Rattan Bai

Rattan Bai Biography

Rattan Bai was one of the earliest actresses of Indian cinema. She was the mother of actress Shobhna Samarth and thus the grandmother of actresses Nutan and Tanuja. She is the great grandmother of actors of today, Kajol, Tanisha and Monish Behl. Thus Bollywood owes a lot to this actress whose family has later given significant contributions to Bollywood. Now it’s the fourth generation of her family in Bollywood. Her granddaughter Tanuja got married to Shomu Mukherjee. Thus her family got connected to Bollywood personalities of today like Rani Mukherjee and Ayan Mukherjee. Her great granddaughter Kajol is married to actor Ajay Devgan. The actress Nalini Jaywant was Rattan Bai's niece. Thus Rattan Bai is the ancestress of several Bollywood film stars.

She was a beautiful lady born into a family of beaurocrats in 1899. She married Dr. Prabhakar Shilotri who was 16 years older than her. They had a daughter Saroj Shilotri who later came to be known as Shobhana Samarth. Prabhakar is the founder of the Shilotri Bank in Maharashtra. He was the first person in the district to own a car. He funded money for India's independent movement during that time. His stubborn nature too, made British their enemy very soon. He was imprisoned by British for 2 years giving technical reasons and his family too fell from riches to rages. He died soon after the completion of imprisonment at his ancestral home.

After the release of talkies in early 1930’s, singing ladies got priority in films. It was a time when acting was considered taboo by Indian society. Rattan bai wrote bhajans, composed and sang them as well. She debut in her thirties in 1933. Two years later, her daughter too entered movies. In 1941, her brother's daughter Nalini Jaywant also made her film debut. With 1950’s, her third generation also entered cinema – Nutan and Tanuja debut big screen with the movie Hamari beti (1950) directed by their mother, Shobhna Samarth.

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Updated: April 01, 2014