Seeta (or Sita) Devi (1912–1983), born Renee Smith, was one of the early stars of

silent films A silent film is a film without synchronized recorded sound (or more generally, no audible dialogue). Though silent films convey narrative and emotion visually, various plot elements (such as a setting or era) or key lines of dialogue may, wh ...

in the

Indian film industry The cinema of India, consisting of Film, motion pictures made by the Indian film industry, has had a large effect on world cinema since the second half of the 20th century. Indian cinema is made up of various #Cinema by language, film indus ...

Career

Himanshu Rai Himanshu Rai (1892 – 16 May 1940) was an Indian actor and film director. Regarded as one of the pioneers of Indian cinema, he is best known as the founder of the studio in 1934, along with Devika Rani. He was associated with a number of mov ...

cast Smith, an

Anglo-Indian Anglo-Indian people are a distinct minority group, minority community of mixed-race British and Indian ancestry. During the colonial period, their ancestry was defined as British paternal and Indian maternal heritage; post-independence, "Angl ...

, in ''

Prem Sanyas ''Prem Sanyas'' (''The Light of Asia'') (''Die Leuchte Asiens'' in German) is a 1925 silent film, directed by Franz Osten and Himansu Rai. It was adapted from the book, ''The Light of Asia'' (1879) in Verse (poetry), verse, by Edwin Arnold, bas ...

'', the movie which is better known by its English title: ''The Light of Asia''. This was her debut film as Seeta Devi, and it made her a star immediately. Later she acted under the banner of

Madan Theatre Madan Theatre Company, also known as Madan Theatres Limited or Madan Theatres in short, was a film production company founded by Jamshedji Framji & his partner Kanhaiyalal Kaushik, one of the pioneers of Indian Cinema. History A young Parsi pe ...

s as well. Three of her most successful films were: ''The Light of Asia'', ''Shiraz'', and ''Prapancha Pash''. All three of these films were made through the collaboration of German film director

Franz Osten Franz Osten (23 December 1876 in Munich – 2 December 1956) was a Bavaria, Bavarian filmmaker who along with Himansu Rai was among the first retainers of Bombay Talkies. Osten partnered with Rai on a number of India's earliest blockbuster film ...

and Indian actor-producer Himanshu Rai along with

Bavaria Bavaria, officially the Free State of Bavaria, is a States of Germany, state in the southeast of Germany. With an area of , it is the list of German states by area, largest German state by land area, comprising approximately 1/5 of the total l ...

n company Emelka. This unique

trilogy A trilogy is a set of three distinct works that are connected and can be seen either as a single work or as three individual works. They are commonly found in literature, film, and video games. Three-part works that are considered components of ...

were connected to three different religions and based on three different stories of Indian history/mythology: ''The Light of Asia'' was based on the life of

Buddha Siddhartha Gautama, most commonly referred to as the Buddha (),* * * was a wandering ascetic and religious teacher who lived in South Asia during the 6th or 5th century BCE and founded Buddhism. According to Buddhist legends, he was ...

, ''Shiraz'' was based on construction of the

Taj Mahal The Taj Mahal ( ; ; ) is an ivory-white marble mausoleum on the right bank of the river Yamuna in Agra, Uttar Pradesh, India. It was commissioned in 1631 by the fifth Mughal Empire, Mughal emperor, Shah Jahan () to house the tomb of his belo ...

and ''Prapancha Pash'', better known by its English title '' A Throw of Dice'', was based on a story from the

Mahabharata The ''Mahābhārata'' ( ; , , ) is one of the two major Sanskrit Indian epic poetry, epics of ancient India revered as Smriti texts in Hinduism, the other being the ''Ramayana, Rāmāyaṇa''. It narrates the events and aftermath of the Kuru ...

. Seeta Devi was the leading actress in all these three films, though the role in ''Shiraz'' was that of 'the other woman'. Three of her other successful films, ''Durgesh Nandini'', ''Kapal Kundala'' and ''Krishnakanter Will'' were based on popular novels of

Bankim Chandra Chatterjee Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay (anglicized as Bankim Chandra Chatterjee; 26 or 27 June 1838 – 8 April 1894) was an Indian Bengali novelist, poet, essayist and journalist.Staff writer"Bankim Chandra: The First Prominent Bengali Novelist" ''The ...

. Many believed that Renee Smith and her sister Percy Smith alternatively appeared as 'Seeta Devi'.A slideshow from Hindustan Times website

Filmography

(1925) (German title: Die Leuchte Asiens, English title: The Light of Asia) * Krishnakanter Will (1926) * Durgesh Nandini (1927) *

Shiraz Shiraz (; ) is the List of largest cities of Iran, fifth-most-populous city of Iran and the capital of Fars province, which has been historically known as Pars (Sasanian province), Pars () and Persis. As of the 2016 national census, the popu ...

(1928) (German title: Das Grabmal einer großen Liebe) * Sarala (1928) (Hindi title: Swarnalata) * Loves of a Moghul Prince (1928) (Urdu title: Anarkali; also 'Rajmahal Ni Ramani') * Bhrantri (1928) (English title: Mistake) * Kapal Kundala (1929) * Prapancha Pash (1929) (English title: A Throw of Dice, German title: Schicksalswürfel) * Bharat Ramani (1930) (English title: The Enchantress of India) * Kal Parinaya (1930) (English title: Fatal Marriage)

References

External links

* *
Bengali article from abasar.net
{{DEFAULTSORT:Devi, Seeta 1905 births 1983 deaths Bengali actresses Indian silent film actresses Anglo-Indian people Actresses from British India 20th-century Indian actresses Actresses from West Bengal