Kamala Kotnis was an Indian actress who played roles in

Telugu Telugu may refer to: * Telugu language, a major Dravidian language of India *Telugu people, an ethno-linguistic group of India * Telugu script, used to write the Telugu language ** Telugu (Unicode block), a block of Telugu characters in Unicode S ...

and Hindi movies during the 1940s. She is also notable for being

Dev Anand Dharamdev Pishorimal Anand (26 September 1923 – 3 December 2011), better known as Dev Anand, was an Indian actor, writer, director and producer known for his work in Hindi cinema, through a career that spanned over six decades. He was ...

's first heroine in '' Hum Ek Hai'', released in 1946.

Early life

Kamala Kotnis was born as Kamalabai in

Andhra Pradesh Andhra Pradesh (, abbr. AP) is a state in the south-eastern coastal region of India. It is the seventh-largest state by area covering an area of and tenth-most populous state with 49,386,799 inhabitants. It is bordered by Telangana to the ...

to a

mother and a British father, who was in the army. As a child, she was adopted by a

Zamindar A zamindar ( Hindustani: Devanagari: , ; Persian: , ) in the Indian subcontinent was an autonomous or semiautonomous ruler of a province. The term itself came into use during the reign of Mughals and later the British had begun using it as a ...

. She later married Panduranga Kotnis in 1941, who was the brother of D.S. Kotnis, a leading cinematographer. Her younger sister was "connected" to the Royal family of

Ramnad estate The Kingdom of Ramnad or Ramnad estate was a permanently settled kingdom and later ''zamindari'' estate that existed in the Ramnad subdivision of the Madurai district and later Ramnad district of the erstwhile Madras Presidency in British Indi ...

Filmography

*''Jeevana Jyoti'' - (Telugu) - 1940 *'' Bala Nagamma'' - (Telugu) - 1942 *''

Chenchu Lakshmi ''Chenchu Lakshmi'' is a 1958 Indian bilingual Telugu and Tamil language Hindu mythological film, produced and directed by B. A. Subba Rao. It stars Akkineni Nageswara Rao and Anjali Devi, with music composed by S. Rajeswara Rao. It was sim ...

'' - (Telugu) -1943 - Chenchu Lakshmi *''Bhagyalakshmi'' - (Telugu) - 1943 *''

Seeta Rama Jananam ''Sri Seeta Rama Jananam'' () is a 1944 Indian Telugu-language Hindu mythological film, produced and directed by Ghantasala Balaramayya under the Pratibha Productions banner. The film stars Akkineni Nageswara Rao, Tripurasundari, Vemuri Gaggai ...

'' - (Telugu) - 1943 *''Tahsildar'' - (Telugu) - 1944 - Rajani *'' Hum Ek Hai'' - (Hindi) - 1946 *''Gokul'' - (Hindi) - 1946 *''Mera Suhaag'' - (Hindi) - 1947 *''

Aage Badho Aage Badho () is a 1947 Hindi language movie directed by Yeshwant Pithkar, starring Dev Anand, Khurshid, Vasant Thengdi, Kusum Deshpande, and Madhukar Apte. Cast *Dev Anand *Khurshid *Kamala Kotnis *Vasant Thengdi *Kusum Deshpande *Madhukar Apt ...

'' - (Hindi) - 1947 *''Seedha Raasta'' - (Hindi) - 1949 *''Sati Ahalya'' - (Hindi) - 1949

References

Chenchulakshmi (1943) - The HinduBlast from the Past: Bhagyalakshmi (1943) - The HinduBlast From The Past: Sri Sita Rama Jananam (1944) - The Hindu
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kotnis, Kamala Anglo-Indian people Telugu people Indian film actresses Actresses in Telugu cinema Actresses in Hindi cinema Actresses of European descent in Indian films Actresses of European descent in Bollywood films 20th-century Indian actresses Actresses from Andhra Pradesh Telugu actresses