First superstar actress of India, earned Rs 5 lakh per film, died a painful death, can you recognise her?

Kanan Devi, who was one of the first singer and actress of Hindi cinema, died 30 years ago. Kanan Devi used to charge Rs 5 lakh for a film and Rs 1 lakh for a song. The amount is significant because in those days films the whole budget of the films used to be around Rs 15000-20000. If we adjust the money which she charged to today’s time, then we can say that Kanan Devi was first ‘crorepati’ actress of India. Kanan Devi was born April 22, 1916 in a poor family in Howrah, West Bengal. Not much is known about her Kanan Devi’s real parents. According to her biography, Kanan Devi was brought up a couple named Ratan Chandra Das and Rajobala, so she started considering them as her parents. Ratan Chandra treated Kanan Devi as his daughter and trained her in music, but he died after few years.

Ratan Chandra was the sole earning member of the family and his death created a lot of financial troubles for the family. Soon the family started facing tough times even to arrange for meals and Kanan Devi and her mother Rajobala were evicted from the rented house. Rajobala started working with Kanan in the homes of the rich people of Kolkata to make two ends meet. Kanan became a maid at a very young age. Taking pity on the condition of Kanan Devi and her mother, a relative brought them home, but instead of keeping them like family, those relatives used to make them work for hours and misbehaved with them. Kanan Devi could not tolerate their misbehavior and she decided that she will not live in anyone's house anymore. Kanan Devi was just 7 at that time.

After leaving relatives' house, Kanan and Rajobala returned to Howrah and they started living near a brothel. Taking pity on the financial condition of Kanan Devi and her mother, a family friend Tulsi Banerjee (stage artist), whom Kanan used to call Kaka Babu, introduced 10-year-old Kanan to Madan Theater and Jyoti Theater. Kanan was a very beautiful and sharp minded girl from an early age.

Madan Movie Studio got impressed with Kanan Devi’s beauty and signed her in Jaidev film for a salary of Rs 5 per month. Kanan Devi got a small role in the film. Kanan acted in a few films from 1928–31, and during this time she also recorded a few songs with music composer Hiren Bose, lyricist Dhiren Das and poet Kazi Nazrul Islam. Kanan Devi worked in many excellent films like Shankaracharya, Rishir Prem, Jorebarat, Vishnu Maya, Prahlad. Kanan Devi played the male lead in the film Vishnu Maya and Prahlad. Kanan was named Kanan Bala at Manmayi Girls' School and then she changed her name to Kanan Devi. At the age of 21, Kanan Devi had become famous for her beauty and excellent performance.

Kanan Devi had become a superstar while working with Radha Film Company. She was the highest paid actress of her time. When the budget of the film used to be Rs 15000-20000, Kanan used to charge Rs 1 lakh for a song and Rs 5 lakh for a film. 

Kanan Devi worked in a total of 57 films, and she sung around 40 songs. She was the first woman in the film world, who was called ‘Madam’ in the male dominated industry. In Hindi cinema, Kanan Devi also worked with veteran actors KL Sehgal, Pankaj Malik, Prathamesh Barua, Pahari Sanyal, Chhabi Biswas, and Ashok Kumar. Kanan Devi got married to Ashok Maitra in December 1940. He was the son of the Brahmo Samaj educationist Heramba Chandra Maitra. The marriage did not go down well with the then conservative society. The marriage did not last long and Kanan Devi filed for divorce in 1945.
In 1949, Kanan Devi married Haridas Bhattacharjee, who was then ADC to the Governor of Bengal. Haridas later turned director but he was always known as Kanan Devi’s husband and this later became the bone of contention between the couple. Haridas walked out of Kanan’s home on April 4, 1987 but he did not divorce her. Kanan Devi died on July 17, 1992 at the age of 76 but Haridas did not attend her funeral. Some reports claim that Kanan Devi felt lonely during her last days and was in pain over the fact that Haridas was not beside her at that time.