Kajol's grandmother, Shobhna Samarth is one of the most influential actresses from early Hindi cinema. Born Saroj Shilotri in 1916, she managed to lift herself from poverty to be an actress, producer, and director. The Kajol's Grandmother is most known for her acting skills, particularly her role in the movie Ram Rajya as the character of Sita. Her story marked the start of what would be a successful legacy of actresses from the same family.
Kajol's grandmother, Shobhna Samarth, was born in Bombay, during British colonial rule. Though her family had money, they lost it in 1928. Following her father's death in 1931, Shobhna will move around a lot, enroll in several high schools, and take on private tutoring to supplement her income. All of these activities did not affect Shobhna's love of films.
In 1935 she made her film debut in Orphans of Society (or Nigahen Nafrat), which was made in two languages, Marathi and Urdu. Since she did not know Urdu language at that time, she used to learn her dialogues phonetically. Shobhna used to move between studios very quickly from Sagar Movietone to General Films. She worked with iconic actors like Motilal and Yakub.
Her most memorable performances were in Bharat Milap (1942) and Ram Rajya (1943), where she played Sita with Prem Adib as Ram. These two movies made Kajol’s grandmother Shobhna Samarth a famous actress across the entire country.
Towards later in life, however, she changed to movies and production. Kajol’s grandmother, Shobhana Samarth, made movies which led her daughters Nutan and Tanuja into cinema. They both became successful actresses in the movie industry. This move led to creation of some of the most influential movie families in Bollywood.
In the year 1997, she won the Filmfare Special Award for her contributions to Indian cinema. This legacy is carried on by her descendants now, including Kajol and Tanishaa Mukerji. Kajol's grandmother, Shobhna Samarth passed away in the year 2000 due to a prolonged illness. She left a cinematic legacy with one of the most filmy families of Bollywood, the Mukherjee-Samarth family.