Kannada cinema’s first superstar—B Saroja Devi bids adieu

B Saroja Devi, known for her works in Kannada, Tamil, Telugu and Hindi died of age related ailments on Monday morning. She was 87. 

With a career spanning over 55 years, she has close to 200 films to her credit. She worked with all top heroes of her time — Rajkumar, Uday Kumar and Kalyan Kumar in Kannada; M G R, Shivaji Ganesan and Gemini Ganesan in Tamil; A Nageswara Rao, N T R and Kantha Rao in Telugu and Shammi Kapoor, Dilip Kumar and Rajendra Kumar in Hindi. 

Saroja Devi was one among the long-standing heroines of the time; her contemporaries include Jayalalita, Savithri, Vanishri and Anjalidevi. 

In 1955, she made her debut in the Kannada film Mahakavi Kalidasa directed by K R Seetharama Sastry; Honnappa Bhagavatar played Kalidasa. 

Kittur Chennamma, Amara Shilpi Jakanachari, Mallammana Pavada, Paapa Punya, Srinivasa Kalyana, Babruvahana, Chiranjeevi, Bhagyavantaru, Sri Krishna Rukmini Satyabhama and Devasundari are her most popular Kannada films. 

In the Kannada film industry, she was more dominating than the male actors. She is known as Kannada cinema’s first super star. 

'Anna Tangi' (with Rajkumar), saw her play the ‘bajaari' role, even before it became popular with Manjula. 

Her dialogue from 'Kittur Chennamma', “Kappa? Nimage yaake kodabeku naavu kappa?” (Why should we pay you a tribute), was so popular that every fancy dress competition in schools saw girls dressed up as the Kitturu Rani delivering the dialogue.

After her success in Tamil cinema, she was considered too “costly” for the Kannada industry. M G R and Saroja Devi were considered a hit onscreen pair — ‘Thirudathe’ (1961), ‘Thaai Sollai Thattadhe’ (1961), ‘Enga Veetu Pillai’ (1965), and ‘Anbe Vaa’ (1966). The pair delivered 26 back-to-back hits, from 1958 to 1966.

The Tamils called her ‘Kannadatta Painkini’ (Kannada’s parrot). 

Saroja Devi made her Telugu debut with the Panduranga Mahatyam in 1957. ‘Jagadeka Veeruni Katha, Seetharama Kalyana, Pramilaanjaneyam, Shakuntala are some of her popular films in Telugu. She mostly acted in mythological and folklore films. 

Her other memorable films in Telugu include ‘Rahasyam’ (with ANR), a swashbuckler film and ‘Daagadu Muthalu’ (with NTR) . 

In Hindi, she acted in films like 'Paigham', 'Preet Na Jaane Reet', 'Pyaar Kiya Toh Darna Kya', 'Opera House' and 'Sasural'.

She later returned to Kannada cinema to play character roles.

Saroja Devi was born in Bengaluru on January 7, 1938. 

She received the Padma Shri in 1967 and the Padma Bhushan in 1992. She was presented with the Kalaimani Lifetime achievement award, the Dr Rajkumar Lifetime Achievement Award and the NTR National Award twice (2001 and 2009).

She was also presented with the lifetime achievement award by the Government of India, on the occasion of the 60th Independence Day in 2008. 

(With inputs from film historian K Puttaswamy)