Shyama Zutshi (1919 – 1953) was a

Bollywood Hindi cinema, popularly known as Bollywood and formerly as Bombay cinema, refers to the film industry based in Mumbai, engaged in production of motion pictures in Hindi language. The popular term Bollywood, is a portmanteau of "Bombay" (fo ...

actress who was the first Kashmiri Girl who joined films in 1934. She was born in 1910 at the

Anand Bhavan The Anand Bhavan is a historic house museum in Prayagraj, India, focusing on the Nehru family. It was bought by Indian political leader Motilal Nehru in the 1930s to serve as the residence of the Nehru family when the original mansion Swaraj Bh ...

Allahabad Allahabad (), officially known as Prayagraj, also known as Ilahabad, is a metropolis in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh.The other five cities were: Agra, Kanpur (Cawnpore), Lucknow, Meerut, and Varanasi (Benares). It is the administrat ...

Early life

Shyama Zutshi was born on 8 February 1910 in

. She was the daughter of Barrister Pandit Ladli Prasad Zutshi who is the only son of Patrani (Sister of

Motilal Nehru Motilal Nehru (6 May 1861 – 6 February 1931) was an Indian lawyer, activist and politician belonging to the Indian National Congress. He also served as the Congress President twice, 1919–1920 and 1928–1929. He was a patriarch of the Nehr ...

). She was admitted to Sacred Heart Convent, Lahore by her mother lado rani. She was fluent in English, Gujarati, Marathi, Urdu, Kashmiri and Hindi. She was also proficient in horse Riding, singing and dancing.

Career and personal life

After passing her BA examination Shyama Zutshi joined Hindi Cinema. Her first movie was Shiv Bhakti which release in the year 1934. She later acted in many films like Majnu (1935), Khooni Jadugar(1939) etc. Her major hit was

Karwan-E-Hayat ''Karwan-E-Hayat'' is a 1935 Urdu/Hindi costume action-adventure film. The film is directed by Premankur Atorthy, with assistance by Hemchandra, for New Theatres Ltd. Calcutta; and it was produced by Lahore branch of New Theatres. The cast includ ...

( 1935 ) in which she acted with K. L. Saigal , T. R. Rajakumari ,

Pahari Sanyal Pahari Sanyal (22 February 1906 – 10 February 1974) was an Indian actor and singer who is known for his work in Bengali cinema. Sanyal acted in many Bengali films, such as ''Harano Sur'', ''Bhanu Goenda Jahar Assistant'', and ''Shilpi''. B ...

Rattan Bai Rattan Bai (July 15, 1890January 1, 1986) was an Indian actress and singer. She was the mother of actress Shobhna Samarth, grandmother of actresses Nutan and Tanuja, great-grandmother of actresses Kajol, Tanishaa Mukerji and actor Mohnish Bahl. ...

. She was became a very successful actress in some days. But with the influence from her elder sister Manmohini she moved out from films and focused on Politics and freedom struggle. Another reason for Shyama Zutshi to quit films was the advice from a fellow Kashmiri Actor Chander Mohan Wattal who was a close friend of Zutshi family . According to Chander acting in films was not meant for girls from good families like Kashmiri Pandits. So Chander Mohan Wattal always opposed the entry of Kashmiri girls to films. Later Shyama became a Women Congress leader and a Front line freedom fighter ( Non-violence) influenced by Gandhiji's Non Violent struggle along with her mother and three sisters (Chandra Kumari , Manmohini and Janak) . After some time Lado Rani arrange the marriage of Shyama in a well off Chopra family. She became Shyama Chopra after marriage.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Zutshi, Shayama Indian film actresses 1910 births 1953 deaths