Leela Chitnis - Personal Life

Personal Life

Her father adhered to Brahmo Samaj, a religious movement that rejected caste.

She married a much older man named Dr. Gajanan Yeshwant Chitnis at the age of 15 or 16, and quickly had four children but later divorced. The couple supported India's struggle for independence from Britain and once risked arrest by harboring Manabendra Nath Roy, a Marxist freedom fighter. After she divorced her husband, she worked as a school teacher and began acting onstage in melodramas typical of the time. She appeared in several movies, and went through a Bombay university in order to be hired by a major studio, Bombay Talkies; it hired only college graduates.

The names of her sons are Manavendra, Benoy and Raj, and until her death, she had three grandchildren.

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