Uma Anand

Uma Anand Biography

Uma Anand was a journalist, Bollywood actress and a broadcaster. She was wife of the prominent Bollywood film director Chetan Anand, and sister-in-law to famous actor-directors, Vijay Anand and Dev Anand. Bollywood celebrities - Ketan Anand and Vivek Anand are her sons, who were convicted in the 2000s for murdering Bollywood actress Priya Rajvansh, who had a live-in relationship with their father Chetan Anand. A sensational case in the 2000s, it occurred in property dispute. Film director Shekhar Kapur is her nephew (son of Chetan Anand’s sister). Uma authored many children’s books and translated a few also.

She was born in 1923 in Lahore, Pakistan. She married the film director Chetan Anand of Neecha Nagar fame in the year 1943. She also worked in a brief role in her husband’s film which won many accolades internationally. Years later they got separated. When Chetan Anand had a live-in relationship with actress Priya Rajvansh, Uma Anand became a companion of Ebrahim Alkazi. Later there were disputes of Chetan Anand’s property between their sons and actress Priya, which resulted in her murder.

In her professional career, she had a brief role in Neecha Nagar (1946) and also wrote the script of Taxi Driver (1954 film) directed by her husband. The movie starred her brother-in-law Dev Anand and his future wife, actress Kalpana Karthik. Chetan co-scripted the film. She also served as an editor of Sangeet Natak, a journal published by the Sangeet Natak Akademi during the period, 1965 to 1981. She also published many children’s books. She also translated many works for National Book Trust of India. Chetan Anand: The Poetics of Film was her last published book, which she wrote aside her son Ketan Anand. She passed away on November 13, 2009 aged 85.

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Updated: June 06, 2018