In today’s weekend blog, I am writing about an actress from Bollywood who happens to share her birthday with the father of the nation Mahatma Gandhi and the late PM Lal Bahadur Shastri, and actress is ASHA PAREKH. When she was at the peak of her career in the 1960s, people started calling her the HIT-GIRL, because most of her films were super hit/hit at the box office and were celebrating Silver Jubilee runs in the theatres. When her autography was published a few years back, the title of the same was ‘The Hit Girl’.
Here are some unknown facts about Asha Parekh:
1 She started her film career as a child artist in Baap Beeti in the 1940s, her second film as a child artist was Aasmaan. This was the film in which legendary OP Nayyar made his debut as a music director, although he was doing some background score in some films, Aasman was his first film as an independent music director.
2 At the age of 15 in 1957 she worked in film Asha, which had Kishore Kumar and Vyjayantimala in the lead roles. She was a big fan of Vyjayantimala, in one of the songs of the film she danced with her idol and also did one comedy scene with her.
3 She was cast as the leading lady in Vijay Bhatt-directed film Goonj Uthi Shenai, but after a few days of shooting the director told her she was not star material and replaced her other actress Ameeta. After a few days, director Nasser Hussain and producer S Mukherjee cast her in ‘Dil Deke Dekho’, although it has been said that earlier they had thought of casting Sadhana for the same role. But Sadhana was introduced by producer S Mukherjee in the film ‘Love in Simla’ as a heroine with Joy Mukherjee (son of S Mukherjee). The film ‘Dil Deke Dekho was released on 2nd October 1959 on her 17th birthday, and after that, she never looked back. Usha Khana, the music director, also debuted in this film.
4 There were rumours in Bollywood during those days, that she was approached for the role of leading lady in Shakti Samanta’s film Aradhana (1969), but Asha Parekh refused the role, as the role demanded her to look old in the 2nd half of the film. In the end, Sharmila Tagore portrayed that role and won the best actress Filmfare award for the same.
5 But Shakti Samanta cast her in a leading lady role in his film ‘Kati Patang’ (1971), for which she won her only Best Actress Filmfare award, although she was nominated for Best Actress award in ‘Chirag’(1969). She was also nominated for the Best Supporting Actress award for Udhar Ka Sindoor (176) and ‘Main Tulsi Tere Aangan Ki’ (1978). In the year 2002, Filmfare honoured her with the Lifetime Achievement Award, and the same year she also won the Dada Saheb Phalke Award.
6 Asha Parekh was a trained classical dancer. She used to stage shows throughout the world, her most popular show dance show was Anarkali, and she did more than 400 shows of the same. Another dance show known as ‘Chola Devi’ and she did 300 performances of the same. She also did 300+ performances of the show called ‘Image of India’.
7 She never worked with Dilip Kumar, although she was a big fan of him and desperately wanted to work with him, but she never got that opportunity. With Raj Kapoor she signed one film called ‘Chor Mandli’ which was shelved after a few days of shooting. During her prime, she acted with most of the heroes of that era, namely Shammi Kapoor, Sunil Dutt, Rajendra Kumar, Joy Mukherjee, Dharmendra, Shashi Kapoor, Manoj Kumar, Jeetendra, Rajesh Khanna, Biswajeet and others.
8 She had a huge fan following which was not limited to India. There were many fans of her from neighbouring countries like Pakistan and China. There were many Pakistani fans who used to write to her regularly. But there was one Chinese fan, who was so mad after her that one day he came and sat in front of her house, and he did not listen to anyone. If someone approached him to talk, he used to threaten them with a Chinese knife. In the end, Asha Parekh had to approach Bombay’s police Commissioner. The Police arrested him and put him in prison.
9 Asha Parekh’s first hero was Shammi Kapoor, but you will be surprised to know that Asha used to call him ‘Chachaji’ (uncle). In the beginning, Shammi Kapoor felt very odd, but later he adjusted. They acted together in many other films like Teesri Manzil, Pagla Kahin Ka and others.
10 Asha Parekh never got married, because the person she used to love was already married. She was madly in love with producer/director Nasser Hussain, who directed her in Dil Deke Dekho and many more films. Till the 1960s/1970s, she acted in all the films directed by Nasser Hussain. Although Nasser also loved her, Asha never wanted him to divorce his wife and break his family.
11 Afterwards she turned to TV, acted and directed a few serials. She is also running a hospital named “Asha Parekh General Hospital’ at Santacruz (West), Mumbai.
Presently she is not leading an active life, but you do see her sometimes in Dance and musical reality shows as a special guest.
Waiting for your views on this blog.
Anil Malik
Mumbai, India
7th October 2023