Tanuja Birthday Special: Bollywood, the city of dreams, is a place that nurtures desires but it also has some conditions and if you fail to fulfill those conditions, then despite all the struggles, you continue to roam its streets for your entire life.
The city of dreams accepts you but after a lot of struggle. The city of dreams did the same thing with this actress too but then a film left by the superstar of cinema Sharmila Tagore changed the fortunes of this actress.
Tanuja had to take big decisions at a young age
The name of this actress is Tanuja. Tanuja entered Bollywood as a child actress through a film made by her mother Shobhana Samarth. The name of the film was ‘Hamari Beti’ in which Tanuja played the childhood role of her elder sister Nutan who was the actress of this film.
Tanuja had to take many big decisions at a young age. At that time, there was not much money in the film industry, so due to the deteriorating financial condition of the family, Tanuja had to make her debut on screen at the age of 16.
Tanuja was fond of learning languages, so her mother sent her to St. George School in Switzerland for studies. But, she could not study there for long, the financial condition of the house deteriorated and Tanuja had to return.
How did Tanuja become a lead actress?
Almost 10 years after playing the role of a child artist in the film ‘Hamari Beti’, Tanuja had to make her second debut in Bollywood through the film ‘Chhabili’. She has done only 35 films in her entire film career but her acting has definitely left an impression on the hearts of the audience. However, the 1961 film ‘Hamari Yaad Aayegi’ gave Tanuja recognition as a lead actress in the film industry.
This bubbly actress started her film journey from black and white films to the colourful screen. The songs ‘Raat Akeli Hai, Bujh Gaye Diye’ and ‘Yeh Dil Na Hota Bechara’ were liked more for Tanuja’s acting in these songs than for their lyrics.
When Tanuja was slapped hard
Tanuja, who always laughs, had to face two slaps during the shooting of her first film Chhabili. In a scene of this film, Tanuja had to cry but she was not able to cry, she was laughing again and again. After this, when Kedar Sharma, who was the director of the film, told her that there is a crying scene, she clearly said that today I am not in the mood to cry.
The director got angry and slapped Tanuja hard. Tanuja went home and told her mother about this, then mother Shobhana slapped Tanuja again. Then she brought Tanuja back to the film set and told Kedar Sharma that now she is crying, start the shooting. Then what happened was that the crying Tanuja gave a perfect shot for this scene.
Tanuja became a star because of Sharmila Tagore!
Tanuja Samarth and Shomu Mukherjee got married just like a film story, that is, everything from their love to their marriage was filmy. They had two daughters, Kajol and Tanisha. Then, after Tanisha was born, they got separated but they did not divorce each other.
Tanuja got excellent films like Izzat, Haathi Mere Saathi, Do Chor, Anubhav, Jewel Thief, Jeene Ki Raah, Mere Jeevan Saathi. Saif Ali Khan’s mother Sharmila Tagore was supposed to work with Rajesh Khanna in the 1972 blockbuster film ‘Haathi Mere Saathi’ but this film went to Tanuja and this film made Tanuja’s star shine overnight.
