Devika Rani Choudhuri, usually known as Devika Rani, was an Indian actress who was active in Hindi films during the 1930s and 1940s, she was the first recipient of Dadasahab falke award.
33 Facts About Devika Rani
2.
Widely acknowledged as the first lady of Indian cinema, Devika Rani had a successful film career that spanned 10 years.
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Devika Rani assisted in costume design and art direction for Rai's experimental silent film A Throw of Dice.
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Devika Rani's awards include the Padma Shri, Dadasaheb Phalke Award and the Soviet Land Nehru Award.
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Devika Rani was born as Devika Rani Choudhury on 30 March 1908 in Waltair near Visakhapatnam in present-day Andhra Pradesh, into an extremely affluent and educated Bengali family, the daughter of Col.
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Devika Rani's paternal grandmother, Sukumari Devi, was a sister of the nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore.
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Devika Rani's father had five brothers, all of them distinguished in their own fields, mainly law, medicine and literature.
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Devika Rani's mother, Leela Devi Choudhury, came from an equally educated family and was a niece of Rabindranath Tagore.
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Nor was this all: Two of Devika Rani's uncles were married to their first cousins, the nieces of Rabindranath Tagore: Prativa Devi Choudhury, wife of Sir Ashutosh Choudhury, was the daughter of Hemendranath Tagore, and Indira Devi Choudhury, wife of Pramathanath Choudhury, was the daughter of Satyendranath Tagore.
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Devika Rani thus had extremely strong family ties to Jarasanko, seat of the Tagore family in Kolkata and a major crucible of the Bengali Renaissance.
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Devika Rani was sent to boarding school in England at the age of nine, and grew up there.
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Devika Rani enrolled for courses in architecture, textile and decor design, and even apprenticed under Elizabeth Arden.
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All of these courses, each of them a few months long, were completed by 1927, and Devika Rani then took up a job in textile design.
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In 1928, Devika Rani first met her future husband, Himanshu Rai, an Indian barrister-turned-film maker, who was in London preparing to shoot his forthcoming film A Throw of Dice.
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Devika Rani readily agreed, assisting him in areas such as costume designing and art direction.
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Devika Rani learnt various aspects of film-making and took a special course in film acting.
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The kissing scene, involving Himanshu Rai and Devika Rani, lasted for about four minutes, and eighty years later, this stands as the record for duration of a kissing scene in Indian cinema as of 2014.
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Devika Rani sang a song in the film, a bi-lingual song in English and Hindi.
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Devika Rani's performance was internationally acclaimed as she won "rave reviews" in the London media.
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Devika Rani inaugurated the company's first short wave radio transmission to India.
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However, the film received good critical response and helped Devika Rani establish herself as a leading actress in Indian cinema.
22.
Devika Rani established contact with the runaway couple and managed to convince Devika Rani to return to her husband.
23.
Devika Rani negotiated with her husband through the auspices of Sashadhar Mukherjee, seeking the separation of her finances from those of her husband as a condition for her return.
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Devika Rani's career was ruined and he sank into obscurity.
25.
The casting of Devika Rani was considered a mismatch as her looks did not match the role of a poor untouchable girl by virtue of her "upper-class upbringing".
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Devika Rani assumed principal responsibility and took over the studio along with Mukherjee.
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Devika Rani made her last film appearance in Hamari Baat, which had Raj Kapoor playing a small role.
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At her funeral, Devika Rani was given full state honors.
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Devika Rani was called the first lady of Indian cinema.
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Devika Rani is credited for being one of the earliest personalities who took the position of Indian cinema to global standards.
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Devika Rani's films were mostly tragic romantic dramas that contained social themes.
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Devika Rani was highly influenced by the German cinema by virtue of her training at the UFA Studios;.
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Devika Rani became the first ever recipient of the Dadasaheb Phalke Award, the country's highest award for films, when it was instituted in 1969.