Leela Chitnis-Biography

Leela Chitnis was born in Dharwar, Karnataka, India. Leela was one of the first educated film actresses in the bollywood industry. Leela's father was part of a Marathi theatre company called Natyamanwantar.




Leela's early stage work included comedy Usna Navra (1934) and with her own film group Udyacha Sansar. Leela Chitnis got married and had four children but divorced her husband.

Leela started acting to support her four children. She started as an extra and went on to stunt films. She was publicized in the Times of India as the first graduate society-lady from Maharastra.

Leela Chitnis worked at Prabhat Pictures, Pune and Ranjit Movietone before going on to be the leading lady in Bombay Talkies which saw her overtake and outshine Devika Rani. Her association with Bombay Talkies shot her to stardom and she made a particularly good pair with Devika Rani's leading man Ashok Kumar.

For 22 years, Leela Chitnis played the mother of the later leading men including Dilip Kumar, often playing an ailing mother or a mother going through hardships and struggling to bring up her offspring.

Leela created the archetype of the Hindi Film mother, which was carried out by later actresses. She continued doing films and then migrated to the United States in the late 1980s to join her children. At the age of 93, the actress died in Danbury, Connecticut at a nursing home.