Asha Parekh, whose girlish laughter added to the charm of her films through the 1960s and 1970s, refuses to cling on to the past.
“I don’t believe in sitting at home clinging to the past wiping photo frames with my tears…Please, there’s so much more to do in life,” said the actress who turned a year older Saturday – may be on the wrong side of 60.
She had a fair share of hits.
“Sure I had hit films and have the memories but I refuse to dwell on them. It was a great time.”
“I share my birthday with that other far, far greater Gujarati, Mahatma Gandhi. But unlike him, I was anything but a peace ambassador. Whenever I entered the studio everyone would run for cover,” said Asha, her girlish spirit intact.
She once hid Sunil Dutt’s slippers in a chair. “Forget finding it that day, he didn’t find it for many years until he was again shooting in the same studio,” her laughter reverberates across the room.
“Like Latabai (Mangeshkar) whose birthday comes three days before me, I believe you’re as young as you think,” said the actress who was considered the most successful among her contemporaries – Sadhana, Sharmila Tagore, Mala Sinha and Waheeda Rehman, who were all superstars in the 1960s.
But it was Asha who was considered the lucky mascot.
The hits rolled out with assembly line regularity with every leading man from Joy Mukherjee (“Phir Wohi Dil Laya Hoon”, “Love in Toyko”) and Biswajeet (“Mere Sanam”) to Shashi Kapoor (“Pyar Ka Mausam”) and Rajesh Khanna (“Aan Milo Sajna”) getting his share of hits.
Having known her very closely for years, I find her to be extremely affable. She’s a storehouse of chuckling memories.
Once for a scene, Joy Mukherjee had to pick her up and carry her to the bed. But he apparently couldn’t take her weight and simply flung her on the hard bed. “I was confined to bed with a back problem for weeks,” she recalls with affectionate annoyance.
With Amitabh Bachchan there was a misunderstanding. “Apparently he was told that I refused to work with him when no such thing happened. We didn’t come together until many years later when I played his bhabhi in ‘Kaalia’. By then I had decided to pack it in.
“No more bhabhi or mother roles for me. I can’t bear to see myself sobbing for some undeserving male who’s out busy fighting the goons while I make his favourite dishes in the kitchen. I’d rather be out there doing all the ‘dishum dishum’.”
The actress laughs at the memory of those spectacular days when they had nicknamed her “Jubilee Parekh”.
Her intimate association with filmmaker Nasir Husain yielded some of the biggest successes of the 1960s.
From the time Husain introduced Asha Parekh in “Dil Deke Dekho” in 1959 to their last film together, the mammoth musical blockbuster “Caravan” in 1971, the director-actress team was unbeatable.
“Nasir Saab gave me some of my biggest hits. He also de-glamorized me in ‘Baharon Ke Sapne’. Though the film didn’t click – no one wanted to see Asha Parekh with parched lips and hungry eyes – the songs ‘Aaja piya tohe pyar doon’, ‘Chunri sambhal gori’ and ‘Kya janoon sajan’ are perennial favourites.
“Later I got a chance to prove myself as an actress in Shakti Samanta’s ‘Kati Patang’ and Raj Khosla’s ‘Main Tulsi Tere Aangan Ki’.”
“Yeah there were lots of successes with a whole lot of heroes. I really enjoyed working with Shammi Kapoor in ‘Teesri Manzil’ and ‘Jawan Mohabbat’. I call him Shammi Chacha to this day. There was never any hanky panky with any of the heroes. I was too much of a tomboy for them to contemplate affairs and flings with me.”
Not even with Dharmendra who was known to be a pucca ladies’ man?
“Not even Dharam,” she chuckles. “When we did films like ‘Aaye Din Bahar Ke’ and ‘Aaya Saawan Jhoom Ke’ together, I drew the lines in our friendship very clearly… Not that I lived like a nun or anything.
Far from it. I was a nice maiden but not an ice maiden.” Her laughter rings across her well-appointed new apartment. She moved into it last year after selling off her famous stone-and-granite seaside bungalow that was considered quite a tourist attraction.
“It was becoming hard to manage on my own. My father was increasingly unwell and I had to single-handedly look after the huge household. I moved into this place with my Papa. It’s just a stone’s throw away from my old home…. Now my father is also gone. It’s just me,” her voice trails off.

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Pink Director’s Next Featuring Yami As A Crime Reporter To Stream From February 16

Anniruddha Roy Chowdhury whose Pink featuring Amitabh Bachchan and Taapsee Pannu was one of the most important films of 2016, is all set to release his next Hindi film.
Entitled Lost, Anniruddha’s film , based on true events, will see Yami Gautam Dhar(that’s what the actress calls herself after her marriage) as a crime journalist. LOST is an emotional social thriller that represents a higher quest, a search for lost values of empathy and integrity.
Inspired by true events, Lost is a story of a bright young woman crime reporter in her relentless search for the truth behind the sudden disappearance of a young theatre activist.

Lost
Says Aniruddha “The shoot of LOST has been an incredible journey. I have been eager for the release of our hard-worked venture. The film is a realistic highlight of media in a social context and I am sure that it will give the audience a compelling watch. I am curious about its release and see the responses it shall get. I hope they will welcome it with open hearts.”
Yami Gautam Dhar who plays the lead of the crime reporter says, “I can’t be happier and more proud of the film’s selection for the opening night at CSAFF. I feel like its one that the people will connect to and will be the one that you cannot miss, especially in the current age and time. I have loved playing this role because it was such a special experience, it allowed me to explore so many layers of emotions as an actor and the entire team has worked really hard on it. I genuinely cannot wait for the film’s release, especially to see the reactions of the audience to it.”
The crime investigation drama boasts a stellar cast. Along with Yami, the film will feature Pankaj Kapur, Rahul Khanna, and an ensemble of younger talent, including Neil Bhoopalam, Pia Bajpai, and Tushar Pandey, in pivotal roles.
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Jamuna Had A Love-Hate Relationship With Bollywood

Veteran Telugu actress Jamuna who passed away on Friday, shared an uneasy relationship with the Hindi film industry.She did eleven Hindi films including the iconic Milan in 1967 where Jamuna agreed to play the second lead, or the supporting role if you will, to Nutan.
Jamuna as Gauri was the Other Woman who craved for the hero Sunil Dutt’s attention whereas he had eyes and devotion only for Nutan. In later years Aruna Irani played a similar role in Caravan.
In Milan Jamuna was not keen to do a supporting role. Producer L V Prasad tempted her with three chartbusting songs. Besides, Jamuna had played the same role in Mooga Manasulu, the Telugu original of Milan. But it was the songs composed by Laxmikant-Pyarelal which convinced Jamuna to take up the second lead in Milan.
While Nutan had no solo songs in Milan, she did have the chartbuster duet Sawan ka mahina . Jamuna on the other hand, had two splendid Lata Mangeshkar solos: Tohey saawariya naahin khabariya and the magnificent Ghazal Aaj dil pe koi zor chalta nahin.Not only these, Jamuna also had a hit duet with Mukesh based on her character Gauri: Bol Gauri bol tera kaun piya.
But then, fate intervened. After the film released one of Jamuna’s solos, the poignant and memorable Aaj dil pe koi zor chalta nahin was snipped out of the film.
Here is what happened: the Ghazal , one of Lataji’s all-time greats, was very much a part of Milan when it released on 17 March 1967. But then it was seen to hamper the flow of the film and edited out. The beautiful song occurred right after intermission. Producer Prasad, a shrewd filmmaker, got to know that audiences prolonged their loo breaks as there was a song after the break. Hence the sacrifice of a seriously sonorous melody.
Jamuna hardly did Hindi films after Milan. Her last Bollywood appearance was in Raj Kumar Kohli’s Raj Tilak where she was lost in a multistarrer as the royal queen.
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Karan Johar Moves Alia Song From Switzerland To Kashmir

The romantic duet in Karan Johar’s Rocky Aur Rani Ki Prem Kahaani which was to be shot in Switzerland and which was delayed due to the film’s leading lady Alia Bhatt’s motherhood, is now being relocated to Kashmir.
Purely out of the love for new mom Alia.
Says a source in the know, “Karan loves Alia like his own daughter. He would do anything for her. He postponed the release of Rocky Aur Rani Ki Prem Kahani as the love duet could not be shot before Alia’s maternity leave. Karan had decided to shoot the song in Switzerland after Alia’s maternity love. But now he has relocated the song to Kashmir as Alia doesn’t want to leave her baby girl behind for long stretches.”
And as Karan Johar argued, snow is snow. How does it matter whether it is Switzerland or Kashmir?
This song would be Karan Johar’s tribute to his idol Yash Chopra. Alia would be dressed in chiffon sarees while Ranveer, for a change, would be seen in formals.
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Bobby Deol’s Switchover To Villainous Roles

After Prakash Jha’s webseries Ashram where Bobby played a sleazy godman, and Love Hostel where he was a ruthless assassin, he is playing the villain to Ranbir Kapoor in Sandeep Vanga’s Animal.
Bobby says it is not conscious career decision to play negative characters but a conscious decision to play interesting characters. “ I don’t look at characters as positive or negative.When I watch films there is always one character that stays with you. I want to play that character.”
Prakash Jha’s Ashram proved a gamechanger for Bobby. He admits finding challenging roles is tough. “I am trying. I am doing Sandeep Vanga’s Animal with Ranbir Kapoor , Parineeti Chopra. Then I am doing the family film Apne 2 which I am very excited about.”
In an earlier interview with this writer Bobby spoke about his long absence from screen before Prakash Jha’s Ashram. “My fans would ask why I wasn’t being seen on the screen.And I couldn’t tell them it was because I wasn’t getting good roles. But my fans stood by me. They gave me the strength to keep looking for the right roles. Thankfully I found the roles I liked. My new films have given me some new fans. I am thankful I am still here. Yeah , I am in a good space right now.”
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