1 Leela Chitnis
Leela Chitnis became the first Indian actress to endorse the popular soap brand in 1941 to home audiences. A star in her own right, Chitnis graced the pages of many a magazine with several ads touting the product as 'her beauty secret'.
2 Azurie
Born Anna Marie Gueizelor, Azurie, the famed dancer of Jewish heritage, was the daughter of a German father and Indian mother. Trained in ballet and several different schools of dance, including Eastern classical, she started off with films like the Royal Film Circuit's Gentleman Daku (1937) and Sagar Movitone's Watan (1938). Azurie can also be seen in songs like 'O Janewala Balemwa' from Rattan (1944) and 'Ari O Mohe Chhed Gaya' from Singaar (1949). Reportedly, dancers like Cuckoo Moray and Helen were influenced by her early success.
3 Bharati Devi
Bharati Devi began her career as an actress with New Theatres' Doctor (1940) opposite Pankaj Mullick. A fine singer, she sang her own songs in both Bengali and Hindi cinema. She reportedly never received any remuneration for the ads but was sent a bucketful of Lux products constantly and feted every year on her birthday by the company.
4 Manorama
Long before she tormented Hema Malini in Seeta Aur Geeta (1972), Manorama started out as a leading lady in pre-Partition Lahore. With an Irish mother and Indian Christian father, she began her career as child artiste Baby Iris. She was relegated to vamp and, later, character roles in Hindi cinema. Manorama was last seen in Deepa Mehta's Water (2005) as the leader of the widows' ashram. She died in 2008.
5 Ratanbai
This Hindi film actress rose to fame in Yahudi Ki Ladki (1933) and went on to appear in films like Hind Mahila (1936) and Bharat-Ki-Beti (1935), both directed by P Atorthy, and Imperial Film Company's Prisoner's War (1938) and Dulhan (1938). Ratanbai was also an accomplished singer and sang the famous bhajan 'Tere poojan ko bhagwan' in Bharat-Ki-Beti.
6 Shobhana Samarth
Shobhana Samarth, née Saroj Shilotri, made her film debut with Kolhapur Cinetone's Orphans Of Society in 1935. Samarth was married with a young daughter Nutan when she embarked on the biggest hits of her career, Bharat Milap (1942) and Ram Rajya (1943). Her daughters Nutan and Tanuja also took up acting, as did her grandchildren Kajol and Mohnish Behl.
7 Mumtaz Shanti
Along with co-star Ashok Kumar, Mumtaz Shanti was part of Indian cinema's earliest blockbuster Kismet (1943), which ran for three straight years at Calcutta's Roxy Theatre. A popular face of the 1940s and early 1950s, Mumtaz Shanti was a part of films like Basant (1942), in which she played mother to a young Madhubala, and Ghar Ki Izzat (1948) opposite Dilip Kumar.
8 Husn Bano
Like most actresses of her era, Husn Bano did her own singing in films like Prem Nagar (1940), which was also Naushad's debut as music composer. Born in Singapore, Husn Bano née Roshan Ara was the daughter of Parsi magician Minoo Koopar and actress Sharifa. She made her debut in New Theatres' Daku Mansoor (1943).
9 Neena
The actress Neena was dubbed 'the mysterious Neena' in the publicity for her debut film Ek Raat (1942) opposite Prithviraj Kapoor and the name stuck for the Lux advertisement as well. After Partition, she and her director husband WZ Ahmed migrated to Pakistan.
10 Sadhona Bose
Sadhona Bose was a renowned ballet and stage dancer in Calcutta whose productions took on contemporary themes. A contemporary of Uday Shankar, she appeared in films like The Court Dancer: Raj Narkati (1941) and Meenakshi (1942). Sadhona married film director Madhu Bose. Her grandfather Keshab Chandra Sen was the first non-Brahmin acharya of the Brahmo Samaj and founder of the breakaway Brahmo Samaj of India.
11 Maya Banerji
Maya Banerji featured in several social films of the 1930s and 1940s like Jagirdar (1937), Watan (1938), Awaaz (1942) and Pritam (1942). She first appeared on screen in Sagar Movitone's Saraswati and virtually retired from films in the early 1950s.