Waheeda Rehman is an Indian actress who has appeared in mainly Hindi films, as
well as Tamil and Telugu films. She is noted for her contributions to different
genres of films from the 1950s, 1960s and early 1970s. She has received a
Centenary Award for Indian Film Personality, a Filmfare Lifetime
Achievement Award, a National Film Award for Best Actress and two Filmfare Awards
for Best Actress, throughout her career. She has been cited as the Bollywood's
"most beautiful" actress by various media outlets, a title for which she has
received substantial publicity. Rehman was born in Chengalpattu, Madras
Province, British India. She was in her teens when her father died. Her dream
was to become a doctor but, due to her family circumstances and her mother
illness, she abandoned her goal. In order, to help her family, she hit the
silver screen with Telugu films, Jayasimha, followed by Rojulu Marayi and
a Tamil film Kaalam Maari Pochu. It is in Vijaya-Suresh's Ram aur Shyam in 1967
that she acted again under the direction of the topnotch Telugu director Tapi
Chanakya who incidentally directed her movies Rojulu Maaraayi in Telugu and
Kaalam Maaripochu in Tamil. Her first initial appearance in a Hindi
film was in CID. Later, she was seen in a series of successful films including
Pyaasa, 12 O'Clock, Kaagaz Ke Phool, Sahib Bibi Aur Ghulam, Chaudhvin Ka
Chand. Her other notable works include Solva Saal, Baat Ek Raat Ki, Kohra, Bees
Sal Baad, Guide, Teesri Kasam, Mujhe Jeene Do, Neel Kamal and Khamoshi.
Early life and background Waheeda Rehman was born into a Muslim
family in Chengalpattu, Madras Province, British India. She and her sister learnt
Bharatnatyam in Chennai, where Guru Trichunder Meenakshi Sundaram Pillai and
in Bombay Guru Jayalaxmi Alva, doyen among nattuvanars taught and performed
on stage together. Her father, who was a district commissioner, died while she
was in her teens. It is a common misconception that Rehman
was born in Hyderabad. "It's a long story," she says, "When I was in
Chennai, I did four Telugu and two Tamil movies. In the first one, Kaalam Maari
Pochu along with Gemini Ganesan a bilingual film which was made in Telugu
and Tamil as Rojulu Maraayi, I did only a folk dance number in both Telugu and
Tamil versions. However, it went on to become a hit! I was in Hyderabad
celebrating its success and Guru Dutt happened to be there. He was on a
lookout for new faces and heard that I could speak in Urdu. It is because he
spotted me in Hyderabad that people assume I was born there."
Her dream was to become a doctor but, due to circumstances of illness, she
abandoned this goal. Instead helped by her supportive parents, she hit the
silver screen with Telugu films Jayasimha, followed by Rojulu Marayi and
Tamil film Kaalam Maari Pochu. It is in Vijaya-Suresh's Ram aur Shyam in 1967
that Waheeda acted again under the direction of the topnotch Telugu
director Tapi Chanakya who incidentally directed her movies Rojulu Maaraayi in
Telugu and Kaalam Maari Pochu in Tamil. Acting career and personal life
Waheeda Rehman, started her career in films in 1954 and her first successful
films were the Telugu films Jayasimha, Rojulu Marayi and Tamil film Kaalam
Maari Pochu. In the success party of Rojulu Maaraayi,
Guru Dutt noticed her and decided to groom her and have her act in Hindi
films. Waheeda considered Guru Dutt as her mentor. Dutt brought her to Bombay
and cast as a vamp in his production CID, directed by Raj Khosla. A few years
after joining the Hindi film industry, she lost her mother. After the success
of C.I.D., Dutt gave her a leading role in Pyaasa. Their next venture together,
Kaagaz Ke Phool, depicted the story of a successful director's decline after he
falls for his leading lady. Dutt's existing marriage and her film successes
with other directors caused them to drift apart personally and
professionally, although they continued to work together into the 1960s. She
completed Sahib Bibi Aur Ghulam under some strain. They broke away from each
other after its indifferent reception at the Berlin Film Festival in 1963. Soon
afterward, Guru Dutt died on 10 October 1964 in Mumbai reportedly from an
overdose of sleeping pills and alcohol. Waheeda Rehman established a great
working relationship with Dev Anand, and together as a pair had number of
successful films to their credit. The box office hits of the pair include CID,
Solva Saal, Kala Bazar, Baat Ek Raat Ki and Guide; box office duds were Roop Ki
Rani Choron Ka Raja and Prem Pujari. She reached her peak with Guide and was much
in demand. Rehman was cast as Gulabi in Satyajit Ray's Bengali film Abhijan in
1962. She worked in comedy film Girl Friend in 1960 with Kishore Kumar. She
was offered lead actress's role in films even opposite actors junior to her by
experience like Dharmendra, but they flopped. But she continued to taste
success in the late sixties when she was paired with well established stars. She
delivered hits opposite Dilip Kumar in three successive years; Dil Diyaa Dard
Liyaa in 1966, Ram Aur Shyam in 1967 and Aadmi in 1968 and some box office duds
but critically acclaimed films with Rajendra Kumar – Palki, Dharti and
Shatranj ; two films opposite Raj Kapoor – Ek Dil Sau Afsane and the acclaimed
Teesri Kasam which was the debut film of Basu Bhattacharyya; a few films opposite
Biswajeet like, Bees Saal Baad and Kohra; this helped her continue to get
lead roles in the early seventies. Her career's biggest hit Khamoshi came in
1970, opposite Rajesh Khanna. Her career continued throughout the
1960s, 1970s, and 1980s. She won the Filmfare Best Actress Award for her
roles in Guide, where she hit the peak of her career, and Neel Kamal, but
despite excellent offbeat roles in subsequent films, including a National
Award winning performance in Reshma Aur Shera, some of the films failed at the
box office. Seeing her films being successful, Waheeda decided to
experiment with roles at this stage of career. She accepted Reshma Aur Shera,
opposite her old co-star Sunil Dutt, with whom she had previously in the
sixties had hits like Ek Phool Char Kaante, Mujhe Jeene Do, Meri Bhabhi and
Darpan. Her performance was appreciated by critics, but the film failed at the
box office. But Waheeda continued to experiment with roles and accepted the
offer to play a mother to Jaya Bhaduri in Phagun. This she regards the mistake
of her career as after this film flopped suddenly people started offering her
motherly roles to heroes. Film expert Rajesh Subramanian informs
that Manmohan Desai had approached her on behalf of Shammi Kapoor during the
making of Naseeb. In the song John jani janardhan, Shammi Kapoor and Waheeda
Rehman make a grand entry holding hands. Incidentally this was the first time the
two stars appeared together on screen. Later she also did Manmohan Desai's
Coolie and Allah Rakha. From the mid seventies, Waheeda's career
as lead heroine ended and her career as character actor began. At around this
time, Kamaljit, who starred opposite her in Shagoon, proposed and they got
married in 1974. After her appearance in Lamhe, she retired from the film
industry for 12 years. In her new innings from seventies her
successful films, where she played pivotal roles include, Kabhi
Kabhie,Trishul, Jwalamukhi, Namkeen and Namak Halaal,Mashaal, Chandni(1989),
Rang De Basanti(2006). She played the central character in the Mahesh Bhatt
directed film Swayam that starred Akash Khurana and Anupam Kher. She also
appeared in a tele-series being directed by Gulzar.
In recent years she made a comeback playing elderly mother and grandmother
roles in Om Jai Jagadish, Water and Rang De Basanti, 15, Park Avenue and Delhi 6
which were all critically acclaimed. In October 2004, a Waheeda Rehman film
retrospective was held at the Seattle Art Museum and the University of
Washington where Waheeda participated in spirited panel and audience discussions
on her most memorable films—Pyaasa, Teesri Kasam and Guide—although her most
successful film is still considered to be Khamoshi, with costar Rajesh Khanna.
After her marriage to Shashi Rekhi on 27 April 1974, she shifted to a farmhouse
in Bangalore. She has two children named Sohail and Kashvi, who are writers. On
21 November 2000, her husband died following a prolonged illness. She moved
back to her ocean view bungalow in Bandra, Mumbai where she currently
lives. Filmography
Awards National Film Award for Best Actress for
Reshma Aur Shera in 1971 Filmfare Best Actress Award for Guide in
1966 Filmfare Best Actress Award for Neel
Kamal in 1968 Filmfare Lifetime Achievement Award in
1994 Padma Shri in 1972
Padma Bhushan in 2011 Bengal Film Journalists' Association
Awards, Best Actress for Teesri Kasam in 1967
Mumbai Film Festival Lifetime Achievement Award in 2012
Centenary Award for the Indian Film Personality of the Year in 2013
Nominations Filmfare Award for Best Supporting
Actress – Sahib Bibi Aur Ghulam Filmfare Award for Best Actress – Ram
Aur Shyam Filmfare Award for Best Actress –
Khamoshi Filmfare Award for Best Supporting
Actress – Kabhi Kabhie Filmfare Award for Best Supporting
Actress – Namkeen Filmfare Award for Best Supporting
Actress – Lamhe Notes
References Gulzar, Govind Nihalani, Saibal
Chatterjee, ed.. Encyclopaedia of Hindi cinema. Popular Prakashan. ISBN
81-7991-066-0. External links
Waheeda Rehman at the Internet Movie Database
Waheeda Rehman Interview A Film Retrospective in Seattle. October
2004 *[1] Popular Waheeda Rehman songs
Queen of Hearts an interview with Rehman published in The Hindu