Priya Rajvansh had the most unusual career of any Indian actress. She was active in films for over two decades but still worked in just seven films, all with the same director. Her off screen life ended in tragic circumstances. All of it, from her career choices to her eventual murder, were because of her doomed love affair with a married filmmaker.

Priya Rajvansh and Chetan Anand’s affair

Priya was born Vera Sunder Singh to a forest department official in Shimla in 1936. She studied acting at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA) in London. After one of her pictures from a modelling shoot in London was spotted by an Indian filmmaker, she was introduced to director Chetan Anand, the brother of Dev Anand. Chetan launched Priya in his war drama Haqeeqat in 1964. The 43-year-old director had recently separated from his wife Uma and he began a romance with the 28-year-old Priya.

Priya Rajvansh’s chequered career

After Haqeeqat, Priya Rajvansh worked in six other films – Heer Ranjha (1970), Hindustan Ki Kasam (1973), Hanste Zakhm (1973), Saheb Bahadur (1977), Kudrat (1981), and Haathon Ki Lakeeren (1986). All these films were directed by Chetan. In her two-decade-long career, Priya never worked with any other director but him. When Chetan Anand left direction, Priya, too, quit acting and they retired to a quiet life together in Bombay.

Priya Rajvansh’s tragic end and murder

In 1997, Chetan Anand passed away at the age of 76. Priya inherited a large part of his property, which became a cause of dispute between her and Chetan’s sons Ketan and Vivek. In her final years, Priya was said to be plagued by fear and anxiety due to this. Her handwritten notes and a letter to Chetan’s younger brother Vijay Anand show that she was worried. Eventually, Priya was murdered in her house in 2000 over the property dispute. Ketan Anand and Vivek Anand were arrested for the murder, along with two accomplices. They were sentenced to life imprisonment in 2002.

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