Kamala Kotnis

Kamala Kotnis Biography

Kamala Kotnis was an actress associated with Telugu and Hindi cinema during the era of 1940s. She is best known as evergreen star Dev Anand’s first heroine and the movie was Hum Ek Hai released in 1946. She was adopted to a Zamindar and her younger sister was married to the royal family of Ramnad, Andhra Pradesh. Noted south Indian actresses - Latha Sethupathi (who was frequently paired with MGR) and present day titular queen of Ramnad Rajeswari Nachiyar are her nieces. It was Kamala who encouraged young Latha to take cinema as a profession and later Latha went on to become a star of Tamil cinema in the 1970s. Noted politician Shanmugha Rajeswara Sethupathi was her brother-in-law and Rajkumar Sethupathi is her nephew.

Kamala’s maiden name is Kamalabai. Her father was a British army officer while her mother belonged to Andhra Pradesh. She was later adopted to a Zamindar family and got married to Panduranga Kotnis in 1941. Panduranga’s brother was a leading cinematographer of Indian film industry - D.S Kotnis and that’s how Kamala’s entry to films took place. She made her film debut with Jeevan Jyothi in the early 1940s. The silver jubilee hit - Bala Nagamma (1942 film) was her first noticed film, where she played a character role. She later played several supporting roles.

Later she was seen in many Telugu movies like Chenchulakshmi, Bhagyalakshmi, Tahsildar, Sri Sita Rama Jananam etc during the period 1943-1944 and couldn’t gain any success. In 1946 she marked her Bollywood debut as a lead heroine through the movie - Hum Ek Hai starring opposite another debutant Dev Anand. The movie also starred Guru Dutt and Rehman. Later she acted in a few more Hindi movies - Mera Suhaag, Agae Badho, Seedha Raasta and Sati Ahalya.

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Updated: January 18, 2016