The Longest Kiss: The Life and Times of Devika Rani

""The Longest Kiss is as much a story of the setting up of Indian cinema as it is the story of the actress who became a studio head..."" - Anjana Basu, Outlook Traveller

""Desai has managed to write a book that will appeal to lovers of both cinematic history and filmi gossip.""- Chintan Girish Modi, Hindustan Times

""Her life is the stuff of films... The star struck as well as film historians will find much to relish in her story."" - Anjana Basu, Outlook Traveller

""The studio is gone but Desai's book will make that period come alive for you.""- Chintan Girish Modi, Hindustan Times

She was India's first international superstar in the 1930s and 1940s. Astonishingly beautiful, prodigiously talented and a great-grandniece of Rabindranath Tagore, Devika Rani earned rave reviews for her first film, Karma. Shortly afterwards, she married Himansu Rai, and together they set up India's first truly professional studio, Bombay Talkies. Over the next few years, the studio became the launch pad for some of India's best-known talent, including Ashok Kumar, Leela Chitnis and Dilip Kumar.

After Himansu's controversial death in 1940, Devika took over Bombay Talkies. She ran the studio with a steel hand, squashing all rebellion and constantly walking a tightrope when it came to the men around her. Then, one day, she met the handsome and reclusive Svetoslav Roerich, and, just like in a Hindi film, nothing was ever the same again. Devika died as she had lived, in the midst of controversy, and an enigma to most.

In The Longest Kiss, for the first time, through her letters and documents, is pieced together the life that she kept away from the world. The romance and the abuse that characterized her marriage with Himansu, the struggle of being a woman at the helm of a hyper-male domain, the circuitous ways in which cinema found its feet in Bombay, and the soaring happiness and tragedy of a life lived on the edge, always.

© 2026 HarperCollins India (Lydbog): 9789373077840

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Lydbog: 27. marts 2026