Sulochana (born Ruby Myers) was an Indian silent film star of half Jewish ancestry. She was born in a town called Pune, and she was descended from either the Ashkenazi or Bene Jewish traditions. She was working as a telephone operator, when she was approached by Mohan Bhavnani of Kohinoor Films to work in films .... initially she refused, as in conservative India, 'actress' was often synonymous with 'prostitute'
But as usual, the call of the fame, proved too much, and she soon changed her mind and agreed, despite having no acting experience of any kind. She quickly became a star Kohinoor, before moving on to the 'Imperial Film Company', where she became the highest paid movie star in the country. As usual with these Asian movies, the titles will mean little to western readers, but just for reference amongst her 'famous' titles were 'Typist Girl', 'Wildcat of Bombay', 'Madhuri' and 'Indira B.A.', all made before 1929.
Undaunted by the arrival of sound and her lack of Hindustani (She simply took a year off, to learn the language), and she made a grand comeback with the talkie version of 'Madhuri' in 1932. She was now drawing a larger salary than the Governor of Bombay, and even acted in a film named after her - Sulochana in 1933. Her salary of 5,000 Rupees per month was a huge amount, and she had a Chevrolet (
when American cars still worked ... joke) .... but she has also entered into a
non married relationship with one of the biggest heroes of the Indian silent era, D. Billimoria. He was both
her lover, and also her
film partner, with whom she worked exclusively between 1933 and 1939, to great mutual success. Sulochana established her own film studio, Rubi Pics, in the mid-1930s but it was not particularly successful, and didn't survive her fall from grace.
In fact their success was so dependent upon each other, that when the
love affair was over, and Sulchana left Imperial studio's,
both their careers ended. Sulochana found few offers on her own, and newer, younger and more proficient actresses had entered the scene. In desperation she tried to carve a new career as a character actress, but such was the collapse in her popularity that she even struggled to get even these roles. She then
courted controversy in her 1947 movie 'Jugnu', because the role involved the representation of an aging professor, falling for Sulochana's somewhat (by now) vintage charms .. apparently this was somewhat shocking at the time
After one more character role in 1953, she was never offered another role again, and her career, that had covered
over 60 titles was over. She finally died, lonely and largely forgotten in 1983, in her small flat in Mumbai. To paraphrase Norma Desmonds famous quote ... "
She was still a big star, it was just the roles that kept getting smaller"
Trivia:
- She received the Dada Saheb Phalke Award in 1973 for her lifetime contribution to Indian cinema.
- Ismail Merchant paid homage to her in 'Mahatma and the Bad Boy' in 1974.
Pictures:
Indian stars often re-use famous previous stars names, and fans name kids after them ... in this case searches for 'Sulochana' produces many Indian ladies, so I have just stuck to the few I was reasonably sure of.
