by: Roshmila Bhattacharya

Television discovered Smita Patil quite by accident. A friend of Smita's sister Anita, Jyotsna Kirpekar, was working with Bombay Doordarshan and curious about the studio Smita accompanied her to the news centre one day. Coincidentally, that day they were auditioning for newsreaders and Jyotsna pushed Smita into testing with the other girls. No one was more stunned than Smita when she was selected and offered a job at DD. Since Smita was still studying at the time and under age she couldn't sign a contract so she was paid on a day-to-day basis and made her debut as an announcer in Udyache Karyakram. It wasn't long before she graduated to reading the Marathi news and with her dusky beauty and husky voice caught many an eye in movie town including that of the "phenomenon" Rajesh Khanna and new wave filmmaker Shyam Benegal.

Benegal was immediately struck by the amazing confidence of this young girl. He got talking about her with his unit and learnt that his sound recordist, Hitendra Ghosh knew her family. Her father, Shivajirao Patil had been a cabinet minister in Vasantrao Patil's cabinet and though Smita and Anita as active members of the children's wing of Rashtriya Seva Dal had toured villages and entertained and educated through dance and drama, the Patils understandably weren't too keen on a film career for their daughter. Ghosh and Benegal persisted and eventually, very reluctantly, the Patils relented perhaps because Charandas Chor was a children's film and Smita had only a bit role in it.

Charandas Chor was a revelation for Smita and her family. As the queen Smita was so cute and charming that her ayee (mother), Vidya Patil, didn't have the heart to refuse Benegal when he asked her if Smita could do another film with him. Her college principal though was furious. Benegal had planned to shoot his film immediately and Smita had to skip some classes. It was only days before her BA exams and her principal insisted that if she went ahead and did the film she could take her exams only in October. Benegal tried to get him to relax his rules this once, pointing out that Nishant wasn't a regular masala movie. But the head of St. Xavier's college wouldn't relent. Films were juvenile, he insisted, and if Smita wanted to play around with her studies she'd have to pay the price.

Smita did Nishant. Her school principal saw the film and agreed that Nishant had been worth skipping classes for. Smita went on to do Benegal's Manthan next followed by Bhumika that won her her first National Award. Then came Kondura and Mandi after which Smita moved on to mainstream cinema. Parallel cinema was never the same again without her smouldering presence.

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