Priya Rajvansh

Priya Rajvansh (30 December 1936 – 27 March 2000), born Vera Sunder Singh, was an Indian actress known for her performances in Hindi films such as Heer Raanjha (1970) and Hanste Zakhm (1973) among the handful of films she completed during her career.

Priya Rajvansh was born Vera Sunder Singh in Shimla, India, on 30 December 1936, the daughter of Sunder Singh, a Conservator in the Forest Department who later worked on a UN assignment. She grew up in Shimla alongside her two brothers, Kamaljit Singh (also known as Gulu) and Padamjit Singh.

Her early education took place at Auckland House, where she served as school captain, and the Convent of Jesus and Mary in Shimla.

Full Name	Priya Rajvansh
Other Name(s)	Vera Sunder Singh
Occupation	Actress
Date of Birth	30-December-1936 (63 years)
Birth Location	Simla, Punjab, British India (now Shimla, Himachal Pradesh, India)
Gender	Female
Nationality	Indian
Religion	Hindu
Zodiac Sign	Capricorn
Death Time	27-March-2000
Death Location	Mumbai, Maharashtra, India
Height	164 cm
Weight	57 kg
Eye Colour	Black
Hair Colour	Black
Hobbies	Dancing, travelling

She passed her intermediate examination from St. Bede's College, Shimla, in 1953, and subsequently joined Bhargava Municipal College, where she acted in several English plays at Shimla's noted Gaiety Theatre. After graduation, she traveled to London to study at the prestigious Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA), becoming the only Indian actress to have trained there.

While still in London at the age of 22, a photograph taken by a London photographer reached the Hindi film industry, leading Ranbeer Singh to bring her to meet director Chetan Anand in 1962. Anand cast her in his war film Haqeeqat (1964), which became a hit and is often counted among the best Indian war films.

Following this debut, she entered a relationship with her mentor Chetan Anand, who had just separated from his wife, and she thereafter starred only in Chetan Anand films. In these films, she was involved in every aspect from story and scripting to lyrics and post-production, and Anand never made a film without her as the central character.

Her next film, Heer Raanjha, was released in 1970, where she acted opposite the prominent actor Raaj Kumar, and the film was a hit. In 1973, she appeared in Hanste Zakhm, which is regarded as arguably the finest film of her career. That same year, she starred in Hindustan Ki Kasam, again with Raaj Kumar.

She also starred opposite Dev Anand in Saheb Bahadur (1977) and took on a parallel role with Hema Malini as the lead in Kudrat (1981), paired opposite Rajesh Khanna. Her last film, Haathon Ki Lakeeren, was released in 1985 (some sources cite 1986), after which she ended her film career.

Throughout her entire life, she acted in only seven movies, remaining within Chetan Anand's camp and never venturing outside his production. Despite her anglicized accent and Western look, which sometimes posed challenges in connecting with the broader Indian audience, she was convincing in her performances.

Priya Rajvansh and Chetan Anand maintained a personal relationship and lived together, though she kept her own flat first in Kalumal Estate and later a bigger house in Mangal Kiran. After Chetan Anand's death in 1997, she inherited a part of his property along with his sons from his first marriage, Ketan Anand and Vivek Anand.

On 27 March 2000, Priya Rajvansh was murdered at Chetan Anand's Ruia Park bungalow in Juhu, Mumbai, India, at the age of 63. Police charged Ketan Anand, Vivek Anand, and their employees Mala Choudhary and Ashok Chinnaswamy with her murder, with the motive believed to be rights to her inheritance of Chetan Anand's property.

Her handwritten notes and a letter addressed by her to Vijay Anand were produced in court as evidence, revealing her fear and anxiety prior to her death under mysterious circumstances.

The four accused were convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment in July 2002, but in 2011, the Bombay High Court accepted the appeals filed by Ketan and Vivek Anand against the trial court's order.

Her two brothers, Kamaljit Singh and Padamjit Singh, reside in London and the USA respectively, and maintain an ancestral home in Chandigarh.

Photo Gallery