Once a rising star, Bollywood actor’s relationship with her mentor ended in downfall and ‘murder’; the case remains open

In Bollywood's rich and extensive history, built by thousands of actors and technicians, there exist certain persons whose personal lives have been more staggering than their professional ones.

- 

Not merely due to controversies, but because of the way their lives unfolded and, at times, ended. They have shaken people more deeply with their personal lives than their careers ever did. Actor Priya Rajvansh’s story is one such, as she is remembered more for the tragedy that eventually struck her than for the performances she delivered. For the unversed, she was allegedly murdered by people she believed were her own.Born in Shimla, Himachal Pradesh, Priya Rajvansh’s (née Vera Sunder Singh) father, Sunder Singh, worked in the Forest Department, and his mother was an English woman from whom she inherited her anglicised accent. Vera was a star even in her school days, long before she entered the film industry. By the time she reached college, her fame had only grown as she excelled in every competition she participated in; be it debates, declamations or dramatics. “She was free and frank with almost everybody in the know of her, but we young students called her a ‘freak flirt’, of course in whispered tones,” RP Chaddah, who studied in the same college that she did, wrote in The Tribune in April 2000. “Some city lotharios were so smitten by her youth, charm, energy and beautiful gait, that they started penning paeans of praise in the form of poems and dedicated their books to Vera,” he added.