Devika was feisty, ambitious, ruthless, sensual, intelligent and beautiful — a woman aware of her own potential. She had many successful avatars during one lifetime. Her father Colonel M.N. Chowdhury was the first Indian Surgeon General of Madras. She was also the grandniece of Rabindranath Tagore and could have dined off that for the rest of her life, but she determinedly carved out her own space.

Leaving home before she turned 20, a spectacularly good looking working woman, she won a scholarship to RADA in London, and pursued textile designing, as well as her acting ambitions. The breakthrough in her life as well as in the history of Indian cinema came when she met the brilliant Himansu Rai, who was 16 years older than her.

Himansu, like her a Bengali from a comfortable background, had acted in and produced two notable films with German collaboration, Light of Asia and Shiraz, by the time he met Devika. He had already married a German stage actress, Mary Hainlin, and had a daughter by her, Nilima. But he thought nothing of abandoning mother and child to marry Devika after he fell in love with her.

Their first collaboration came when she worked as a costume designer for Himansu when he was launching his production, A Throw of Dice or Prapancha Pash. Incidentally, while we in India have largely ignored this technically brilliant silent film, BFI screened it last summer during London’s India festival.

Why have we also forgotten that Karma, Devika’s debut film, was the first English language Indian film to be released in Europe and was screened specially for the Royal Family at Windsor? Or that Himansu and Devika were part of a completely global cinema — their own team included directors like the German Franz Osten. Devika assisted Marlene Dietrich in the German film, Das Blaue Engel, and absorbed film techniques from Fritz Lang and Pabst.

The reviews she received in the British press have not been written about any other Asian actress. Even the normally obstreperous Daily Mail succumbed to her charm after viewing Karma at Marble Arch: “The beauty of her face, the grace of her gestures, and the cultured modulations of her voice are qualities that place her apart from the ordinary cinema star... will create a sensation...”

With Hitler’s ascent to power, Himansu and Devika returned to India and founded Bombay Talkies. While there has been some debate about her contribution to the studio, Bombay Talkies would not have become what it did without her. Though widowed at the age of 32, she continued at the helm, despite the gossip and attempts to dislodge her.

Men kept falling in love with her and on one occasion during Himansu’s lifetime, she ran off with her Jeevan Naiya co-star, Najamul Hussain, to Calcutta. The humiliated Himansu persuaded her to return to him and Bombay Talkies, even though she had already negotiated to join another production house. The problem was that while Himansu could not imagine life or cinema without her, she could imagine both without him. Indeed, after Himansu’s death, Devika was remarried within five years. However, this time she quit cinema and joined her new husband, the wealthy Russian artist, Svetoslav Roerich, and spent the rest of her life as a near recluse, in Kulu and in Bangalore.

But before that, in Bombay Talkies, the duo had created alongside some of the best films of Indian cinema, the most egalitarian and worker-friendly environment, unusual for the period. Everyone — big stars and extras, camera and studio staff — ate together in the canteen. They were keen to introduce a more ‘respectable’ ambience into film-making and head-hunted educated and well-mannered artistes. A generation of great actors and directors got their start at Bombay Talkies — Ashok Kumar, Dilip Kumar, Dev Anand, Amiya Chakravarty, Kamal Amrohi and even Bimal Roy. Raj Kapoor worked as a clapper boy. Films like Achchut Kanya, Kangan, Kismet, Jwar Bhata, Mahal were made there.

Devika died a tragic figure in 1994 in the midst of a property dispute in Bangalore. Yet, it was a colourful life and one which was crucial for the development of Indian cinema.

It is puzzling that we can forget and even abandon her like we have done today. But fortunately for all of us, Devika knew that one day, perhaps, she would regain her prominence in Indian cinema. Even after Bombay Talkies shut down, she carefully preserved all files of reviews, bills, photographs and film scripts. Before her death she gave the material to the curator of the Roerich Museum in New York, saying that some day someone may come looking for them.

Her meticulous archiving convinces me yet again that Devika was one of the smartest women in Indian cinema. If only we were doing more to remember her.

Kishwar Desai is working on a book on Himansu Rai and Devika Rani. She is the author of ‘Darlingji: The True Love Story of Nargis and Sunil Dutt’