Motilal Rajvansh said of his screen career with characteristic humour:[8]Married a 100 times, died almost twice, never born but always brought down by a parachute.After leaving college, Moti came to Bombay to join the Navy, but he fell ill and could not appear for the test.

In 1934 (aged 24), he was offered the hero's role in Shaher Ka Jadoo (1934) by the Sagar Film Company.

[11] Perhaps the role for which he received the most critical appreciation was that of the gentleman crook in S. S. Vasan's adaptation of R K Narayan's book Mr Sampat (1952).

He is most remembered for his role as "Chunni Babu" in Bimal Roy's Devdas (1955), for which he won his first Filmfare Best Supporting Actor Award.

Motilal was very suave and polished, and moved in high society, though towards the end of his life he was in financial difficulty.

Amitabh Bachchan wrote in the foreword of The Hundred Luminaries of Hindi Cinema: "Not much has been written in praise of a great and very natural actor.