Ramola Devi

Ramola Devi Biography

Ramola Devi aka Rachel Cohen was a beautiful Indian-Jewish actress who worked in Hindi movies. The musical hit Khazanchi (1941) is her most memorable role as a film heroine. The hit song from the movie - Sawan Kai Nazare hain sung by Shamshad Begum and Ghulam Haider was pictured on her. Associated with Indian movies since mid-1930s, she took a break from the industry in the early 1950s with the arrival of new heroines. She has worked as a leading lady with leading directors of Bollywood like Moti Gidwani, A. M. Khan, Ranjeet Sen, Kidar Sharma, Jayant Desai, H. S. Rawail, P. C. Barua, Phani Majumdar, Kishore Sahu, Vijay Mhatre etc and has been associated with leading film banners like - Film Corporation Of India, Pancholi Production, Talwar Production, Kamal Pictures, Hindustan Cine etc.

Ramola Devi was of Jewish origin. She has been a stage actress before she was introduced to big screen by Jagdish Seth to the leading film maker of 1930s - Kidar Sharma, who then worked as a dialogue writer. Kidar was impressed by her looks and charm and felt that her height was the only drawback. Kidar later personally took her to Nitin Bose, who also got struck by her height. Ramola was hurt and burst into tears when she was ridiculed for her low height. Kidar Sharma too felt hurt when a struggling youngster was ridiculed for something which nature was responsible for. Kidar promised Ramola that when he becomes a director someday, he would definitely cast her as Ramola as lead heroine. Ramola laughed at this comment and said that he is not going to become a director and her dream will never come true.

However Kidar Sharma’s words came true. He kept his promise and cast her as heroine in his first film as director Aulad / Dil Hi Tou Hai (1939). The movie was a hit and very soon she got romantically involved with Kidar Sharma’s assistant R.C. Talwar who later became a director and casted Ramola in several movies. With the release of Khazanchi (1941), she became one of the leading actresses of the industry and Qaidi, Khazanchi, Khamoshi, Swan Aya Re, Rim Jhim etc are some of her noted works. With early 1950s, with the arrival of new actresses, she said good bye to silver screen. Actor, Jawani Ki Aag and Stage – released in 1951 were her last releases.

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Updated: January 04, 2016