Rajesh Khanna, Seema and Ramesh Deo in Anand (1971)

Filmmaker-actor Ramesh Deo considered actor-wife Seema Deo his lucky charm. Apparently, her mogra grabbed his attention when they first met on a train. The couple had a beautiful relationship until Ramesh passed away last year. Born Nalini Saraf, Seema is best known for her performance in Hrishikesh Mukherjee’s Anand (1971). Seema, 81, breathed her last at a private hospital on Thursday morning after a long battle with Alzheimer’s and other ailments.

The actor was part of over 80 Marathi and a few Hindi films. But people mainly remember the actor for her motherly roles. Reminiscing about her 35-year association with Seema, dancer-actor Kishori Shahane Vij says that the Deos were the “first family of Marathi cinema” she got to know at the start of her career.

“I’ve known Seema tai since the initial stages of my career. I have acted in their productions too. They were active for a long time and always spread cheer on the set, even in the later years. Despite being such a great actor, Seema tai would do all the grocery shopping herself. I would often bump into her at Sahakari Bhandar in Juhu, and she would say, ‘It is our home, so we only have to do things for it.’ She was not too active professionally after marriage but would do select projects; often Ramesh kaka would be there. Makers [often] wanted her to play his wife on screen. Ramesh kaka and Seema tai were respected and loved as a couple,” shares Shahane, who has also worked with the Deo sons—Ajinkya and Abhinay.

While the family was warm and welcoming, Shahane shares that her bond with Seema was different. “Seema tai was more like a mother. I’ll always remember her sweet, homely, warm, motherly face. She was always caring. During the making of Jivan Sandhya [2021], she would hold my hand, sit together, and discuss the scene. She was so natural as an actor that I’d never know whether she was speaking her lines or talking to me,” she shares, further adding that the late actor taught her an important life lesson earlier on in her career.

“Rarely do you get to meet such a warm person from the same profession. When I worked with her on Jeeva Sakha [1992, which also featured Ajinkya], I asked her how she went about her career. She told me, ‘Always listen to your heart. Don’t think about the people around you. If something makes you happy, keep doing it. Your happiness will soon spread among others too.’ That was an important piece of advice I’ll cherish forever.”

Remembering their camaraderie, yesteryear actor Aruna Irani, who worked with Seema in Sansar (1987), says that the senior actor was “humble, homely, and a multi-tasker. Ramesh and she were so much in love. They were a lovely couple. I met her at a beauty parlour seven years ago, and she was as warm as ever. Seema worked in movies, but her heart was at home. She never got involved with what others were doing but rather focused on her work. She was a great actor—simple and sweet-looking, like the characters she used to play. On the set of Sansar, Seema, Rekha, and I would form a trio and have fun together,” shares Irani.

Ramesh Deo: The film and TV actor tied the knot with Seema in 1963. He worked in more than 285 Hindi films, 190 Marathi films, and 30 Marathi dramas with over 200 showings in his career, before passing away last year at the age of 93. His last film was Ghayal Once Again (2016).

Ajinkya Deo: The actor and the eldest son of Ramesh and Seema made his mark in Marathi and Hindi cinema and television. His 1987 film Sarja won the National Film Award, where he played the lead role. His latest outing was the Salman Khan-starrer Kisi Ka Bhai Kisi Ki Jaan.

Abhinay Deo: While his family has a background in acting, youngest son Abhinay chose to stay behind the scenes. His directorial debut, Delhi Belly (2011), became a cult favourite, which garnered him awards. He also helmed the series 24, starring Anil Kapoor.

Mumbai: Seema Deo, who acted in over 80 Marathi and Hindi films in a career spanning more than six decades, passed away at her Bandra residence on Thursday. She had been suffering from several age-related ailments including Alzheimer's. She was 81.

Her notable movies include ‘Jagachya Pathivar’, ‘Juna Te Sona’, ‘Anand’, ‘Bhabhi Ki Chudiyan’, ‘Kora Kagaz’, ‘Apradh’, ‘Janaki’, ‘Bezubaan’, ‘Koshish’, ‘Sansar’ and ‘Yehi Hai Zindagi.’

Born Nalini Saraf, her gentle manner and warm smile often led her to being typecast as the sweet sister, daughter-in-law, mother or aunt or a hostel warden as in 'Bezubaan'. In producerdirector Sadashiv J Row Ka vi’s hit, ‘Bhabhi Ki Chudiyan’ (1961), which had Meena Kumari and Balraj Sahni in central roles, she was paired opposite Shailesh Kumar as a young couple in love.

Seema's husband, actor Ramesh Deo, died in February 2022. In a TV interview, Ramesh once recounted how he had proposed marriage on a bullock cart during a shooting. "Seema's mother knew I was fond of her so she kept a close watch on her during our shoots. One day we were filming a bullock cart scene. I drove the cart out of sight of her strict ‘helicopter’ mother! Seema thought it was part of the scene. But I said no, I have brought you here to persuade you to marry me. Now say you will marry me. And she agreed!"

Seema and Ramesh recreated their real-life partnership in 20 movies such as ‘Anand’, ‘Kora Kagaz’, ‘Jagachya Pathivar’, ‘Vardakshina’, and the Marathi hit, Molkarin. Many would remember the scene in Anand where Rajesh Khanna lip syncs ‘Maine tere liye hi saat rang ke sapne chune’ as Amitabh Bachchan and the Deos listen in attention. In an odd instance, Seema also played Ramesh’s sister in 'Saraswatichandra'. The couple was conferred the Raja Paranjape Lifetime Achievement Award in Pune in 2014.

Seema is survived by two sons, actor Ajinkya Deo and adman-director Abhinay Deo. Abhinay told PTI, "My mother passed away at 8.30-9.00 am at her residence in Bandra due to old age. She had withdrawn completely, and eventually it was just old age. Alzheimer's is such a thing that you stop figuring out how to function. She had dementia leading up to Alzheimer's and she was suffering from it for over three years."

"There's no specific reason (for her death). Due to Alzheimer's and dementia, the person forgets how to walk. The muscle memory starts coming down and one by one, the organs start shutting down."

Maharashtra CM Eknath Shinde and various film celebrities, including actor Ashwini Bhave, offered condolences. The last rites were scheduled to be held at Shivaji Park crematorium at 5.00 pm on Thursday.

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Actor Ramesh Deo, who enjoyed a popular and prolific career in Marathi and Hindi films over a staggering seven decades, died of heart attack at a Mumbai hospital on Wednesday. He was 93.

Several roles performed by Deo remain vivid as ever. The only and wily distant relative who sweet-talks an elderly Meena Kumari to move in with them, only to reduce her to a house help in ‘Mere Apne’ (1971). The amiable but worldly-wise doctor, who sits with his wife (real-life wife too, Seema) in ‘Anand’ (1971) as Rajesh Khanna sings ‘Maine Tere Liye Hi Saat Rang Ke Sapne Chune’.

Who would have forgotten the scene where ‘Jumping Jack’ Jeetendra sings and whips him in the same breath, belting out the title track in ‘Jaise ko Taisa’ (1973). Only a first-rate actor could have displayed the different shades that these roles required with such effortless ease. Deo, also a performer of repute in the Marathi theatre world, did it with ease and elan.

Born in Kolhapur, Deo went to school and college there and got a break in the Marathi film industry as a junior artist in the early 1950s. He went on to set up his own production house: Ajinkya Theatres. Deo became a top star. ‘Umaj Padel Tar (1960), ‘Vardakshina’ (1962), ‘Molkarin’ (1963) and ‘Aparadh’ (1969) are just four of his memorable films.

Director Phani Majumdar’s superhit, ‘Aarti’ (1962), the first film produced by Rajshri Films, was among his early Hindi films. He got the much heftier part of a senior police officer in the thriller ‘Love And Murder’ (1966) directed by the famous Marathi director Raja Paranjpe. The veteran was to play a cop in dozens of other Hindi films, ‘36 Ghante’, a desi remake of Hollywood’s ‘The Desperate Hours’, being one of them.

Deo was the lead villain in the Amitabh Bachchan-Hema Malini starrer ‘Kasauti’ (1973), a box-office hit. Deo continued to be a familiar face in Hindi films over the decades. Some years ago he was a regular on TV, endorsing products like Surf Excel, Vijay Sales and Lufthansa. It helped that with his sons, he also ran a vastly successful ad production house. According to IMDB, his last film, ‘Jeevan Sandhya’ (Marathi) was released in 2021.

Deo’s grandfather came to Kolhapur to work as an engineer for Rajarshi Chhatrapati Shahu Maharaj and his father worked as a legal advisor to the Kolhapur Sansthan. According to his company website, Deo acted in over 285 Hindi films, 190 Marathi films and 30 Marathi dramas. He is survived by wife Seema, and sons Ajinkya and Abhinay. Ajinkya is an actor too and Abhinay is known for directing films such as ‘Delhi Belly’.

Deo contested the 1996 Lok Sabha election from Kolhapur at the insistence of Sena supremo Balasaheb Thackeray but lost in a triangular fight.

Abhinay Deo’s Delhi Belly clocks a decade since its release today, July 1. The Aamir Khan production, starring Imran Khan along with Kunaal Roy Kapur and Vir Das, revolved around three roommates and a mixed-up package. Considering the present scenario, there is no celebration on the cards, nor a virtual get-together of the cast and crew of the adult comedy. 

Instead, Deo will be celebrating with his parents, veteran actors Ramesh and Seema Deo, as the day also marks their 58th wedding anniversary. “Probably I will then sit and watch Delhi Belly yet again,” he says.

To commemorate the occasion, Deo has announced that he has begun work on another quirky film “of a genre similar to that of Delhi Belly”. The project is in the writing stage, and he hopes to roll it next year. “It is not a sequel nor is it linked to Delhi Belly [in any way], but a fresh story in the same mould.” Delhi Belly, a film in Hinglish, was considered cool, explicit, and an insanely funny film that stepped into a new terrain in Bollywood with its chartbuster track Bhaag DK Bose. “It was ahead of its times,” explains Deo, admitting that had the film released today, it would be intensely appreciated in the OTT space.

Delhi Belly was written by Akshat Verma as part of his screenwriting programme at the University of California, Los Angeles, and was titled Say Cheese. After he shared the story with Aamir Khan’s production office, it was the superstar’s wife, Kiran Rao, who found the script impressive even though it was not a clean family entertainer.

During the making, there were reports claiming that Aamir often interfered in the filming. Refuting the claim yet again, the director says, “There is a difference between interference and interest. Aamir did not ask us to re-shoot a single scene. The only time he came on the set was to film his cameo song. He sat in edits because he likes to go through every minute detail when in post-production.”