Supriya Devi

Supriya Devi Biography

Supriya Devi, also known as Supriya Choudhury is a Bengali legendary actress who has experience over 50 years in Bengali cinema. She was honoured with Banga-Vibhushan, the highest civilian honour in West Bengal in 2011. Most recently in 2014, she was honoured with Padma Shree by government of India. Supriya started her acting career at the age of 7. Her relationship with legendary Bengali actor, Uttam Kumar is well-known and they lived together for many years. She married Bishwanath Choudhury in 1954 and the couple had one daughter. The Cloud-Capped Star (1960), The Namesake (2006) and E-Flat (1961) are among her best film roles.

Supriya was born as Krishna Banerjee on January 8, 1935 in Michkina, Myanmar. Her father was noted lawyer. She is the youngest of eight sisters and three brothers. During World War second, the family moved to Bengal and got settled here. They settled at Kolkata in 1948. Her father Gopal Chandra Banerjee was interested in theater and was associated with plays as a play director. Supriya started her acting career at the age of 7 as a child artist in one of her father’s plays. She trained in dancing at a younger age and has received many prizes for her dancing performances.

After reaching India, she continued with her dance classes. The family had friendship with Chandrabati Devi, a character artist of Bengali cinema and that’s how Supriya get into films. She appeared in bit roles in the early 1950’s and with 1960’s rose to prominent roles. She was mostly paired with Soumitra Chatterjee and Uttam Kumar and later a relationship formed with Uttam Kumar. She was last seen in English movie, The Namesake and often appears on Bangla television.

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Updated: June 06, 2014