Legendary actress B Saroja Devi passed away at the age of 87 on Monday. She is survived by her two grandchildren, Indira and Gautam. The Padma Bhushan recipient worked in 6 film industries, including Bollywood. But did you know she made her Hindi film debut opposite whom? The first superstar of the Kannada film industry made her Hindi debut opposite the ‘First Khan’ of Bollywood. Yes! It was with Dilip Kumar that Saroja Devi marked her Bollywood debut opposite. 

Saroja Devi’s Bollywood debut

B Saroja Devi made her Bollywood debut in 1959 opposite Dilip Kumar in the film ‘Paigam’. After this, she did Hindi films like ‘Sasural’, ‘Pyar Kiya To Darna Kya’ and ‘Beti Bete’. In her Hindi film career, she worked with Bollywood stars like Raj Kapoor, Shammi Kapoor and Sunil Dutt apart from Dilip Kumar. B Saroja Devi is one of the very few heroines who acted in Kannada, Tamil, Telugu and Hindi in the 1950s. After the tremendous success of the film ‘Nadodi Mannan’, B Saroja Devi started being cast with other actors in Kannada cinema and she gave dozens of hit films. She was a lucky mascot for MG Ramachandran. The actress worked with him in 26 films.

Personal Life

The last actress was married to Sri Harsha, an engineer at Bharat Electronics (a public sector company), on March 1, 1967. Saroja was undergoing a financial crisis and dealing with income tax troubles at that time. With her husband’s help, she was able to overcome these issues and learn how to manage her finances. She incurred a significant loss from her investments in the Malaysian company VMT Ent.

After their marriage, Sri Harsha backed Saroja Devi’s acting career. During an interview, Saroja was asked how she managed to continue acting after 1967 despite her mother’s insistence that she should stop. The actress said, ”Dilip Kumar once said he has asked Saira Banu to not to stop acting.’ The story was mentioned by Rajesh Khanna to my husband, Sri Harsha, not to stop me from acting.’ Sri Harsha died in 1986 due to various health problems. And today, B Saroja Devi breathed her last at Manipal Hospital in Malleswaram, Bengaluru. 

Also Read: B Saroja Devi dies at 87: Complete list of filmography, popular songs and co-stars of the icon