Nirupa Roy was an actress in Hindi films known for portraying the role of the Indian mother stereotype. She was notorious for always playing the mother that was either blind, handicapped, poor. She almost always mangaged to lose her kids somehow in every movie. She played the heroine in her early films, and the hero's mother in her films of the 1970s and 80s. Her acting career spanned more than 50 years and she acted in more than 250 films. She was also known as the "queen of misery" in Hindi film circles.

Nirupa Roy was born as Kokila Kishorechandra Bulsara in Valsad, Gujarat.

She was married to Kamal Roy when she was 15, and moved to Mumbai. They have a son yogesh and a daughter.

She died, after having a cardiac arrest, in Mumbai on 13 October 2004 at the age of 73.

In 1946, She and her husband responded to an advertisement in a Gujarati paper looking for actors. She was selected and started her acting career with the Gujarati film Ranakdevi. The same year she acted in her first Hindi film Amar Raj. Among her popular films was Do Bigha Zameen (1953). She largely played mythological characters in the films of the 1940s and 50s. Her image of a goddess was very strong and people would visit her home and seek her blessings.

Among her co-stars were Trilok Kapoor, Bharat Bhushan, Balraj Sahni and Ashok Kumar.

Source: Wikipedia