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

Sitara Devi fans are celebrating her birth anniversary today. The legendary dancer and actor was known for her poise and her graceful moves. She was a trained Kathak dancer and had also featured in various movies. Read ahead to know about the '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 November 8, 1920, in Calcutta. On the very same day that year, the country celebrated Dhanteras and thus she was named Dhanalakshmi in honour of the festival and its goddess. Sitara Devi's family was from Varanasi and they were a very religious group of people. Sitara's father was Sukhadev Maharaj, who was a Sanskrit scholar and also taught Kathak to students. Her mother was Matsya Kumari, who was a performing artist with the royal family of Nepal. 

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

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Sitara Devi's career

Sitara Devi started solo, performing classical dances at the age 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 the guests present in the 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 the film Usha Haran. Usha Haran came out in 1940 and was loved by the audiences at that time. She was also seen in Mother India. The film was directed by Mehboob Khan and starred Nargis, Sunil Dutt, Rajendra Kumar, and Raaj Kumar in the lead. Sitara was seen as a boy in a Holi song. Rabindranath Tagore wrote about her in many of his poems and also called her the Queen of Kathak many times. She also won many awards like Sangeet Natak Akademi Award (1969) and the Padma 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 had another wife Sikandara Begum. The couple also had 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 their religion and thus Sitara had to convert to Islam. The couple soon got divorced. 

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

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Sitara Devi's death

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