Jyoti Prakash

Jyoti Prakash Bhattacharya was born in the Jessore district of undivided Bengal in 1916 in an orthodox Brahmin family. His schooling was in Calcutta and he had a brief stint at Presidency College and at Shantiniketan. Before joining films he took training as a commercial pilot but did not continue in the job and decided to join films as an assistant to Debaki Bose. Soon he was offered a small role in Parajay (1940) and almost immediately played the hero in Doctor (1940), Meenakshi (1942), The Court Dancer: Raj Narkati (1941), Chowrangee, Paper Pathey and other films. His controversial marriage to actress Sheila Haldar, despite his being married, generated a good deal of public interest. He had to convert to Islam to get married the second time. However, Sheila Haldar's death shortly after childbirth caused a mental disbalance in the man and he committed suicide in December 1942. He lived for twenty six years only but during his brief association with films could become one of the most sought after heroes of the Bengali screen.