Real Name – Venus Banerjee?

Profession – Actress

Most Active Years – 1950s

Nationality – Indian

Religion – Christian?

Ethnicity –

Date of Birth – 1927? (Bhopal – India)

Date of Death –

Debut Film – Hamlet (1954)

Last Film – Perhaps Hamlet (1954)

Significant others in the Film Industry –

Miscellaneous Info – At the age of nine Venus Banerjee, studying at the Isabella Thoburn School in Lucknow, wrote a drama which she directed and in which she played the leading role!

Today at twenty-seven, the lovely grey-green eyed Venus has astounded critics and audiences alike with her first screen performance in Kishore Sahu’s “Hamlet”.

Playing the difficult character-role of Queen Gertrude, Hamlet’s mother, Venus (young and very pretty in real life) won the praise and admiration of that great English actress and authority on Shakespeare, Dame Sybil Thorndike, who thought Venus was magnificent as the Queen.

Born in Bhopal, into a very well-to-do family, Venus is artistic by temperament (“Acting is in me – that’s why it’s effortless”), writes poetry and does portrait painting.

It was in 1951, when Venus was in Bombay for a short visit, that she decided to enter films. A few important producers did offer her roles, but Venus soon became homesick and left Bombay. Then in 1953, through mutual friends, she met Kishore Sahu here. He immediately asked her to do a role in “Hamlet.”

The choice of the Queen’s role was entirely her own, because it is her wish to play only powerful characters, no matter their age.

“I would rather play the second lead, if the role is better,” says this forthright actress. She would love to play all the characters ever played by Greer Garson and also the “Snake Pit” role of Olivia de Havilland.

Proficient in sports, Venus takes physical exercise seriously, is adept at swimming, riding, skating, rowing and tennis. She has studied Indian classical dancing and is an excellent ballroom dancer.

Household chores like cooking, cutting and sewing come naturally to her, and she is extremely good at all these.

She confesses to a “tragic streak” in her and when seized by moods – which is often – she drives off in the car, parks at some lonely place and gazes out at the sea for hours.

Good-natured, intelligent and talented, Venus Banerjee loves music above all things “I feed myself on music,” she says (This interview was conducted in February 1955, contributed by Sudarshan Talwar).

Filmographies might not be 100% accurate or complete because of various reasons including artistes with similar names