She was paired with Ashok Kumar in this movie, and the pair then went on to do ten films together. Their pairing was a great success and it was said that she completely overpowered Kumar with her persona. One of them was Acchut Kanya which became a landmark in Indian Cinema as it questioned the caste system, depicting an untouchable girl falling in love with a Brahmin boy. She then went on to do many more women-centric movies. Devika’s performance in the movie garnered a lot of praise and critical acclamation.Devika also sang a bilingual Indo-English song in the movie, which became the first India English song. It was the first English language movie by an Indian producer. It had the first and the longest liplock on the Indian screen. Interestingly, it was a woman-centric film as it was majorly based on Devika. The movie set many precedents in the ever-evolving Indian cinema.Longest liplock by Devika (Pic by Youtube) They got married soon after and Devika left for Berlin to learn film-making. Once she came back, Rai casted Devika in his first film Karma where he himself was playing the lead.

They worked on a movie (A Throw of Dice) together where Devika assisted Rai in costume designing and art direction.The turning point came when during an event she met Himanshu Rai, a barrister-turned-filmmaker, who insisted that she work with him in production. She began her career as a textile engineer, but life had something else in store for her. A major part of Devika’s childhood was spent in London, where she first studied acting and music then did a course in architecture.She was also related to the renowned poet and Nobel Laureate Rabindranath Tagore. Her paternal uncles were also famous lawyers in Kolkata High Court and one of them, a very famous Bengali writer. Her father, Manmatha Nath Chaudhuri was the first Indian Surgeon-General of Madras Presidency. Rani was born in Vishakhapatnam to an illustrious Bengali family.Today on Devika Rani’s birthday, we familiarise you with her life and her brave decisions: Her popularity rose to such levels that it altered peoples’ perspective towards actresses. The record was unbroken for a long time until 2014. She was the first actor to ever have a four-minute long liplock onscreen.

Devika Pic