Surya Kumari

Surya Kumari, also known as Tanguturi Suryakumari Tanguturi Suryakumari was a renowned Indian film a >> Read More... and Suryakumari Elvin, was born on 13 November 1925 in Rajahmundry, Madras Presidency, British India (today in Andhra Pradesh, India). On 25 April 2005, she died in London, England, UK. She was a well-known Model, Singer, Actress, and Dancer in the Telegu Cinema. Surya Kumari was the niece of the first Chief Minister of Andhra State and the former Chief Minister of Madras, a freedom fighter, activist and politician, Tanguturi Prakasam Pantulu. She married Harold Elvin, a Poet, Painter, and Potter. She won the Miss Madras 1952 pageant and was the runner-up of the Miss India Miss India was a TV serial that was aired on Doord >> Read More... 1952 pageant.

She started her career at 12 with the film Vipranarayana (1937), followed by Adrushtam (1939). She was the first woman to play the male role of Narada in the film Krishna Prema (1943) in Telugu cinema history. Her other Tamil films include Katakam (1948), a Tamil play based on a lesser-known William Shakespeare play, Cymbeline, Samsara Nowka (1949), Devatha, and Raitha Bidda (1939). 

Some of her Hindi movies include Watan (1954) and Uran Khatola (1955), for which she received a nomination for the Best Supporting Actress Award at the Filmfare Awards. She was also known for her private songs released on gramophone records and audio cassettes, which include Maa Telugu Talliki, Mallepoodhandalu, O Mahatma, Satapatra Sundari, and Maamidichettunu. She sang in a Mahatma Gandhi documentary film by a patriotic Tamil writer and journalist, A. K. Chettiar.

Her first visit to the US was in the mid-1950s as a delegation member of the Indian film industry invited to Hollywood by the Motion Picture Association of America. She went to New York Click to look into! >> Read More... in 1959 to teach at Columbia University and studied Western classical dance forms. She debuted in American theatre with Rabindranath Tagore's play, The King of the Dark Chamber as Queen Sudarshana, at Jan Hus Playhouse Theatre in February 1961 and received the Off-Broadway Theatre Award for Best Actress for her act.

She also played Princess Chitra in the dance production of Tagore's Chitra for CBS and researched Indian stories for Alfred Hitchcock. She moved to London to play the Hindu deity Kali in a new play, Kindly Monkeys, at the Arts Theatre and founded India Performing Arts in Kensington with her husband. For the next 40 years, she performed annually with her students and fellow artists at the Purcell Room in the South Bank Centre.