Leela Chitnis (9 September 1909 – 14 July 2003) was an actress in the Indian film industry, active from 1930s to 1980s. In her early years she starred as a romantic lead, but she is best remembered for her later roles playing a virtuous and upright mother to main stars.

Biography

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. The couple supported India's struggle for independence from Britain and once risked arrest by harbouring 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 to be hired by a major studio, Bombay Talkies; it hired only college graduates.

She had three sons Manavendra, Benoy and Raj. She lived with her eldest son in Connecticut in USA, until her death. She had three grandchildren then.