Actress Nirupa Roy, who played the role of mother of Amitabh Bachchan many times on the film screen, was born on 4 January 1931 in Valsad, Gujarat. Had she been among us today, she would have been 91 years old. Most people know Nirupa Roy only because of the character of ‘mother’ played by her. But very few people know that she started her film career as a heroine. She worked in more than 275 films in her film career. Nirupa Rai is counted among the most serious actresses of Bollywood. When Nirupa was in school, her father married her to Kamal Roy. At that time Nirupa’s age was only 14 years.
Nirupa got film offer instead of husband
In the year 1983, Nirupa Roy gave an interview in Filmfare Magazine. In this interview, she had revealed how she got work in films. According to her, her husband Kamal Roy was very fond of films. Kamal’s heartfelt wish was to become an actor in films. Once, when I saw an advertisement for the actor in a Gujarati news paper, he went to meet BM Vyas, a veteran actor, with his wife, whose name was Nightingale at that time. Kamal requested him that I want to become an actor, so get him some role. But after seeing him, BM Vyas said that your personality is not fit to be an actor. Yes, if you want, your wife can get work in films. In this way Nirupa Roy entered the industry and the film world named her as Nirupa Roy.
played the character of superman
Nirupa Roy was the first actress to play Superman. This film was released in the year 1960. She started her career with the film ‘Ranak Devi’. It was a Gujarati film. She made her debut in Hindi cinema with the film ‘Amar Raj’. Trilok Kapoor was seen with her in this film, who was her hero in many movies. After working as a lead actress, when Nirupa Roy played the role of mother, she got a different identity.
Nirupa Roy was seen in the role of Superman (Photo courtesy twitter/@inox)
Got stuck in the image of religious films
In the 1940s and 1950s, Nirupa Roy did many religious films, due to which people looked at her with respect. Due to playing the role of Mother Goddess on the film screen, he used to see her in real life as well. After this Nirupa Roy started appearing in the role of mother of most of the actors and from here she had a special image. There is a concept of Bollywood that if you are tagged in doing religious films here, then the doors of doing other films are closed for you. The same thing happened with Nirupa Roy to a large extent. However, Nirupa Roy surprised everyone even in the role of “mother”.
Onscreen mother of Amitabh Bachchan
The film ‘Deewar’, released in 1975, is one of Nirupa’s special films. In this film directed by Yash Chopra, she played the role of mother of Shashi Kapoor and Amitabh Bachchan. Later on, her image became only as Big B’s mother, which was also highly appreciated. After this, in films like ‘Khoon Sweat’, ‘Muqaddar Ka Sikandar’, ‘Amar Akbar Anthony’, ‘Suhaag’, ‘Inquilab’, ‘Arrested’, ‘Mard’ and ‘Ganga-Jamuna-Saraswati’, she was also Amitabh’s mother. Appeared in the role of
