Sudhabala

Sudhabala was an Indian actress from the silent era of Hindi films. She is often credited of giving break to Prithviraj Kapoor, the patriarch of the Kapoor family of the Hindi film industry. She along with Patience Cooper, Ruby Myers and Sita Devi is credited as a leading "star" of the 1920s-30s who had more mass appeal than their male counterparts.

Personal life
Sudhabala was born as Ermelinda Cardozo or simply Ermeline to Paulo Faustino Cardoso and Maria Joaquina de Souza in the Goan island of Divar on 7 May 1908. Suffering from financial constraints from early days of her life, she never really had any formal education as her parents brought her to Bombay in search of work. She was illiterate.

She married Saib Rocha, a leading Tiatr artist of that time. The most popular tiatr in which she acted was Lusitanian Dramatic Company's Alma Vetat Sorgar on 17 October 1932.

Career
Ermeline started off her career with the film Bhishma Pitamah under the banner of Star Films in 1922. The film starred actor Madanrai Vakil opposite her. Being the first actress of a Goan descent, she went on to feature in around sixty odd films and was fondly called as "Mary Pickford of India". She along with Sulochana, went on to be one of the earliest sex symbols of Indian cinema since they were overly sexualized.

Ermeline is also credited as one of the earliest film artists who took stand against sexual harassment at workplace. A news item, “Film Star’s Story; Incidents at Hill Station,” which appeared in the Times of India on 15 September 1927, reported that she went to court, charging the director and chairman of the Shri Krishna Cinema Company with indecent assault. During the shoot of Burkhawali at Matheran, she went to the superintendent of Police that cameraman Chaturbhai Patel and film director Kanjibhai Rathod had entered her hotel room and outraged her modesty. The first magistrate who tried the case “found that the complaints were false and ordered her to pay Rs. 100. A second judge reversed this judgment because he found the first magistrate to have been biased by the fact that Ermeline was an untutored woman of loose morals and bad association.

Ermeline is often credited of giving Prithviraj Kapoor his first big break in Hindi cinema. It so happened that the actor who was originally cast as the male lead failed to appear for the shooting of the film. This sent the filmmaker into frenzy and he asked Ermeline to pick the leading man from the throng of people who came there to see her. She handpicked Prithviraj, who by then has acted in a few bit roles. This film was Cinema Girl which released in 1930. The advent of talkies posed a threat to Ermeline's career as she was not well versed with the Hindustani language. She was then restricted to play the role of vamps and eventually faded away from the film scene.

Her most important film role was that of Draupadi in the 1931 mythological costume drama of the same name. Her other films include Zalim Jawani, Sarovar Ki Sundari, Swapna Sundari and Sharif Badmash to name a few.

Last days and death
Not much is known about how Ermeline died. When film historian Bhagwan Garga wrote a column appealing for financial help for the actress who has turned pauper, she got him fired from his job. While some sources claim that she died broke, others believe she died in an accident on the sets of a film.

Filmography

 * Bhishma Pitamah (1922)
 * Sharif Badmash (1924)
 * Lalan Vanzari (1925)
 * Kamlata (1925)
 * Hothal Padmini (1925)
 * Swapna Sundari (1925)
 * Anath Abla (1925)
 * Chandrakant (1925)
 * Veer Kesri (1926)
 * Boltu Bulbul (1926)
 * Ram Bharose (1926)
 * Panch Kalyan Aur Parijatak (1926)
 * Love Is Blind (1926)
 * Khoobsurat Bala (1926)
 * Amar Asha (1926)
 * Be Dinani Badshahi (1926)
 * Burkhawali (1926)
 * The Victim (1926)
 * Kicks of Kismet (1927)
 * Tainted Virtue (1927)
 * Shree Jagadguru (1928)
 * Madan Manjari (1928)
 * Ek Abla (1928)
 * Puran Bhagat (1928)
 * Sarovar Ki Sundari (1928)
 * Geeta Rahasya (1928)
 * Hoor E Bagdhad (1928)
 * Haya Na Haar (1928)
 * Chandrahas (1928)
 * Pandav Patrani (1928)
 * Kamla Kumari (1928)
 * Lal Vavto (1929)
 * Raj Ramni (1929)
 * Gulshan E Arab (1929)
 * Do Dhari Talwar (1929)
 * Vijay Kumar (1930)
 * Nai Roshni (1930)
 * Cinema Girl (1930)
 * Vasant Bengali (1930)
 * Raj Tilak (1931)
 * Draupadi (1931)
 * Toofani Taruni (1931)
 * Namak Haram Kaun (1931)
 * Golibari (1931)
 * Toofan Tufani (1931)
 * Zalim Jawani (1932)
 * Kalo Sawar (1932)
 * Abad Chor (1933)
 * Azad Abla (1934)
 * Khazana (1934)
 * Raj Tarang (1935)
 * Prisoner of Golconda (1954)