Nostalgia......yesteryear Actresses

I wonder if all that is true. Why wud Madhu be interested in him ( a married man )?

Noorie

profiles of actresses should be post in the way they made their debut,i think it was little early to post waheeda's profile before nutan,meena kumari and vyajantimala..i guess we have yet to gone through nargis profile

50s was an era of Stardom,in 50s actors got more stardom as comparing to 20s,30s & 40s stars.Nargis,Madhubala,Meena Kumari and Geeta Bali were reknown faces of 50s.Actresses of 40s like Suraiya,Nirupa Roy,Kamini Kaoshal were also doing well.Nutan,Vyjayantimala & Waheeda Rehman got stardom in mid of 50s.
Beena Roy,Nimmi,Sandhya,Geeta Dutt,Shakila,Nadira,Kalpana Kartik,Shyama,Kumkum,Shashikala etc were another actresses of that era,who got stardom.Cuckoo,Kuldeep Kaur and Nigar Sultana were doing supporting roles like Vamp,Comic roles etc.Some of 20s and 30s actresses started playing character roles like Sulochana,Lalita Pawar,Durga Khote,Leela Chitnis etc.They also did lead roles in small films.Mala Sinha and Nanda became esteblish actresses in last of 50s.Padmini(South) and Suchitra Sen(Bengali) were not regular bollywood actresses,but they did some performance oriented roles in Bollywood too.

Shakila-She made debut with Suraiya,Karan Diwan starring Duniya in 1949.Soon she got some supporting roles and after that got chance to play leading lady.Dataan,Duniya,Jhansi Ki Rani,Hatimtai,Aar Paar,C.I.D,Begunah etc were her reknown films.Later she played supporting roles in some movies.



Shyama-She made debut in 1949 with Dev Anand,Suraiya starring Shair.Soon she got leading roles,She did not get much scope,but supporting roles helped her.Tarana,Shair,Patanga,Saza,Aasmaan,Aar Paar,Bhai Bhai,Hill Station,Choti Behan,Shardha etc were her main films.She got Filmfare Best Supporting Actress Award for Shardha(1957).


i have no information where they are now

Kumkum-She made debut with Bharat Bhushan,Suraiya starrer Mirza Ghalib in 1954.She was having little role.Soon she got some supporting roles,where she got do something.She got noticed in Basant Bahar.She got lot of hits,but somewhere she did not get much attention as an actress.Later she got films like Mother India,Funtoosh,Dil bhi tera hum bhi tere,Mr and Mrs 55,Mr X in Bombay,Kohinoor,Raja Aur Runk,Geet,Aankhen,Lalkaar etc.Mehboob Khan's Son Of India turned out of big flop,one of her most big project as leading lady.She was even going well in 60s and early 70s.Few Years back she was given lifetime achievement award by Bhojpuri Cinema(i have no idea if she was part of bhojpuri films,may be she might have done few films with Sujit Kumar).Recently got special award during Dada Saheb Falke Awards.

Lets talk abt Priya Rajvansh, she was well fine looking... well she was in Hanste Zakhm.

i will talk abt her,but its humble request from me
plz lets first finish profiles of 50s actresses...than we will move to 60s..

Regarding Shakila, I was fortunate to attend her wedding held at the Mahalaxmi Race Course in Bombay. She was a student of Arabic and learnt from a Maulana who was our tenant. (Reeth will remember I mentioned this Maulana in the topic of Ghosts....) It was a grand wedding after which Shakila stopped working in movies.

Shakila had that something which is called "Namak" in hindustani. I loved her fairy's role in HATIM TAI, (1957) which till today is the best among all the Hatim Tai movies.

NASIR.

Hers is a sad story.

She was a victim of murder; the two sons of her late partner Chetan Anand ( with whom she had a live-in relationship ) were found guilty of the crime.
There was a trial, and they served time in prison for a while, last I heard they are out on parole.

Poor Priya, who wud have thought she wud meet such a gory end.

Noorie

Jassi Nargis and Meena Kumari have already been covered.....Nutan and Vyjayantimala come after Waheeda Rehman(going by their dob)...

Thanks a lot for all those writeups and pics about Shakila , Shama and Kum kum.........they definitely deserve to be mentioned....

I lkied her dancing to Geeta's 'Hoon abhi mein jawan yeh dil... and Ankhon ki aankhon mein ishara ho gaya......and yes ,she had a certain kind of charm

Priya led an enigmatic life. For one, she was perhaps the only heroine educated in London, at a time when most of the leading ladies were hardly literate! After her debut film 'Haqeeqat', her professional and personal life were so intricately fused that it became difficult to seperate one from the other. She only starred in seven films in her entire career and all of them were directed by Chetan Anand. He went on to become her friend, philosopher and guide. Priya remained faithful to him till his death recently. And became a recluse. However the personal rapport between Chetan Anand and Priya Rajvansh could not crystallize into memorable performances from the latter. Whether it was the Heer of Heer Ranjha, the call girl of 'Hanste Zakhm' or the modern day Cinderella of Sahib Bahadur, Priya remained glacial, in all of them! Priya Rajvansh, however will be remembered for some of the most melodious Lata Mangeshkar solos tuned by Madan Mohan and picturised on her. .....

i ll have to check previous pages,how i can miss it...
well nutan,vyjantimala and waheeda all three were born in same year 1936,i was not knowing abt date of birth..but if we go by debut it was nutan who made her debut in 1951 and vyajantimala in 1953 and waheeda in 1955-56

i was just knowing abt kumkum,shayma and shakeela's proffessional life,someone update abt their personal life too

thanks reeth for encouraging words

Why was she killed? You dont kill sum1 who looks like that, thatz just wrong!

She was caught in the middle of a sordid property tussle; she wished to sell off the bungalow that was willed to her by Chetan Anand; apparently this didn’t go down very well with his two sons by his first wife.
They hatched a plot to dispose off her for good, and were very successful; fortunately for us the law caught up with them, and put them behind bars.
They wud still be in there, if it hadn’t been 4 the rotten legal system in India.

This article has a lot on her life with Chetan Anand; very interesting.

Remembering Priya Rajvansh
-Sharmila Taliculam
'It has still to sink in'

Nothing, at the present moment, has caught the industry's imagination as much as the gruesome tale of the murder of yesteryear actress, Priya Rajvansh. And the horrifying knowledge that the alleged suspects are Chetan Anand's sons.

But a few months ago, nobody even remembered Priya Rajvansh. She was as good as forgotten by the industry and its people. For those whose memory went that far back, she was just a heroine that film-maker Chetan Anand, Dev Anand's elder brother, was fascinated with and lived in with.

But their lifestyle did not generate much gossip. They made very few films and never really partied much. They kept to themselves of the most time and interacted with only a few close friends. They preferred to invite friends over to their shack and have a few drinks and discuss poetry, politics, books, etc. Amit Khanna, CEO, Plus Channel, who had known the couple since 1971, says, "The evenings in their shack were very stimulating."

Priya came to India from London, where her father was deputed as a forest conservator by the United Nations. She had studied acting at the Royal Academy of Dramatics. Chetan, who was on the lookout for a new heroine for his film Haqeekat, spotted her a friend's place and immediately signed her on.

"They became very close during the making of the film. Chetansaab had just gone through a divorce and Priya was alone here. They both were lonely and that, I think, is what brought them together in the first place," says Hasan Kamaal, writer and lyricist, who worked with Chetan on Haathon Ki Lakheeren (1982) and the television serial, Paramveer Chakra.

Priya was 20 years younger than Chetan, a fact that obviously didn't bother either of them. "Chetansaab was her mentor. He introduced her to the film industry. Priya was totally dedicated to him. Whatever relationship they had, everybody knew about it. We also accepted it. We never thought about it ever. It was a decent relationship and they both liked each other," says Kamaal.

"Priya and Chetan had a very good relationship," adds Khanna. "She was the gregarious one, he was very reticent. Despite that, they liked each other a lot. Priya was completely dedicated to him."

Priya's dependence on Chetan was not just mental and emotional, there are strong indications that it could have been financial as well. "When Chetansaab was alive, he saw to it that she was well looked after. Perhaps, if he had married her, the situation would have been different today because she would have more legal powers," says Kamaal.

Priya and Chetan never thought of marriage. Even if they did, it probably didn't affect their relationship. They were happy with each other. "Priya and Chetansaab never discussed their relationship. I don't know why they never married and, frankly, I never thought of asking them. It never mattered," says Khanna.

"As far as I know, Priya was happy with the way things were going. She never talked about marriage. Chetansaab didn't want to marry, maybe because of the kids and his previous marriage, which had gone sour," says Kamaal.

"I remember we used to tell Priya she must do something for herself and not be involved so much with the man she loved. She would only reply that she couldn't see beyond Chetansaab at all. She was completely devoted to him and, finally, it didn't matter because they really behaved like husband and wife. Only, they didn't have the tag of 'being married.' We accepted this. We found nothing unusual in their relationship as such."

The usual fights and arguments were generally considered normal, they would have happened even if the two were married. The only difference was the fact that Priya lived separately. She had her own flat first in Kalumal Estate and, later, a bigger house in Mangal Kiran. She would go over to Chetan's house twice a day, for lunch and in the evenings for about three or four hours.

"That was when she would call and invite us over for drinks and conversation. They would behave like any married couple. They had their share of fights and arguments. They would also discuss their likes and dislikes. We never thought it was something different because we accepted them as a couple," says Kamaal.

They were so dedicated to each other that Priya never thought of acting in anyone else's films. Chetan, too, never made a film without her as the central character. She probably had offers, but she never accepted them. She never gave any reasons why she did that.

"She did tell me she had got some offers. But she never really explained why she didn't take them up. Maybe Chetansaab didn't want her to. Maybe, she didn't feel like it. The fact is, she was involved in every aspect of Chetansaab's films. Right from scripts to story to lyrics to postproduction. It wasn't as if she didn't have anything to do at all. She contributed a lot professionally and personally," says Kamaal.

Even Chetan's family, including his two brothers, their families and his two children, had accepted her.

Since she was so involved with a man who was so much older to her, Priya never gave a thought to herself. She never even thought about having an income of her own. Apparently, she never gave any thought to what life would be like after Chetan Anand. That, probably, could be why she became very lonely after his death.

According to Khanna, though she was lonely, she had her circle of friends whom she kept in touch with on a regular basis. Kamaal disagrees. "The people who would drop in when Chetansaab was alive didn't come over anymore. Even though we would go over sometimes, the frequency of our visits decreased. She even contemplated going back to Chandigarh because she felt she had nothing left after Chetansaab. She had a beautiful bungalow there and she wanted to settle down. But we would discourage her, saying she didn't have anybody there and she would be very lonely. At least she had us here, to call and chat with whenever she wanted."

Since she never acted in any other films and never thought of doing films after Chetan's death, Priya was not very well off financially. Kamaal says she wanted to sell the bungalow because she thought the resultant money would assure her of a decent living for the rest of her life.

"She did mention she had arguments about the property with Chetansaab's sons, but she put it in such a manner that we thought it was regular thing and it would get solved soon. We never thought it would take such a dramatic and violent turn," says Kamaal.

"She would mention them in such a manner that we would think these things happen everywhere. She never gave us a chance to seriously worry about her situation. Like she would say that her servant would be rude to her, but then again we thought it was something which was quite ordinary."

Priya was known in the industry for her grace and style. She was looked upon as a very civilised and cultured person. "Never has she spoken a harsh word against anybody. Or been rude to anyone. So this death has shocked me and everybody who knew her."

Priya was murdered in the same bungalow and the culprits are suspected to be Chetan's sons, Ketan and Vivek. "The whole thing baffles me because I know the boys well and logic tells me there is something more to this than meets the eye. Both the boys wouldn't do such a ridiculous thing," says Khanna.

Again, Kamaal disagrees. "I have no reason not to believe it. I only wish I had known the seriousness of the situation. It's sad that she had to die in this manner. She was very close to my wife and daughter. She would come to my house for Eid every year for dinner. She would tell me, 'Hasansaab, if this house could get sold, I would be settled.' Now she is dead. It has still to sink in."