Meet actress who worked as silent actor, became Bollywood superstar, didn’t know Hindi, had her movie banned due to…

Bollywood is a a lot of place where many actors are attempting their good fortune, all dreaming of turning into superstars. While most of those actors are Indian, some hail from different countries. The actress we talk about at this time time has Jewish ancestry. Despite her roots in a foreign country, she proved her mettle at some stage in the Bollywood industry and became honoured with the Dadasaheb Phalke Award, India’s best possible honour in cinema for lifetime achievement, in 1973. We are talking about none other than Ruby Myers. Many believed that the title of Best Actress should go to Sridevi, Vyjanthimala, Naseem Banu, or Devika Rani. Alternatively, Myers proved everyone wrong and emerged as a significant big name in early Indian cinema.

Ruby became a Jewish actress, though she became born in India. She is better known by her stage name, Sulochana. She became the first Eurasian actress in Indian cinema. During the Twenties, while working as a teenage telephone operator in Calcutta, Myers became approached by Mohan Bhavnani of the Kohinoor Film Company to behave in films. At the origin, she declined the offer, but Bhavnani’s persistence paid off, and she eventually entered the film industry, making her debut in Cinema Queen in 1926 on the age of 19.

Over the next couple of years, Ruby became the largest face in Bollywood. She delivered a few hits, including Typist Girl, Balidaan, Madhuri, Anarkali, and Bombay Ki Billi. At the pinnacle of her success, Ruby became considered a superstar. Did that Ruby started her career as a silent film artist? Yes, you read that right! Despite knowing languages including English, Yiddish, Hindi, and Urdu, Ruby became a silent actor, which helped her gain fame. Later, in 1931, when talkies arrived with Alam Ara, Ruby, aka Sulochana, took a year to learn Hindustani. She made a successful comeback with films equivalent to Madhuri and Anarkali, earning over Rs 60,000 yearly at some stage in the Thirties—one amongst one of essentially the most effective possible salaries for any actor in India at some stage in that period.

During the Forties, Ruby continued to work as the lead actress in a few films. Alternatively, her popularity began to decline slowly attributable to a series of flops. Her last major film, Jugnu, released in 1947, became banned by the Bombay State’s Home Minister, Morarji Desai, for showing morally inappropriate scenes. The film created controversy even at some stage in the Forties. Following her decline, Ruby began to work as a supporting actress in movies.