Shobhana Samarth (née Saroj Shilotri; 17 November 1916 – 9 February 2000) was an Indian director, actress and producer, who began her career in the early days of talkie movies in the Hindi film industry and continued in lead roles into the 1950s.
In December that year, her father died of a heart attack and the mother and daughter returned to Bombay to stay with her maternal uncle.
[4] Her uncle was opposed to her acting in films, and she and her mother moved out of his home (ironically his daughter and Shobhana's cousin Nalini Jaywant herself became an actress).
Shobhana claims in an interview that she did not know any Urdu at that time of filming, speaking the dialogues by rote and it was only later that she picked up the language.
By the end of 1937, Shobhana left Sagar and joined General Films, acting in Industrial India (Nirala Hindustan), directed by Mohan Sinha with Prem Adib and Wasti.
By 1939, she had joined Hindustan Cinetone, making four films with them, which included Kaun Kisi ka (1939), Saubhagya (1940) by C. M. Luhar, and Apni Nagariya (1940) by V. M. Gunjal.
She then worked in a film directed by her husband, Kumar Sen Samarth, called Ghar Javai (1941), where she was cast with Damuanna Malvankar.
In 1942, came her career-defining film Bharat Milap, directed by Vijay Bhatt and starring Durga Khote as Kaikeyi, Shobhana as Sita and Prem Adib as Ram.
[7] She was frequently cast as the leading lady with the top heroes of the era like Ashok Kumar, Prithviraj Kapoor, Prem Adib, Shahu Modak, Trilok Kapoor, Mahipal, Jairaj etc Shobhana was married to director and cinematographer Kumarsen Samarth from Vile Parle (E), Mumbai.