by: Roshmila Bhattacharya

A couple of weeks ago Neelam Kothari married her Prince Charming, Rishi Sethia, a multimillionaire from Hamstead, London, in what was described by select guests, as a fairy-tale wedding. And with that the curtains came down on a career that spanned 16 years and made the pretty ballerina from Bangkok the heart-throb of the nation in the swinging '80s.

Neelam had just completed her tenth standard and come down to Mumbai for the annual vacations when she was spotted by film-maker Ramesh Behl. He used to stay in the same building and one day he saw her playing with the building kids one of whom was his daughter Nano, and decided he wanted this dewy-eyed teenager in his next film, Jawani. The Kotharis, Shishir and Parveen, were avid Hindi film buffs and never missed out their Sunday afternoon movie sessions, but surprisingly they hated the idea of seeing their daughter on screen. "She's too young," growled Shishir when Behl popped the question, and whisked his baby away to Bangkok. But Behl wouldn't give up. He kept calling and renewing his offer till finally an exasperated Shishir put the question before his daughter who burst out laughing at the thought of acting in a Hindi film when she couldn't even speak the language properly. "Impossible! Out of question!" she giggled, and set her dad's mind to rest.

A couple of weeks later the subject came up for discussion again. And this time it was Neelam who raised it. She was finding it hard to cope with the American system of education in Bangkok after Hong Kong's "A" and "O" levels. Films could be her escape route from the endless mugging, she decided, and told her dad that she wanted to take a shot at acting. "Never!" he roared.

However, the next time Neelam was in Mumbai for the holidays she told Ramesh Behl that she was ready for a screen test. And to her surprise found that she liked having her face made up and facing the camera. It was so easy. Ramesh uncle only wanted her to look to the left... and then to the right. And that was it. "You're my next heroine," he told her, and before she knew it Neelam was shooting for Jawani with Karan Shah.

Neelam had thought acting would be a cakewalk. Amitabh Bachchan who was her hero and whose films she never missed, had made it look so easy. But it wasn't long before she discovered that it could be just as painful as schoolwork, more so because Ramesh uncle insisted on her learning Hindi. Neelam drove away five tutors but he couldn't be deterred. She had to learn Hindi. And she did. Fortunately, for Jawani she didn't have to dub her own lines but she had to smile and sigh, croon and cry, dance and dream on screen and she managed to do all that and more, surprising her parents who couldn't believe that their once-shy daughter had undergone such a miraculous metamorphosis.

Even Neelam was surprised to see herself open up so beautifully before the camera and by the time the film was over she had grown to love Mumbai and even enjoy acting even though shedding gylcerine tears before the camera could be quite difficult. But then the unexpected happened. Jawani flopped. And there were no takers for the pert little miss and her anglicized accent in wonderland. With a heavy heart Neelam packed her bags and prepared to return to Bangkok and boring studies. But before she could be whisked off again by her parents, Pranlal Mehta came along with Love '86. It was another escape route. On the sets of Love '86 Pehlaj Nihalini saw Neelam and Govinda dancing together and signed them for Ilzaam. And the rest, as they say, is box-office history.

That's the story of Alice in wonderland. In the years since the little school-girl with stars in her eyes and ballet shoes on her toes, grew up, met her Mr. Right and today is dancing around London's conifers with him. The only difference is that this time the romance is for real.

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