Geeta Bali

Geeta Bali
Born	Harikirtan Kaur 1930 Sargodha, Punjab, Pakistan
Died	21 January 1965 at age 35 Mumbai, Maharashtra, India
Years active	1950 - 1964

Geeta Bali (1930 ‒ 21 January 1965) was a popular film actress from Bollywood. She was considered one of the more spontaneous and expressive stars of Bollywood in her acting.

Geeta Bali was born in the pre-partition Punjab in the city of Sargodha in Pakistan as Harkirtan Kaur in 1930. Her family moved to Mumbai when she started to get breaks in films.

Geeta Baali started her film career as a child actress, at the age of 12, with the film The Cobbler. She made her debut as a heroine in Badnaami (1946).

Bali became a star in the 1950s. She had also worked earlier with her future brother-in-law Raj Kapoor in Bawre Nain (1950) and with her future father-in-law Prithviraj Kapoor in Anand Math. Unlike other actresses who gave up films after marrying into the Kapoor family, Bali kept acting until her death. Her last film was Jab Se Tumko Dekha Hai in 1963. She did more than 70 films in a 10 year career.

Her personal secretary was Surinder Kapoor, father of producer Boney Kapoor, actor Anil Kapoor and Sanjay Kapoor.

Her family lived in Amritsar before 1947. Her father, Kartar Singh was known as a philosopher . He was a Sikh scholar and kirtan (Sikh devotional music) singer. Her maternal grandfather, Takhat Singh (1870-1937), was the founder of Sikh Kanya Mahavidyalay - a boarding school for girls and the first of its kind established in 1904 in Ferozepur. The parents encouraged their daughters, Harkirtan (Geeta Bali) and Hardarshan, to learn classical music and dance, horse riding and gatka fencing. Fundamentalist Sikhs socially boycotted the family as they did not like the girls performing in public and they picketed the theatres. [Source: Amar Bharti interviewed by Amrita Pritam, Nagmani December 1982]

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