indian celebrities: Nirupa Roy

Thursday 5 July 2012

Nirupa Roy

Kokila was born on January 4, 1931 in Valsad, Gujerat, India, in the Gujerati-speaking Balsara family.She was married to Kamal Roy at a very young age, and shortly thereafter in 1946 both husband and wife decided to make a career on the silver screen. They traveled to Bombay, both applied, but only Kokila was chosen to act in a Gujerati movie, Ranakdevi, followed by Amar Raj, and Gunsundari in 1948.In 1946, Roy and her husband responded to an advertisement in a Gujarati paper looking for actors. She was selected and started her acting career with the Gujarati film Ranakdevi. The same year she acted in her first Hindi film, Amar Raj. One of her popular films wasDo Bigha Zameen (1953). She largely played mythological characters in the films of the 1940s and 50s. Her image of a goddess was very strong and people would visit her home and seek her blessings.Among her co-stars were Trilok Kapoor, Bharat Bhushan, Balraj Sahni and Ashok Kumar.In the 1970s, her roles as mother to the characters played by Amitabh Bachchan and Shashi Kapoor made her name synonymous to the impoverished suffering mother. Her role in Deewar (1975) and its dialogues with reference to a mother and son are used as clichés. She often lost her kids in her movies and was given the worst babysitter award in MTV Fully Faltoo awards (a parody of the Filmfare Awards). She is considered as one of the best character artistes in Indian cinema.