Nirupa Roy

Biography

Date of Birth: 4 January 1931, Valsad, Gujarat, India Date of Death: 13 October 2004, Mumbai, India Birth Name: Kokila Kishorechandra Balsara Height: 5' 3" (1.60 m) Kokila was born on January 4, 1931 in Valsad, Gujerat, India, in the Gujerati-speaking Balsara family. She was married to Kamal Roy at a very young age, and shortly thereafter in 1946 both husband and wife decided to make a career on the silver screen. They traveled to Bombay, both applied, but only Kokila was chosen to act in a Gujerati movie, Ranakdevi, followed by Amar Raj, and Gunsundari in 1948. She was primarily effective in creating the Gujerati film industry. This is how Nirupa Roy was born. She went on to act in many movies, initially as the leading lady then in various roles of a variety of Hindu Goddesses, so much so that people actually lined up to seek her blessings. From 1970s on she was type-cast to play the role of the mother for a number of leading actors, from Dev Anand to Amitabh Bachchan. She was perhaps the only actresses to have played the role of mother to Dharmendra and his son, Sunny Deol, albeit in different movies. In 1955 she acted as Dev Anand's mother, even though she is about 8 years younger than him.