Enakshi Rama Rau and Mohan Bhavnani built a shared life around film, travel and the arts—but their careers were distinct. Rama Rau acted, danced, wrote screenplays and journalism, and later published books on dance and Indian art. Bhavnani directed feature films before leading India’s Films Division, the public documentary and newsreel organization established in 1948. Their partnership came into focus in projects such as the 1958 documentary China on the March.
Two different routes into cinema
Enakshi Rama Rau: actor, dancer and writer
Born in 1910, Enakshi Rama Rau studied at Baldwin Girls’ School and Queen Mary’s College in Madras and was an accomplished dancer. A 2022 Scroll.in profile recounts that she was offered a role in Shiraz when she was 18. The film marked the beginning of her screen career; she also brought dance into her work on screen.
Mohan Bhavnani: film training and feature direction
Mohan Dayaram Bhavnani was born in 1901 in Hyderabad, Sindh. According to the same profile, he studied film and photography in Manchester and returned from Germany to India in 1924. He directed Veer Bala and later Wildcat of Bombay, in which actor Sulochana played eight roles.
Marriage and a shared film world
Rama Rau and Bhavnani married in 1931. Their daughter-in-law, Marjorie Bhavnani, later described their relationship as a “working partnership,” a phrase that captures the overlap between their personal life and professional interests without making their careers interchangeable.
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Rama Rau appeared in Bhavnani’s Jagran (1936), dancing in Manipuri style, as well as Himalaya Ki Beti and Yangrilla, both reported as 1938 releases. The Encyclopedia of Indian Cinema catalogue entry lists Jagran as a 1936 Hindi film directed and produced by Bhavnani, with Rama Rau among its lead performers; it gives the runtime as 152 minutes. She also wrote screenplays, including Bisvi Sadi (1945).
Bhavnani’s socially engaged cinema
Bhavnani’s 1934 film Mazdoor, written by Premchand, dealt with conflict between management and labour. Scroll’s account says British censors banned it; it was re-released as Daya Ki Devi in 1937 and failed commercially. This history is reported in the profile rather than established here through an original censorship record.
Bhavnani and the Films Division
After independence, Films Division was established in 1948 to make documentaries and newsreels, and Bhavnani was appointed its chief, according to Scroll’s profile. His work there shifted from feature-film direction toward public documentary filmmaking and the wider circulation of film culture around India.
The profile names Festival Time and The Private Life of a Silkworm among Films Division works associated with Bhavnani. His administrative role connected a national documentary institution with his earlier experience as a director, while Rama Rau’s creative work continued to span film, writing and the arts.
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Travel, arts writing and China on the March
The couple travelled widely, including in the Himalayas. Rama Rau wrote about a Ladakh journey for National Geographic Magazine in 1951. In 1958, Bhavnani was invited to China by Premier Zhou En-Lai; Rama Rau accompanied him and a film crew on a three-month trip.
The journey resulted in China on the March, a 70-minute documentary with commentary by Enakshi Bhavnani and Romesh Thapar, as reported by Scroll. The project joined Bhavnani’s documentary work with Rama Rau’s travel and writing experience, making their partnership visible not only in film credits but also in the work surrounding a film made abroad.
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Rama Rau’s work after Bhavnani’s death
Bhavnani died in 1962. Rama Rau continued writing short stories and articles, collected folk tales, and developed her work on Indian dance and art. Scroll’s profile names four books published between 1965 and 1978, including Dance in India and Decorative Designs on Stone and Wood in India. The profile reports that she died in 1981.
Their legacy is therefore more than a story of a director and his actor-wife. Bhavnani’s path ran from feature films to public documentary leadership; Rama Rau’s moved from screen acting and dance into screenwriting, journalism and books on the arts. Film, travel and shared projects brought those paths together, while each retained a body of work of her or his own.
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