Leela Chitnis, legendary actor who worked from the 1930s till the 1980s, paved the way for several prominent leading ladies of today. Despite being born over a century ago in 1909, she was a rare female actor back then who was a graduate, a Bachelor’s in Arts. But that didn’t stop her father, an English Literature professor, from setting up an arranged marriage for his daughter at the age of 16. Leela Chitnis married Gajanan Yeshwant Chitnis, a doctor who belonged to the same Brahmo Samaj community as her family. They had four children — all boys — in quick succession immediately after the marriage. They also had a similar political leaning as they once harboured popular Marxist freedom fighter MN Roy in their house and did their bit to support India’s freedom struggle against the British Raj. However, she eventually split up with her alcoholic husband after the two couldn’t make their marriage work. Relocating back, she faced the ordeal of supporting her four young sons all by herself. A rare woman graduate at …