Kamala Devi (actress)

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Kamala Devi in The Man from U.N.C.L.E. (1965)

With Chuck Connors in Geronimo (1962)

Kamala Devi as Teela in Geronimo (1962)

Kamala Devi as herself.

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Kamala Devi (born 1934) was the first Indian actress to play the female romantic lead in a non-Indian film—and apart from Freida Pinto the only one so far to have played a non-Indian character in the female romantic lead. Geronimo (1962) was a major Hollywood film, in which she portrayed Teela, an American (‘Red’) Indian princess. Though other Indian actresses followed, they mostly played Indian characters, e.g. Simi Garewal in Conrad Rooks’ Siddharth (1972). Aishwarya Rai Bachchan played the European detective Sonia in The Pink Panther 2 (2009) and was the main female lead of the film, but not the female romantic lead.

Early life

Nothing is known of Kamala Devi’s early life except that she was born in Bombay.

Early career

The Stewart Granger-starrer Harry Black and the Tiger (1958/ UK) was a big-budget Technicolor/ 4-Track Stereo British film shot and set in India. Kamala Devi made her film debut in the film in a small role as Nurse Somola. Having got a foothold in Anglo-American cinema, she next played Dara in Tales of the Vikings (1960/ USA), a TV series produced by Kirk Douglas. The episode that she acted in was called ‘The Harem Dancer’ and was telecast on 2 Jun. 1960.

Kamala Devi’s debut in her own country was in a small role in Aas Ka Panchhi (1961), arguably the only Indian film that she ever acted in.

Geronimo, a Western, was Kamala Devi’s breakthrough into international stardom. Though it was her fourth film, the film’s credits read ‘and introducing Kamala Devi.’

Career after Geronimo

In international films Kamala Devi almost invariably played non-Indian characters. Because of her features she would mostly act as an East European, a Hispanic or even an African.

She was Glana Lupescu in The Rogues (1964); Tezra in The Brass Bottle (1964); Sandra in Arrest and Trial (1964); Deirdre Purbhani in The Man from U.N.C.L.E. (1965); Felicitas in I Spy (1966); Laurette Lansing in Branded (1965–1966) and Broken Sabre (1966); M'Koru in Cowboy in Africa (1967); and Sallah in The Rat Patrol (1967).

Personal Life

Kamala Devi settled in the USA and, in 1963, married Chuck Connors, the male lead of Geronimo and many other films that she acted in. They divorced in 1972. She married Wallace Guberman in 1978.