Sitara Devi's birth anniversary: Read all about the legendary Kathak dancer

Sitara Devi fans are celebrating her birth anniversary today. legendary dancer and actor was kwn for her poise and her graceful moves. She was a trained Kathak dancer and h also featured in various movies. Re ahe to kw about 'Kathak Queen' Sitra Devi and about her life on this special occasion: 

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Sitara Devi's early life

Sitara Devi was born on vember 8, 1920, in Calcutta. On very same day that year, country celebrated Dhanteras and thus she was named Dhanalakshmi in hour of festival and its goddess. Sitara Devi's family was from Varanasi and y were a very religious group of people. Sitara's far was Sukhev Maharaj, who was a Sanskrit scholar and also taught Kathak to students. Her mor was Matsya Kumari, who was a performing artist with royal family of Nepal. 

Sitara h four siblings and all of m were very passionate for Kathak. Hindu reported that  family h to face much wrath from society as everyone in family danced. Sitara Devi's far also mentioned once in an interview that if 'Rha could dance for Krishna, why were dancers frowned upon in Indian society?' Sitara Devi was supposed to get married at of 8 but resisted and went to Kamachhagarh High School inste. Sitara Devi also started performing in school from a very young and was one of best dancers re. 

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Sitara Devi's career

Sitara Devi started solo, performing classical dances at of 10 years old. When she was 11 years old, her family shifted to Bombay. Her first performance in Bombay was in Atiya Begum Palace and guests present in audience were Rabindranath Tagore, Sarojini Naidu and Sir Cowasji Jehangir. It is widely reported that Rabindranath Tagore loved Sitara's performance and also gifted her many things. When she was 12 years old, she was recruited by director and filmmaker Niranjan Sharma, who gave her dance sequences in movies. 

She was first seen in film Usha Haran. Usha Haran came out in 1940 and was loved by audiences at that time. She was also seen in Mor India. film was directed by Mehboob Khan and starred Nargis, Sunil Dutt, Rajendra Kumar, and Raaj Kumar in le. Sitara was seen as a boy in a Holi song. Rabindranath Tagore wrote about her in many of his poems and also called her Queen of Kathak many times. She also won many awards like Sangeet Natak Akemi Award (1969) and  Pma Shree (1973), Kalidas Samman (1995) and Nritya Nipuna for her work. 

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Sitara Devi's family

Sitara Devi got married three times. She first got married to actor Nazir Ahmed Khan, who was 16 years elder to her and also h ar wife Sikandara Begum. couple also h religious differences as Sitara came from a devout (Brahmin) Hindu family and Nazir was Muslim. At this point in time, people couldn't marry outside ir religion and thus Sitara h to convert to Islam. couple soon got divorced. 

Her second husband was filmmaker K. Asif. K. Asif was cousin of her first husband and Sikandara Begum's (her first husband's wife) bror. She was again second wife in this marri and marri did t last long. She later got married to Pratap Barot and y were soon blessed with a son - Ranjit Barot. 

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Sitara Devi's death

Sitara Devi passed away on vember 25, 2014. It was reported that she died due to long-existing illness. She bread her last at Jaslok Hospital in Mumbai.