In Musing 2237, I had a poster of the film Frontiers of Freedom. A female named Mrs Shilotri was mentioned. Here is some info about her from Arunkumar Deshmukh, who has published four books on Forgotten Artists and the Same Name Confusion (look in the Published books section).
Arunkumar writes:
Ratanbai Shilotri was married to Dr. Prabhakar Shilotri, a highly educated Ph.D from a foreign university. He was a Finance Expert and had established "Shilotri Bank", having 6 branches in major towns, including his native place. They had only one daughter - Saroj. Dr. Shilotri was very arrogant and was a pucca anti British. The British Govt. also was waiting for an opportunity to teach him a lesson. Unfortunately, Dr. Shilotri was caught by the Govt. on a technicality and was jailed for 2 years. He died in jail.
Having lost everything Ratanbai and Saroj came to Ratanbai's brother Dinkar Jaywant for support. Saroj was interested in working in films, but Jaywant was dead against it (though his own daughter Nalini Jaywant joined films later). Saroj got married to Kumarsen Samarth, a Germany trained Cinematographer and a handsome person. Saroj became Shobhana Samarth. They, along with mother Ratanbai, shifted to Kolhapur. There Shobhana did her first film- 'Nigah-e- Nafrat' - 1935 (aka Orphans of the Society) and its Marathi Version - Vilasi Ishwar, opposite Master Vinayak. She continued working in films. Shobhana's daughters Nutan and Tanuja are well-known.
Ratanbai worked in just one film - Swarajyachya Seemevar- Frontiers of Freedom. She did Shivaji's mother's role in it. This film was made under the Kolhapur Cinetone banner, produced by Prince Shivaji Productions (their only film). The producer director was Major Dadasaheb Nimbalkar, and it was written by Bhalji Pendharkar. Shivaji's role was done by Col. Nanasaheb Ingle.
After this single role, Ratanbai Shilotri never ever acted in any other film. Her daughter Shobhana did about 50 films and became famous as India's favourite SEETA, after the superhit film Ramrajya-1943.
PS: Of course, she is different from the Calcuttawali Ratanbai who acted in Saigal films. Also Kumar Dilip mentioned and seen in the poster is Nazir, as has been mentioned before.
Now You Know!
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