Mala Sinha

1936–

Mala Sinha came from Calcutta, worked in Bengali films as a teenager, and became one of the few actresses of the 1950s and 1960s who could carry a serious picture without a male star above her on the bill.

Pyaasa, Dhool Ka Phool, Anpadh, Gumrah, Bahurani, Himalay Ki God Mein. Guru Dutt cast her in Pyaasa as the woman who chooses security over the poet, which is the part the film is hardest on and she plays without apology.

Dates and credits from Wikidata.