Devika Rani is regarded as India's first female superstar. The actress left her husband - producer Himanshu Rai - and abandoned a film midway in 1936 to run off with her co-star.
In what was arguably the first major scandal of Bollywood, a female superstar, the first India ever produced, created sensation when she ditched her husband and abandoned a big film to run away with her co-actor. What transpired afterwards led to the emergence of a screen legend and the decline of another career.
When India’s first female superstar ran away with her co-star
In 1936, the early days of the Hindi film industry, Bombay Talkies was regarded as India’s premier film studio. The base of Indian films had shifted from Calcutta to Bombay and producer Himanshu Rai, the studio’s boss, had been instrumental in it. His wife Devika Rai, the star of all his films, was the reigning screen queen, the number one actress of the country. But things came to a head when during the shoot of their film Jeevan Naiya, Devika and her co-star Najm-ul-Hassan began a relationship with each other and eloped, leaving the film stalled.
Angered by this betrayal as well as loss of money, Himanshu Rai turned to a sound engineer in the studio named Sashadhar Mukherjee, who had a brotherly bond with Devika. Mukherjee travelled to Devika and Hassan where the actress said she would only return if Himashu would give them a huge sum of money. Rai agreed but later on, fired his hero. He eventually replaced him with Sashadhar’s brother-in-law Kumudlal Ganguly, who worked in the studio as a lab assistant. The reluctant Kumudlal became Devika Rani’s hero and adopted the screen name – Ashok Kumar. Thus began the careers of the first superstar of Indian cinema.
What happened to Devika Rani and Najm-ul-Hassan after this fiasco
Jeevan Naiyaa became Ashok Kumar’s debut. Over the next few years, with films like Kismet, he became the industry’s number one actor. Najm-ul-Hassan, on the other hand, became unhirable. He was fired by Bombay Talkies and struggled to find work in other studios as well. An affair with the top actress of India who was married to a big-shot producer did his reputation no good. Hassan migrated to Pakistan after Partition and worked in a handful of films there, but without much success.
Devika Rani continued to work in film and still found success as a heroine. Till 1941, she remained the industry’s top name and face. It was only after Himanshu Rai’s death and when a few of her films flopped that she stepped back from acting. After 1945, she retired from acting completely. The void she left was filled by the next generation of stars like Nargis, Madhubala, and Suraiyya.
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 "Devika Rani and Najm-ul-Hassan")
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