Mahua Roychoudhury

Mahua Roy Choudhury (Bengali: মহুয়া রায় চৌধুরী), (24 September 1958 – 22 July 1985) was an Indian actress who is recognized for her work in Bengali cinema. She is considered to be one of the most successful actresses of Bengali Cinema. She received several awards including a Filmfare Award. She was posthumously conferred with the Best Actress Award for her role in Aadmi Aur Aurat (1984) at the 5th Damascus International Film Festival in 1987.

Roychoudhury was born on 24 September 1958. Her original name was Shipra Roy Choudhury. Director Tarun Majumdar named her ‘Mahua’. Tarun Majumdar discovered her and Sandhya Roy groomed her. Mahua Roy Choudhury was from a lower – middle-class family of DumDum. Her father Nilanjan Roy Chowdhury was a dancer.

So from her childhood she had the knack of dancing. She could not pursue her studies due to the economic instability of her family. Meanwhile, she made her acting debut in Tarun Majumdars Sriman Pritthiraj (1972). She had also shared screen with matinee idol Uttam Kumar in some films notable amongst being Seyi Chokh, Bagh Bondi Khela etc. She had produced hit films pairing with actors like Deepankar De, Santu Mukhopadhyay, Samit Bhanja, Anup Kumar, Tapas Paul, Chiranjeet, Kaushik Banerjee, Ranjit Mallick, Prosenjit Chatterjee and even with the legend Sri Uttam Kumar. Her next-door girl type acting made her popular in Bengali household. Actresses Sabitri Chatterjee, Sandhya Roy groomed her acting skills which further improvised her acting style. Very few actresses of her time knew classical as well as modern dance so well. Mahua infused the art of dancing successfully in her films, a quality quite rare in those days.

She married actor Tilak Chakraborty on 2 May 1976. They had one son named Tamal.

Her outstanding performance in Tapan Sinha's Aadmi Aur Aurat with Amol Palekar won her critical acclaim that corrected her reputation of merely filling up the box office coffers. There was even a time when Bengali films used to run by her name only. Within a very short span of time Mahua had met with huge success and popularity. She almost by herself had put the Bengali cinema on a comeback-trail with Lal Golap in 1983.

On 22 July 1985 midnight, Mahua met with a fire accident in a hotel room receiving serious burns and she succumbed to death owing to her injury. The exact cause of the fire accident remains a mystery.

She had nearly around 15 films running on her shoulder at the time of her death. Many of her films were released after her death like 'Anurager Choya','Prem O Paap', 'Abhimaan','Ashirbaad','Kenaram Becharam' ,'Abir' etc. The whole industry grieved on her sudden demise. Police did not know the particular cause of her death.

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