Marriage is supposed to ring the death-knell for a heroine's
career in Bollywood. That's the reason why there are so many rumours of
hush-hush weddings conducted in the dead of the night in faraway temples. Then, there are
vociferous denials of tying the knot by heroines and a general aversion to even
sporting an engagement ring on the finger. All these maneuvers only so that the star value of the heroine doesn't come plummeting down.
So one has to admire the pluck of a young girl who entered films after her marriage...all for a lark. And then made people sit up and take notice with such fresh performances, that almost everyone was astonished by her natural acting abilities.
What was ironic was the first time a reputed producer had
approached her, she was candid enough to tell him that she didn't know how to
act.
This young, fresh-faced lady was Vidhya Sinha – a girl who had
entered a local beauty competition just for the heck of it. When she won it,
she was genuinely surprised….though not so much by the publicity that followed.
Her face was splashed in a couple of national magazines and by sheer chance,
Basu Chatterjee, the producer-director reputed for injecting realism into
cinema, saw her.
As luck would have it, he was looking for the girl next door for his next film project – and Vidhya Sinha’s looks fit the bill perfectly. He got his production team to track her down and set up a meeting with him.
Vidhya Sinha at the time was happily married to Venkateshwaran Iyer, and was not really inclined towards the film industry. So when Basu Chatterjee asked her about working in films, she laid her cards on the table. Yes, she wouldn't mind working in films, but there was one little problem, she told Basu Chatterjee. She didn’t know how to act.
When he heard her innocent answer, Basu Chatterjee couldn't help but guffaw loudly. He found her candid admission endearing, along with the rare commodity of honesty that graced her words. So he allayed her fears with a line that reflected what he thought of the quality of films being produced in the film industry at the time.
He told her, “You don't worry about acting…acting is something, I'll teach you.” And then as an aside, he added, “I'll let you in on a secret; acting is something some of our biggest stars also don't know how to do!”
Hearing this, Vidya Sinha couldn't help but stifle a smile. With one sentence, Basu Chatterjee had shattered the star system and its vain rankings. And endeared himself to her as a person who would take the utmost care of her in her new journey as a film actor. She would go on to make landmark films with Basu Chatterjee – films like Rajnigandha and Chhoti Si Baat, that captured the lives of ordinary, middle class people with their unique set of issues.
Even the toughest critic found Vidhya Sinha a complete natural before the camera – and the accolades for her came thick and fast, proving to herself that she indeed was an actress… and perhaps, as capable as the best of the stars.
Watch this lilting melody from Rajnigandha, the movie where Vidhya Sinha had won over the hearts of millions of Indians
RAJNIGANDHA PHOOL TUMHARE
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