Parbati Ghose, also credited as Parbati Ghosh was a legendary cine personality associated with Odia cinema. She was a film director, producer and actress. Her name entered history books of Odia cinema, as the first female film director of the industry. She started her career as a voice actor for AIR, followed by child artist in Odia movies in the late 1940s and later became lead actress as well as filmmaker. She lived during the period, March 28, 1942 – February 12, 2018. An icon of women’s empowerment & one of the greatest gifts to Odia cinema,

Parbati Ghose is the screen name of Chapala Naik from Cuttack district, Odisha. She was born on March 28, 1942 as the daughter of a publisher, Basudev Naik, who worked as the manager of Manmohan Press. Parbati studied from Sanat Nalini Girls High School, and also took formal lessons in Odissi dance form from many gurus. She also got opportunity to learn under the legendary artist Kelucharan Mohapatra. During her childhood days, she worked as a voice actor in All India Radio. In 1949, she marked her acting debut with the movie, Shri Jagannath, as a child artist at the age of 7.

As an artist, her first successful movie was Amari Gaan Jhua in 1953. She was only 11 years old when she played the female lead in the movie, based on child marriage. The movie received positive reviews. In 1956, she played her adult role through the hit film, Bhai Bhai. She played the lead role opposite her future husband Gour Prasad Ghose, who produced the film as well. After that she got interested in filmmaking. They got married in 1959. She continued to appear in films throughout the 1960s and 1970s. Her husband, Goura Ghose, gave her the platform to become Odisha’s first woman producer and director.

Image credit: All images credit GourParbati.com