Yashodhara Katju (1928 – 1974) 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 Second Kashmiri Girl after Shyama Zutshi who joined films in 1941. She was born in 1928 in

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, career and personal life

Yashodhara Katju was born on 15 April 1928 in

Lahore Lahore ( ; pnb, ; ur, ) is the second most populous city in Pakistan after Karachi and 26th most populous city in the world, with a population of over 13 million. It is the capital of the province of Punjab where it is the largest city. ...

. She was the daughter of Pandit Jeevan Lal Katju who is a family member of Jaipur Katju family

Kamala Nehru Kamala Nehru (''née'' Kaul; ; 1 August 1899 – 28 February 1936) was an Indian independence activist and the wife of Jawaharlal Nehru, the first Prime Minister of India. Her daughter Indira Gandhi was the first female Prime Minister of India ...

too was a member of this family. At first they lived in

Lucknow Lucknow (, ) is the capital and the largest city of the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh and it is also the second largest urban agglomeration in Uttar Pradesh. Lucknow is the administrative headquarters of the eponymous district and division ...

but later Pandit Jeevan Lal Katju was appointed as a senior administrative officer by the British Government and transferred to the United Provinces. He then started to live in Lahore. Although he was transferred to

but with the influence from Pandit

Jawaharlal Nehru Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru (; ; ; 14 November 1889 – 27 May 1964) was an Indian anti-colonial nationalist, secular humanist, social democrat— * * * * and author who was a central figure in India during the middle of the 20t ...

he later resigned his government job and focused on Politics and freedom struggle. Yashodhara Katju was admitted to

Convent of Jesus and Mary, Lahore The Convent of Jesus and Mary, Lahore, commonly referred to as Convent, is a private Catholic primary and secondary school for girls situated in Lahore, Punjab, Pakistan. It was founded on 17 November 1876 by Religious of Jesus and Mary, a congre ...

. Yashodhara’s Mother's name was Kailashwati Mulla Katju who was the sister of Pandit Ananad Narain Mulla, the famous Kashmiri Urdu poet and the Judge of Allahabad High court. She was fluent in English, Gujarati, Marathi, Urdu, Kashmiri and Hindi. She was also proficient in horse Riding, singing (She was a student of Bhatkhande Music Institute, Lucknow ) and dancing ( Kathakali,

Kathak Kathak ( hi, कथक; ur, کتھک) is one of the eight major forms of Indian classical dance. It is the classical dance from of Uttar Pradesh. The origin of Kathak is traditionally attributed to the traveling bards in ancient northern Ind ...

and Manipuri ) . Yashodhara Katju dreamed from her childhood to join films against the wishes of her family so she moved to Bombay in 1941. In 1941, she was offered a role in a movie named LALAJI produced by The National Studios. She was then only 14 years old. The movie was completed and released in 1942. Between LALAJI (1942) which was her first movie and DO PHOOL (1973) which was her last movie, she acted in about 85 films. She married Mr Bhandari a Naval officer Commander. After that she lived a very happy married life. Yashodhara Katju died in the year 1974 by a massive heart attack.

Filmography

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Katju, Yashodhara Indian film actresses 1928 births 1973 deaths