According to India Tribune, India has decided to honor six heroines of Bollywood cinema by printing them on stamps. After sleuthing a bit, yours truly is here to give you the scoop.
The earliest of these six is Padmashri Devika Rani who dominated the early silent film era. She is better known as the co-founder of Bombay Talkies. She is well known for the movie Achhut Kanya, 1936. She is also known for her discovery of the actor Dilip Kumar. She studied architechture in London where she set designed for her first husband. Later on, she became a member of the Central Government Audio Visual Education Board. She was also nominated to the National Academy of Dance, Drama, Music and Films, the Sangeet Natak Akademi, Delhi, as a nominee of the Central Government. She was a member of the Executive Board of the National Academy, Member of the Lalit Kala Akademi and the National Handicrafts Board and Member of the Indian Council for Cultural Relations. Equally invaluable is the prestigious Soviet Land Nehru award conferred to her in 1989. Devika Rani passed away in March of 1994.
Another woman of great caliber, Kannan Devi, became a legend of Bengali cinema. She is well known for her roles of actress, musician, and producer in the film industry. She entered the field as a child artist with the movie Joydeb, 1927. She has consistently given films from 1927 till 1959. She is known for her perseverance and belief that women should be treated just as well as men. Due to the social differences back then, men used to do the role of women. Kannan Devi is one of the very few women who took the initiative to change that. At first society shunned her due to her willingness to do any role. But it was noted later that her efforts shone through when the governor of a state (Mr Dharma Vira of West Bengal) rose from his seat to welcome her at a function. She is the first actress of Bengali cinema to be addressed by the term 'Madam'. She is a role model and a trendsetter for many young actresses today in Indian cinema. She passed away on July 17, 1992
Another beautiful woman, Leela Naidu , is remembered for her classic beauty and subtle acting style. She was the Femina Miss India in 1954 and was featured in Vogue as one of the 10 most beautiful women of the world. She made her film debut in 1960 with Hrishikesh Mukherji's Anuradha, 1960. She is also well known for her performance in English movies. Leela was one of the few actresses of that time to not be a 100% Indian, her mother was of a Swiss-French origin. She was an all-rounder, being well educated and well acclaimed in the film industry. Though her personal life wasn't ideal, she has told reporters repeatedly, that she is glad for the family God has given her. Leela Naidu recently died on July 28, 2009.
The daughter of well-known actress Shobana Samarth and the aunt of Bollywood actress Kajol, is also featured in this notable stamp attempt. Nutan Samarth started her career as actress as a fourteen-year-old in Hamari Beti (1950). This film was produced by her mother, Shobhana. In 1952 she was the winner of Miss India. Her first big break was Seema, for which she won her first Filmfare Best Actress Award. From then, she has won a total of six Filmfare Best Actress Award and three BFJA (Bengali Film Journalist Award) Best Actress Award for Hindi. Nutan passed away on February 1991 due to cancer.
Baby Meena, as she's commonly called, is another darling face on these stamps. Meena Kumari joined films at the tender age of 6 and went on to become one of our most celebrated actresses. During a career spanning 30 years from her childhood to her death, she starred in more than ninety films, many of which have achieved classic and cult status today. She is well known for her varied roles, from comedy to tragedy. However, fate took a toll and left her life to tragedy. Her life and prosperous career were marred by heavy drinking, troubled relationships, an ensuing deteriorating health, and her death from liver cirrhosis in 1972.
Oh my! What can I say about this brilliant actress?! Savithri Kommareddy has appeared in Telugu, Tamil and Hindi languages. She was known for her liveliness and captivating performance and is still treated as the benchmark for acting in movies. She acted in 318 films in Telugu, Tamil, Kannada and Hindi languages, with ten to fifteen movies released per year. She has paired opposite leading actors like Sivaji Ganesan and M. G. Ramachandran. She was fondly called 'Nadigaiyar Thilagam' in the Tamil film industry. Savitri secretly married Gemini Ganesan in 1955 and she declared it publicly three years after the wedding. Gemini Ganesan and Savitri made a hit pair on-screen. She unfortunately had a short lived life and died at the age of 47 on December 26, 1981.
This is the first time both the husband and the wife were honored with a stamp. Gemini Ganesan got it a couple years ago, and now his wife. The aforementioned actress, Devika Rani's second husband, Russian Painter, Svetoslav Roerich, has also been given one. Personally speaking, since Gemini and Savithri were the original pair, I feel that they still uphold the title of 'First Couple featured on Stamps' I believe that this is a noble idea, especially to feature radical women of the film industry. What better way to kick off 100th International Women’s day!! Kudos to these women and thier achievements!
