B. Saroja Devi

B. Saroja Devi (7 January 1938– 14 July 2025) was an Indian actress who appeared in 200 Kannada, Tamil, Telugu and Hindi films over seven decades. She was one of the most successful actresses in the history of Indian cinema. She is regarded as the first lady superstar of Kannada cinema. Posthumously, Saroja Devi became the first women to be awarded the Karnataka Ratna, state's highest civilian award.

Saroja Devi was fondly called as Kannadathu Painkili (Kannada's parrot) in Tamil cinema and Abhinaya Saraswathi (Goddess of Acting) in Kannada cinema.

Aged 17, Saroja Devi got her first big break with the Kannada film Mahakavi Kalidasa (1955). In Telugu cinema, she made her debut with Panduranga Mahatyam (1957), and starred in a number of successful films until the late 1970s. The Tamil film Nadodi Mannan (1958) made her one of the top actresses in Tamil cinema. After her marriage in 1967, she continued to be in demand, acting in Tamil films until 1974 and in Telugu and Kannada films until the 1980s. She also starred in Hindi films until the mid-1960s, starting with Paigham (1959).

In 1969, Saroja Devi received the Padma Sri, the fourth-highest civilian honour, and in 1992 the Padma Bhushan, the third highest civilian award, from the government of India. She received an honorary doctorate degree from Bangalore University and the Kalaimamani award from the state of Tamil Nadu. She also received the Dr. Rajkumar Award Lifetime Achievement by the Government of Karnataka and the NTR National Award from the Government of Andhra Pradesh.

In 2025, Government of Karnataka announced to constitute the 'Abhinaya Saraswathi B. Saroja Devi Lifetime Achievement Award' in her honour.

Saroja Devi was born in Bangalore on January 7, 1938, into a Vokkaliga family. The family was native to Dashavara, Channapatna Taluk, Kingdom of Mysore (now Karnataka). Her father, Bhairappa, was a police officer in Mysore. Her mother, Rudramma, was a homemaker. She was the fourth daughter in the family. She studied at St. Teresa's Girls' High School in Chamrajpet, Bangalore.

Bhairappa asked Saroja to learn dancing and had encouraged her to take up acting as a career. Young Saroja Devi was often accompanied by her father to studios, and he would patiently tie on her salangais and massage her swollen feet after her dancing stints. Her mother gave her a strict dress code of no swimsuits and no sleeveless blouses, which she followed for the rest of her career. She was first spotted at the age of 13 by B.R. Krishnamurthy when she was singing at a function, but she declined his film offer.

Saroja Devi's debut movie and also her first major success was K. R. Seetharama Sastry's Kannada film Mahakavi Kalidasa (1955), in which she played the heroine role 'Vidyadhare'. The film won the National Film Award for Best Feature Film in Kannada. Next, she acted in B. R. Panthulu's Tamil film Thangamalai Ragasiyam (1957), in which she performed a dance sequence. She was one of the very few actresses who starred in Kannada, Tamil, Telugu and Hindi in the 1950s.