Kumarsen Samarth

Kumarsen Samarth Biography

Kumarsen Samarth was a film celebrity, associated with Bollywood best known as a director. He is the senior-most member of Samarth filmy family of Bollywood, the family which include some of the finest artists of Bollywood cinema including Nutan, Tanuja and Kajol. One of the top heroines of early era of Bollywood, Shobhna Samarth was his wife, while Nutan and Tanuja, his daughters. Kajol Devgan, Tanisha, Mohnish Behl etc are his grandchildren. He and his wife made some films together, and they later got separated after 14 years though not divorced.

Kumarsen Samarth belonged to a Marathi modernist family and later grew up to a finest film director. He studied cinematography in Germany and came back to India to pursue a career in movies. Earlier he was inclined towards Marathi cinema, and hence he directed many Marathi movies during early times, predominantly in the 1940s. He also directed a few Hindi movies during this time, and Nal Damyanti and Rupaye ki kahani in 1948 are among his major hits. His biggest success was a Marathi film titled Shirdi che Saibaba 91955) on the life of the 19th century holyman by the same name.

His wife Sobhana Samarth, was his distant cousin, and was a leading lady of 1940s. Sobhana was born into a family with filmy background, and her mother Rattan Bai was a singer-actress of early talkies. Sobhana married him on the condition that she would be allowed to work in films even after marriage. The couple had four children, of whom Nutan and Tanuja went on to become successful actresses in the 1950s and 1960s. After fourteen years of marriage, the couple got separated, but they were never legally divorced. After their separation, Shobhana lived with film actor Motilal, without marriage. Kumarsen Samarth died in his mid-70's.

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Updated: April 29, 2018