The Golden actor from the Golden Era

The versatile actor and one of India's best comedians who remained committed to the film industry for more than 50 years. He produced a barrel of loads of laughter and fits of giggle without ever disrespecting others.

Deven Verma was known for his situational comedic acting and expressions; Image source: Wikipedia

Deven Verma was born on 23rd October 1937 in Kutch, Gujarat. In the black and white cinema as well as coloured. His father, Baldev Singh Verma used to work in silver dealings but later turned to the film distribution industry. His mother, Sarala Devi was a housewife.

He spent most of his childhood days in Mumbai but his family shifted to Pune when his elder sister decided to become a doctor and enrolled in the G.N Khalsa College, Matunga. Deven completed his graduation in Nowrosjee Wadia College, the University of Pune in Politics and Sociology. It was during his college days that he changed his name to Deven, his birth name was Devendu Verma.

His acting career started during his college days. He decided to move to Mumbai to study law however within six months, he knew this wasn't where he was supposed to be. He left law and joined a drama club where actor Johnny Whisky was with him as well.

Deven Verma used to mimic different actors at that time, he was clearly very talented. He performed in a one-act play and present in the audience was B.R Chopra, the legendary filmmaker. Seeing Deven Verma on stage, he was so impressed that he immediately signed him up for Dharmputra (1961), Deven's debut movie.

He was working in stage shows in foreign when this film was released. Turns out, the movie was a flop. When he came back, he started working at AVM studios, at 1500 a month. He went to Madras for 3 years where he trained in acting.

His next movie was 'Gumrah' (1963), where he acted as the servant of Ashok Kumar aka Dadamuni. This was a comic role that garnered a lot of praise. It was after this movie that he decided to go back to Mumbai.

With time, he and Ashok Kumar made several movies during which Deven invited Ashok Kumar over for dinner. It was at this dinner where he met Rupa Ganguly, Ashook's daughter for the first time. Turns out Deven and Rupa had a perfect story of love at first sight which later led to him having an extremely happy married life with her.

In the coming years, he did movies like Qawwali Ki Raat (1964) alongside Mumtaz but it was the years 1965 and 1966 when Deven reached new heights of his career. He released hit movies like Devar and Anupama.

In 1975 he won the Filmfare Award for Best Comedian for Chori Mera Kaam. After this, he was given the lion's share of the movies. He got roles after roles. There was a time when he was working simultaneously in sixteen movies. The reason was Deven had made a lot of friends in the film industry that he had a hard time saying no to which is why he had to take many jobs at once.

Ashok Kumar, his father-in-law had once told him that you can work well in the film industry for 10 years if you are talented but work after your peak years depends on your behaviour. Deven must have executed his in-law's advice pretty well because he continued to work in the film industry for remarkable 52 years.

Do you know that Deven Verma over these years won not one but three Filmfare awards? Apart from Chori Mera Kaam, he won the award for Chor Ke Ghar Chor and Angoor. Even more perplexing fact is that all these three awards were lost by him. His wife was undergoing treatment for which he had shifted to Chennai, while coming back the bag with all his trophies was lost. The trophies remain undiscovered to date.

Deven Verma took self retirement from the film industry living through truly golden years of Indian Cinema. He had seen the cinema world grow, revolutionise and change from black and white to coloured. On 2nd December 2014, he suffered a heart attack and India lost one of his best comedian actors of all time.