Rajkumari Dubey

Rajkumari Dubey Biography

Rajkumari Dubey was a singing actress of the earliest era of Bollywood. She has also been a playback singer since 1930’s. Known for her unique voice, she has sung many memorable tracks like "Najariya Ki Maari" in Pakeezah, "Sun Bairi Baalam” of Bawre nayan and "Ghabrekar Ke Jo Hum Sir” of Mahal. She was one of the leading singers of Bollywood in the 1930’s and 1940’s and known for her high pitch voice than other leading singers like Shamshad Begum and Amirbai Karnataki. With the rise of new era of Lata Mangeshkar in the early 1950’s, she lost her fame as a playback singer somewhere. She played the role of Chandramukhi in the Hindi version of Devdas directed by P.C. Barua in 1936. K.L. Saigal and Jamuna played the roles of Dev and Paro respectively.

She was born in Varanasi, British India in 1924. Though she didn’t get enough opportunities to study music, she was well supported and appreciated by her family. She recorded her first song for HMV in 1934 at the age of 10. She started her acting career at a young age of 11 as a child artist. Radhe Shyam aur Zulmi Hans was her debut movie and later she got associated with some theater work as well. After a short break she joined Prakash Pictures as actor and singer and earned fame as well. She was spotted by Vijay Bhatt and Shankar Bhatt during one of her stage shows.

Her first release with Prakash Pictures was the bilingual - Sansar Leela Nayi Duniya. She was regularly paired with actor Zakaria Khan (father of actor Amjad Khan of Sholey fame) in those days. Bhakt Ke Bhagwan and Insaaf Ki Topi are her movies as heroine. She passed away in 2000. She was suffering from poverty during her last days.

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Updated: June 06, 2014