Perhaps the first ever
Indian female film star, Patience
Cooper was a dancer by profession
before she entered tinsletown. Her sharp features, fair skin and ebony hair made her perfect for the black and white era and allowed the use of eye-level lighting, rarely
used in India.

Cooper was often cast as the sexually troubled but innocent woman at the center of moral dilemmas, a fore- runner to the type of roles played
later by Nargis.