Roshmila Bhattacharya (MUMBAI MIRROR; September 4, 2020)

It’s hard to forget Sadhana in Arzoo, a vision in white, against the backdrop of Chinar trees, their reddish-brown leaves carpeting the ground below, as she sighs about lost love, “Bedardi Balma Tujhko Mera Mann Yaad Karta Hai, Barasta Hai Jo Aankhon Se Woh Sawan Yaad Karta Hai”. The autumnal image is intercut with memories of spring when the same trees were lush and green, and the man of her dreams by her side. The evergreen chartbuster is among Lata Mangeshkar’s top five songs and producer-director Ramanand Sagar’s son, Prem Sagar, recounts how one day, while they were filming at the Rajkamal Studio, Jaikishen, of the composer duo Shankar-Jaikishen, suddenly walked in and reminded his Papaji that they still had one sad song to complete. Then, using the cameraman’s paatla (low wooden stool) as a makeshift drum, he began to belt out a tune even as his alaap rend the air. Then and there, the song was composed, with Jaikishen ji, whose recording for the day had been cancelled, urging Ramanand ji to record the song immediately as the studio was free, and Lata ji was there too, along with a 100-piece orchestra and Mangesh Desai, the best sound recordist in the business.

Soon after, Ramanand ji sent his lyricist Hasrat Jaipuri on a recce to find apt locations for the song. Once they were identified, they flew to the Valley for the shoot. But being a writer himself, Ramanand ji wanted a different colour palette for words like “Tujhe Is Jheel Ka Khamosh Darpan Yaad Karta Hai…” Being a much-loved son of Kashmir, he roped in the state tourism department to tell him when the Chinar trees would turn the exact shade of red-brown he had in mind. “Papaji knew he’d have a really short window of three-four days for this portion of the shoot and had warned Sadhana she’d have to drop everything when he called. She was game and after a flurry of telephone calls and telegrams, we rushed to the same location, this time in autumn, and completed the song,” narrates Prem Sagar ji, who has penned the bestselling book on his father, The Epic Life - Ramanand Sagar: From Barsaat To Ramayan.

There is a scene in the romance drama where Sadhana ji and Rajendra Kumar ji are walking along the banks of the Dal Lake in Srinagar, reading each other’s thoughts. “Yeh raasta kahaan jaata hai?” he asks, and she replies, again without words, “Yeh toh mujhe bhi nahin pata.” Prem Sagar ji acknowledges that it’s not easy speaking through silences, the language of the dead. “But Sadhana didn’t need words. The expressions flitting across her beautiful face spoke for her,” he says, chuckling as he recalls how the locals, including Chief Minister Ghulam Mohammed Sadiq, were amazed to see unseasonal poppies growing by the lake during the shoot. “How did they suddenly bloom?” they wondered aloud. Ramanand ji only smiled, unwilling to divulge that he had artificial flowers specially imported from Hong Kong for the sequence.

Arzoo started where An Affair To Remember ended, with Cary Grant’s Nickie realizing that the reason Deborah Kerr’s Terry did not keep their meeting at the Empire State Building is because she can’t walk. Ramanand ji took the same theme forward, with Rajendra Kumar’s Gopal aka Sarju, a champion skier, refusing to go back to his fiancée, Usha, after he loses his leg in an accident. He is afraid that she will reject him having heard her say that it is better to die than live the life of a disabled. Sadhanaji, as Usha, is unable to accept that her Sarju would leave without a word and keeps searching for him. She even goes to a skiing competition, where she spots someone who looks exactly like him on the slopes. But he tells her that he has been an invalid since he was a child and has never skied.

“Papaji wanted 10 feet snow for this sequence and we were cooped up in a hotel in Kufri, waiting for a heavy snowfall to call our lead pair, who were at the peak of their careers and really busy, for the shoot. “We had them fly out after it snowed for two days, but then, none of us could step out because it continued snowing. On the fifth day, Papaji told his hero and heroine that they were free to fly back, but both voluntarily decided to stay back another day. The next morning, the sun blazed bright and Papaji got what he wanted,” Prem Sagar ji flashbacks, all praise for the cooperative duo. “Sadhana was a God-gifted artiste who knew exactly what the director wanted from her. And despite being a top star and amongst the five most beautiful actresses in the industry, she had no airs and no requirements. She was a simple, homely girl and a great cook who’d bring biryani for the whole unit, from the director to the spot boys,” he raves.

September 2 marked the 79th birth anniversary of the actress who was also a style icon and Prem Sagar ji remembers that after the film’s release, her costumes, designed by Bhanu Athaiya, were such a craze among teenagers that as part of Arzoo’s promotional campaign, they designed a contest around her wardrobe. The winner was a young girl, who owns Cooper Chikki Shop in Lonavla, and, as promised, she was flown to Kathmandu and got to meet Princess Annapurna because she’d correctly answered all the questions about Sadhana ji’s clothes.

Anil Raina (MUMBAI MIRROR; September 25, 2017)

Anil Raina (MUMBAI MIRROR; May 17, 2017)

A Bollywood film, Sargoshiyan, was premiered on the banks of the Dal Lake in Sheri Kashmir International Conference Complex in Srinagar.

It revolves around two boys from Mumbai (played by Indraneil Sengupta and Hasan Zaidi), their friend from London (Sara Khan) who’s doing her PhD on the Valley and a European photographer in search of solace. All three stories intertwine to bring home the message that Kashmir is not for terrorists but for tourists.

Actor-producer Imran Khan during his visits to Kashmir was surprised to find Kashmiri Pandits and Muslims living in harmony.  “The sarpanch of Bandi village is a Kashmiri Pandit and the caretaker of a Shiva temple at Gulmarg is 93-year-old priest Ghulam Mohammad Shiekh who performs the aarti there. That’s the Kashmir we show in the film,” he informs, adding that the locals of Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh were supportive and cooperative hosts.

“Without their cooperation, I wouldn’t have been able to live my dream. I’ve tried to change the mindsets of people across the world about Kashmir. I appeal to Bollywood to come shoot here.”

Roshmilla Bhattacharya (MUMBAI MIRROR; February 17, 2015)

A look at the actor's turn as Firdaus, the Indian version of Charles Dickens's Pip
Anil Raina (MUMBAI MIRROR; December 2, 2014)

Mirror (November 17) was the first one to inform you that Aditya Roy Kapur kicked off the first 20-day schedule of Fitoor with 'great expectations' on November 16, the day he turned 29.

Kashmir was freezing after Mumbai's blistering heat. But since this was no pleasure trip, Aditya couldn't stay bundled up in woolies and appreciate the view from his hotel room. He had to go rowing down the Dal Lake dressed like a local, since his character Firduas, the desi Pip in this retelling of Great Expectations, is a shikarawalah.

He spent long hours going up and down the almost frozen lake, in temperature hovering around 4 to 5 degrees Celsius. After remaining afloat on a houseboat for a few days, Aditya, followed by the crew, explored the city. Some portions were filmed in downtown Srinagar and the unit also ventured to the outskirts of the city.

There was a tight security blanket around him. But unlike Rekha, who was covered by CRPF men round-the-clock during her two-day stint in the Valley, this time there were only local cops and private security personnel in sight.

The shoot will continue till Thursday, December 4, but Aditya left for Mumbai on Monday. He will return in the first week of January with his Estella, Katrina Kaif, who answers to the name of Noor.

She was to join the unit for this schedule but was so preoccupied with Jagga Jasoos that she couldn't work on her look for this film. Srinagar is looking forward to see the new-look Kat on the Dal next.

She leases out a shikara on Dal Lake where she goes every Ramzan
Priya Gupta (BOMBAY TIMES; February 7, 2014)

Deepti Naval was born in Amritsar, post which she moved to New York with her parents, where she finished her graduation. She then returned to India to join films. We met the extremely versatile and talented actress at her Versova house, just as she had returned from shooting her first-ever film in the valley of Kashmir. She made masala chai for me and for some reason, we started talking about Kashmir. She said, “Kashmir was my filmi fixation. One of the reasons for me to join Hindi films was that they were shot in Kashmir. So I felt that if I became an actress, every now and then I would get to go to Kashmir to shoot. But my films were extremely realistic, far away from fantasy, so much so that forget about singing and dancing in Kashmir, I would not even have danced around the trees of Versova in Mumbai.

This is the first time I am shooting there for a film called January 19 (based on the tragic incident of the Kashmiri Pandits having to flee the valley on January 19, 1990). It’s a coincidence that my friend Farooq Shaikh’s first film Noorie was also shot in Bhaderwah, Kashmir, which is the same place I was shooting in. I remember when I first came to Mumbai to join films, you have to meet people, but I said to myself, ‘Woh sab baad mein’, first I must go and visit Kashmir. This was in 1978. I went to Kashmir and stayed all by myself at the earlier Hotel Oberoi in Srinagar. I was really khush. Having been born in Amritsar, my father would take us every year to Kullu Manali but not Kashmir. But Kashmir was my filmi fixation. I used to sit on the shikara and take rides everyday. It was May 2 and there were yet no tourists. The shikara person Maqbool would make kahwah for me. While I did not get to shoot a film in Kashmir, years later I grabbed a chance to work on a documentary on pandits and became a part of it without money, just because I knew I was getting to go to Kashmir. I stayed in one of the boats on Dal Lake (opposite Zabarwan Park). I finished the shooting and came back to Mumbai, but would keep going back to that boat and take pictures, as I am also a photographer. On one of my trips, I suggested to the owner if I could lease out the boat for myself and, to my utter surprise, he agreed to do so for 99 years. I rushed to Delhi and brought a friend along. We both got into burkhas and went and signed up my lease. This was about four years back. I have done up that shikara now and go and stay during Ramzan, when the whole valley is reverberating with the sounds of azaan.” We guess Deepti’s Kashmir fixation will be for life.