a while apprenticed to the studio of Elisabeth Arden. She met Himanshu Rai in London in 1928. He had originally trained as a lawyer but had become a film director and asked Devika Rani to design his next film, A Throw of Dice (1929). They married in 1929.

The film was edited in Germany where Devika Rani met film directors such as Sternberg, G. W. Pabst and Fritz Lang, which heightened her interest in film-making. She subsequently joined UFA studios in Berlin, where she assisted Marlene Dietrich on the set of Der Blaue Engel (1930). She also briefly worked with Max Reinhardt.

One of the early BBC broadcasts to India included a Devika Rani recital (15 May 1933). Rai and Devika Rani starred together in the film Karma (1933), which was completed at the Stall Studios in London. The film was the first Indian Talkie in English and Hindustani to be released in England, Europe and India.

The film was the first Indian Talkie in English and Hindustani to be released in England, Europe and India. The film had its premiere, attended by the former Viceroy to India, Lord Irwin, in London in May 1933, and was well received by the critics and a big hit with the public.

After the successful premiere of Karma, Devika Rani was asked by the BBC to act in an early television broadcast in Britain and was also chosen to inaugurate the first BBC broadcast on the short wavelength to India in May

Devika Rani and Rai returned to Bombay and set up the Bombay Talkies studio in 1934. It was hailed as one of India’s best-equipped studios and enlisted the work of cinema practitioners like the German director Franz Osten, and the cameraman Carl Josef Wirsching.

The studio also launched the careers of many cinema icons of the immediate post-independence era, such as Ashok Kumar, Dilip Kumar and Raj Kapoor. After the death of her husband in 1940, Devika Rani became the manager of Bombay Talkies.

In 1945 she married the Russian artist Svetoslav Roerich and sold her shares in Bombay Talkies. In 1953 she was awarded the Padamshree and in 1969 the Dadasaheb Phalke Award for Lifetime Achievement in Cinema.

On March 30, 2018, the International Roerich Memorial Trust (IRMT) celebrated the 110th anniversary of Devika Rani, the cinema star of yesteryear, and the beloved wife of Dr. Svetoslav Roerich.

Festivities opened with the traditional Shanti Puja in her memory conducted in front of the Summer Studio of Svetoslav Roerich which houses a small exhibition on this beautiful couple which includes archival photographs and some of their personal belongings

The ceremony brought together the Indian and Russian staff of the IRMT, and the guests from India and France who gathered around the sacrificial fire near her portrait painted by Svetoslav Roerich to honour the memory of this truly remarkable human being who is also special to Naggar due to her having been actively involved in the foundation of the IRMT.

The participants of the ceremony also laid flowers under the linden trees nearby the Samadhi of Nicholas Roerich, on the rock that bears the name of Devika Rani and where a part of her ashes was interred in 1994 in accordance with her will.

The programme continued with the inauguration of the photographic exhibition “Devika Rani – The First Lady of Indian Cinema, the Spouse, Associate and Muse of the Renowned Russian Artist Svetoslav Roerich” in the Conference Hall, IRMT.

In the age of silent films, there was a lady who paved a path for better cinema. It was Devika Rani.

Devika Rani was born on 30th March 1908 and was the biggest actress India had ever seen in the 1930-40s era. She married Himanshu Rai, a film producer.

She was one fierce lady who paved the path that would not entirely fit in with her era. She was quite adept at costume design and art direction and even assisted Rai in his silent film A Throw of Dice.