by: Roshmila Bhattacharya

Years ago Bindu's father, Nanubhai Desai had called an astrologer home with the intention of learning if his daughter would live out his dream and become a doctor. He was furious when the man informed him that Bindu wouldn't even complete school. No way would she ever become a doctor but chances were that she would become an actress. It was written in her stars that one day she would become a star too and shine brightly for the Hindi film screen. Nanubhai was livid with the predictions. Though a film producer himself with friends like Mehboob Khan, Motilal and Shekh Mukhtiar he was very protective about this daughter of his whom he treated like a priceless treasure. No way was she going to get into films.

However, unknown to him, his daughter grew up with a passion for films. She tried unsuccessfully several times to break into movies but was thumbed down because producers foundf her to be too tall or too thin. Finally, it was Raj Khosla who introduced her in the Rajesh Khanna-Mumtaz starrer Do Raaste. This film was a jubilee hit and Bindu who was already married by then was on her way to the stars.

Interestingly, it was another Rajesh Khanna starrer, Kati Patang that turned this good lil' housewife into the bad girl of Hindi films. The first of Bindu's many cabarets was the superhit song from Kati Patang, Mera naam Shabnam. When the film's director Shakti Samanta told her that she would have to do a cabaret number in the film, Bindu was aghast. The only dancing she'd done till then was Indian classical. And a cabaret dance, she knew, was very different from Kathak and Bharat Natyam. However, always ready to try something daringly new, Bindu gave Shaktida the nod. She had seen Helen effortlessly wiggle through countless such club chart-toppers and she took it up as a challenge to see if she could perform the Mera naam Shabnam number as convincingly.

For a week she rehearsed with dance director Robert and by the eighth day she was ready to let go. Overnight Kati Patang turned Bindu into the hottest dancer in movie town. Producers queued up outside her doors to offer her more such numbers and before long Bindu was working round-the-clock. The astrologers prediction had come true.

Archives