Eminent actress of the 60’s Nanda who gave several hits films like JAB JAB PHOOL KHILE opposite Shashi Kapoor, GUMNAAM opposite Manoj Kumar, TEEN DEVIYAN opposite Dev Anand, THE TRAIN opposite Rajesh Khanna was actually stereotyped into a sister’s role in the late 50’s both because of her cute face and her short stature.
In fact the filmmaker to immortalize her as a sister was none other but legendary filmmaker V. Shantaram. It’s reported once Nanda attended a wedding ceremony in the family wearing a sari. The wedding was attended by eminent filmmaker V. Shantaram, who was also a family member of the Nanda family. Watching the cute little Nanda in sari he was bowled over and going straight to Nanda’s elder sister, Meena he said, "This charming girl is the heroine of my next film."
But Meena declined the offer reasoning Nanda was too young and not suitable for a heroine’s role to this Shantaram convinced her saying, “I know! But I am making a movie based on brother-sister relation and Nanda is ideal to play the sister’s role.”
The film was TOOFAN AUR DIYA (1956) and after this Nanda did a series of sister roles in movies like BHABI, CHOTI BEHAN, KALA BAZAR etc.
So who broke Nanda’s stereotype sister image and opened doors of heroine. Well in an interview Nanda said, “I must credit Mr. Dev Anand who dared to cast me as his heroine after I played his sister in KALA BAZAR (1960).
She added, “He was so impressed by my histrionics that for his next film HUM DONO (1961), he signed me as his heroine. The movie was a big hit and I became a popular heroine”.
Today January 8 is the birth anniversary of the legendary actress; Raaga.Com pays our homage to the great actress.
Comments
Post a Comment