Hema Malini The Authorized Biography was released in Delhi at the hands of LK Advani and the Marathi translation of the book was released at the bungalow of late Chief Minister Vilas Rao Deshmukh.

Hema Malini said that to agree to a biography reflects a state of mind, it means you are ready to reflect on your past actions. She said that a part of her was ready for the exercise because it meant she was ready to accept her inadequacies. She discussed it with her daughters and both Esha and Aahana gave her a thumbs up but there was one more approval to seek, the most important in her life, her mother. As always Jaya Chakravarthi was more than encouraging. She told Hema that she should have done the book long ago and she must not fear anyone and anything because it is her life and she has to live it her way. And that is what Hema Malini did, she spoke her way, the way Amma would have approved of.
To be continued

 have an interesting story about how Hema Malini’s biography came about. I had gone to watch her new ballet Draupadi and written a thought-provoking editorial on it, a few days later after the editorial was published, Hema Malini called me and said that she wanted to meet me. We met a few days later and she asked me if I was open to the idea of doing a book on her.
At that time, she wanted the book only on the dancer, I convinced her that unless the book includes the woman and the actor her fans will not be attracted to the idea, she was convinced and we began to chart a plan of how we should go about it.
We decided to meet in the evenings and discuss beforehand the topic of conversations. I would tell her to make bullet points of memories she wanted to elaborate and I discovered she was extremely disciplined.
I would leave Screen office at 6pm and arrive at her Goregaon bungalow (the Juhu home was under construction at that time) at 7pm and after a hot snack and filter coffee we got down to uninterrupted chatting till 10 pm.
This continued day after day till we had exhausted the final chapter and, in the process, blossomed a trusted friendship that lasted long after the book was over.
#HemaMaliniAuthorizedBiography was published by @rolibooks in the year 2006
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In the summer of year 2003 The Indian Express decided to publish a book tracing the journey of Indian cinema and was compiled together with combined efforts of expert contributors like RVijaykar and Monica Motwani.
The Story So Far highlighted the milestones of Indian cinema and music. The thing about celluloid is that people remember fragments of the fascinating tale and forget it with passage of time and therefore the same story has to be told again and again because people reading it and listening to it are changing.
So, like filmmakers who weave old patterns in new textures we writers’ package familiar stories with new perspectives.
To make the book interesting we included stories of show business off screen and also told the story of our own publication, film industry’s first and oldest tabloid Screen, how it was born and blossomed over the decades.
In the year 2000 when I joined The Express Group as Editor, Screen the publication was celebrating its golden jubilee year and I was Screen’s fifth editor. The Story So Far designed by the talented art director Padmini Patel was part of Screen’s golden jubilee celebrations. SalmanKhan and #Rekha are exclusive stars and I am wondering I must have done something right for both of them to so happily support this special moment. To be continued

To be continued

Whenever I am asked what I enjoy most about my profession, it does not take me time to respond that I’m here because I like writing and I like films and my profession provides me with an opportunity to dabble in both.
My book Cinema: Images and Issues are my observations and essays on cinema, some explored as academic study and some, stored as stubborn memory of celluloid that refuse to fade.
The issues came in later, after I had sufficient exposure and the confidence to disagree and debate. A film evokes different responses in different people and perhaps that is the essence of cinema, to break illusions and conjure new images.

The essence of leaders is to inspire and a memorable feature in the book is a story narrated by our late President Abdul Kalam at the golden jubilee celebration of Sangeet Natya Akademi Awards. Kalam was the chief guest at the event and recalled a special morning at the Rastrapati Bhavan, when he noticed a carpet of jasmine flowers fallen from a tree into the garden. As Kalam changed his path to not disturb the flowers, he imagined a conversation between the mother flower and the baby flower.
The baby flower, unhappy to lie on the floor asked the mother why they must go through the effort of blossoming when they are going to be trampled over anyway. The mother gently explained to the child that a deer does not stop loitering in the forest worried about the tiger, nor does the bird stop flying in the sky because it fears the beast, ‘Our reason to blossom is to reduce cruelty in mankind.’.
“Artistes” concluded Abdul Kalam are like the blossoming flowers spreading fragrance in society and a nation that does not value its artistes can never prosper. Cinema:Images&Issues published by #Rupa was released in Mumbai by #SanjayLeelaBhabsali and by #KirronKher in #LosAngeles
To be continued.

The 90s were full of surprises. The emerging sex symbol of showbiz Kimi Katkar quit films to get married to ace photographer Shantanu Shorey. Shantanu said what attracted him to Kimi was her honesty. By the end of the decade many more got married including Meenakshi Sheshadri.

Rishi Kapoor was going through career conflict and unable to decide if he should direct a film or shift to character roles. He sounded like a broken record in all his interviews complaining about boring roles he portrayed on screen, so I interviewed his wife instead discussing his irritating habits. When the interview appeared in print Kapoor was mad at both of us and denied he was as difficult as he is made out.

After Sridevi and Jaya Prada, it was time for South filmmakers to try their luck in Hindi films. Mani Ratnam with Roja and Bombay and Ram Gopal Verma with Rangeela. Kaml Haasan was struggling too but without much luck.

Aamir Khan and Pooja Bhatt the new pair of Bollywood fought like Tom and Jerry during a photo shoot together and by the end of the session, photographer Gautam Rajadhyaksha and I had a migraine. I interviewed Aamir Khan on our way to the funeral of Manmohan Desai and when I remarked that Salman and Shah Rukh overtaken his career, Aamir smiled and said, ‘The race is not over as yet’.

Senior actresses Jaya Bachchan and Kirron Kher were back to the arc lights with Hazar Chaurasi Ki Maa and Khamosh Paani and both received critical acclaim. So did Rekha and filmmaker Basu Bhattachary for the bold and daring Aastha the story of an unusual homemaker.

Director Deepa Mehta arrived from Toronto to serve India its first lesbian film Fire and even though everyone was certain that the film will be rejected by the censors, it was passed but on release there were riots at the cinema halls.

Saif Ali Khan and Amrita Singh confused themselves and the media by first denying their link up and later marriage. It was a turbulent time for Anupam Kher who for some reason or the attracted hostility from the media 
Post Hum Aap Ke Hain Kaun or a little before that Madhuri Dixit had taken over Sridevi on the number one position. Sridevi who was slowly and gradually shifting to performing roles like Mahesh Bhatt’s Gumrah.

The 80s was the decade of multi-starrers and double shifts. Zeenat Aman was a leading star running second to Hema Malini at the box-office. Zeenat called herself a professional and the heroes scoffed at her for not being emotional. Today, emotions have no place in show business and if you are not professional you have lost the race before you have begun.

All the leading ladies of that era longed to work with Gulzar but not the heroes, they felt he made heroine-oriented films. My interview with the writer was about his films and his poetry and Meghna Gulzar, a school going kid at that time, scribbled her first poem as part of my story on her writer father.

South superstars Sridevi and Jaya Prada were introduced in Hindi films but had to still adjust to the razzle dazzle of Bollywood. Jaya Prada described Mumbai as a city that never sleeps and Sridevi was confused why everyone addressed each other adding Ji.

It was the era of star sons, Dharmendra was launching Sunny Deol, Manoj Kumar was launching Kunal Goswami and Raj Kapoor was launching Rajiv Kapoor. That’s why Subhash Ghai decided to backup an outsider Jackie Shroff, only Anil Kapoor had no godfather and therefore worked harder than everyone put together.

The new heroines for the star sons were Poonam Dhillon, Meenakshi Sheshadri, Rati Agnihotri and Anita Raj.
Dev Anand was launching new faces and new films, Shabana Azmi the fiery actress of parallel cinema was showing the first sign of a blooming activist and Rekha, in a surprise move had stopped talking to the media.

The 70s was a volatile decade. Filmmaker Hrishikesh Mukherjee was the man the media loved to hate because of his close association with superstar Amitabh Bachchan, then inaccessible to the press. I did a nostalgic interview with the director that left little chance for provocation.

Smita Patil was Shyam Benegal’s new discovery in Nishant after Shabana Azmi in Ankur and the media was curious about her. She gave unconventional interviews which was one of the reasons she was frequently featured by the glossies. The other reason was she looked stunning in her pictures. Going through the predictable phase of being unable to decide whether to do commercial films or stay with art house movies, Smita made contradictory statements that resulted in controversies.

Aruna Irani was eternally in love and always with the wrong man and we spoke about how and why the rot sets in a relationship, a soulful conversation that haunts to this day.

Shashi Kapoor was riding high after a long time and elder brother Raj Kapoor with whom he was shooting for Satyam Shivam Sundaram called him a taxi because he allotted three hours of shooting time to different shifts. My assignment of a nine-day diary was conducted during this frenzied phase when he was building Prithvi Theatre and shooting Junoon.

Rajesh Khanna was in the process of losing his position but had to still come to terms with it. Looking back, it was brave of Khanna to agree to the week-long diary for he knew I could see the chinks in his armour.

Rishi Kapoor and Neetu Singh had confirmed their marriage after a long courtship, the wedding was the most talked about event of the decade, I spent a day with Neetu capturing her feelings…
To be continued

The idea for Take 25 came to me when I was clearing the attic at my old home and came across a suitcase preserved with cuttings of my published stories over the decades. This was before the computers came in naturally. I was filled with nostalgia re-reading the old quotes even though I did not identify with it anymore. Would the actors I had interviewed years ago, also feel the same way, I wondered and if not, is it fair that their expressions- sometimes volatile and emotional are archived forever?

The interactions and the issues raised reflect a significant phase in the actor’s career and also the operative influences on the journalist representing the publication at that time, still, the final responsibility of the spoken word at all times rests with the artist. The quotable quote has a way of bouncing back into print, and always, when the star is going through a vulnerable phase.

Rekha has confessed that she no more identifies with her impulsive statements of the past. I’m sure most of them feel the same way, it is because words have a culture of their own and can annoy and make you anxious like people.
Sharmila Tagore has a solution for the ongoing conflict, she says that if at all time she is going to be held accountable for everything she speaks, then he’d rather refrain than regret her words. That should be a lesson for life for all actors.

Take 25 published in 2002 are my conversations with actors conducted over two and half decades of my career, when journalists recorded interviews on portable tape recorders and typed manuscripts on manual typewriters. Gradually as floppy discs and matchbox Dictaphones made way for computers and pen drives, my interest shifted from intimate conversations to the craft of cinema. Earlier I assessed the stars and filmmakers with personal observations, now I discovered them through their work, sab time time ki baatein hain, more about it tomorrow…. Cover Pic: Jayesh Sheth @jayessheth