Bollywood reminiscences
By Amit Srivastava*
It was late night around 10 pm. There was an old, black and white song suggestion on my you tube. Inadvertently I played it out This song and dance number captured the celebratory mood of a would- be- bride and her two female friends – ‘Khile hain sakhi aaj fulwa man ke …..’
It was a lovely song and I was surprised to find out that the lead actress in the song was the well- known actress Rajshree from the 1960’s. I could not recognize her in this black and white number. I was under the impression that the first film of the popular actress from 60’s was her launch film Geet Gaya Pattharon Ne along with Jeetendra. Rajshri looked so young, vivacious, confident in this black and white song! Well it turned out that Rajshree, the daughter of legendary filmmaker V. Shantaram and actress Jayshree, had done three other films before being launched as a lead actress in the film Geet Gaya Pattharon Ne. She had a face cut out in the classical mould and the film showcased her dancing abilities to the hilt.
My thought went back many years ago when we watched this film as a kid at the sleepy little town of Muzaffarpur in Bihar . It was a 9 to 12 night show. It was a common practice to have re-runs of old films in movie theaters and people from well-to-do families preferred the night show( 9 pm to 12 pm). I don’t remember anything from the film except the fact that she looked beautiful and the film had many classical dance sequences. My elder brother who is now a filmmaker used to say that her face is very similar to the female faces depicted in traditional Indian art especially the calendar art. Quite an interesting comment to make at that age!
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Usually the actresses from 60’s Sadhana, Asha Parikh, Waheeda Rahman, Saira Banu are discussed frequently in award shows and in film magazines but not much is heard about Rajshree.
She bade adieu to the film industry at the peak of her career and left India for USA. The story of her falling in love was a story straight out of fairy tale books. She was shooting for a film Around the World in Eight Dollars( 1967) . It was while shooting for the film in USA that she fell in love with an American Greg Chapman, who was still a student. The two married three years later in a Vedic, Hindu marriage ceremony in India, that lasted five days and was attended by 15,000 guests. After that she went with her husband to permanently settle down in America.
One doesn’t hear very often about a well- known actress falling in love with a common man and then be ready to relinquish all the trappings of a stardom. It is a stuff movies are made off. Notting Hill, The Princess Diaries and many other movies have tried to showcase the theme so well loved in stories. But Rajshree went through the steps more than 50 years ago. It must have needed tremendous courage and conviction in her love to shed the trappings of stardom, renounce the familiar surroundings, known faces and go to live in a far-off land with her hearts calling. One could only feel enamoured of her indomitable romantic spirit.
Naysayers were quick to predict a quick doom for the marriage between people belonging to two extremely diverse backgrounds. But Rajshree chose to listen to her heart’s call and took the plunge leaving behind a well- established film career and all her high profile film fraternity and chose to embrace a new life for herself in a far off land. They struggled together. It was a big risk for Rajshree when she gave away a luxurious life style to marry the man of her dreams. God was kind to this couple and they ended up having a very successful clothing line business
Today she is living happily in USA with her American Husband. She and her husband own a high end custom tailoring shop in Los Angeles and Beverley hills being their main client base. Their business web site is gregchapman.com. Greg Chapman has written about his Indian inspiration for starting the new business. He writes. “While living in Bombay India in the late 1960’s I had some suits made which gave me a look of success like I had never seen before. Not only were my clothes a superior fit but my tailor continued to send me perfect fitting future orders without need of fittings, alterations, or my having to go pick up and try on new clothes. It was then that I decided to make a business of this superior and ‘lost art’ approach.”
Geet Gaya Pattharon Ne had won Rajshree warm accolades for screen presence and dancing abilities. She went on to give a number of box office hits and was an extremely popular actress of the ’60s. Perhaps her most popular film was Brahmchari with Shammi Kapoor. The film won the best movie Filmfare Award for the year 1968. It won the award in several other categories like best Actor, Best Music, best Song etc. The intense number Dil ke Jharokhe Me Tujhko Bitha Ke was a very popular song and was picturized on Shammi Kapoor. Jaanwar was another movie with featured the same lead pair of actors.
Rajshree was an extremely good dancer. To those who have watched films of 60s she is an inseparable part. With her sudden exit from Hindi Film industry, she is still an enigma for many movie lovers.
*The writer has also worked as an actor in USA and in India. His areas of interest includes film, Yoga and and literature.
