Waheeda Rahman

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Waheeda Rahman Singh

Born Waheeda Rahman
May 14, 1936 (1936-05-14) (age 72)
Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh, India
Other name(s) Waheeda
Waheeda Singh
Waheeda Kamaljit Singh
Occupation Actress
Years active 1957, 1994, 2002- Present
Spouse(s) Kamaljit Singh ( 1974 - 2000 His Death )

Waheeda Rahman (Hindi: वहीदा रहमान) (born May 14, 1936) is a famous Indian Actress whose prime was in the late-1950s, 1960s, 1970s and 1980s. She has an alternated date of birth of February 3, 1936, and stands 5'1" tall.

Contents

[edit] Early Life

Waheeda Rehman was born into a traditional Muslim family in Andhra Pradesh on 14 May 1936. Her father a DM (District Magistrate), was posted all over the South and he settled in Vizag where she was brought up and had her schooling. [1] She had dreamt of becoming a doctor, but destiny willed otherwise and she could not undergo proper schooling, due to some infection in her lungs. She was trained in Bharatnatyam and, prodded by her helpful parents, hit the silver screen with the Telugu film Jaisimha (1955), followed by Rojulu Maraayi (1955). She lost her father at the age of twelve.

[edit] Hindi Films

She was spotted by Guru Dutt in a song in a film and was brought to Bombay and cast as a vamp in his production C.I.D. (1956), directed by Raj Khosla. A few years after joining Hindi film industry, she lost her mother. After the success of C.I.D., she was given a leading role in Pyaasa (1957). It was at this point that she got involved in an unsuccessful love affair with director Guru Dutt. Their next venture together, Kaagaz Ke Phool (1959), depicted the story of a successful director's fall from grace after he falls for his leading lady, and foreshadowed events in Guru Dutt's own life as well. Guru Dutt's marital status and her success in films outside his tore them apart personally and professionally, although they continued to work together in 1960's Chaudhvin Ka Chand. She completed Sahib Bibi Aur Ghulam (1962) under some strain. They broke away from each other after the film's indifferent reception at the Berlin Film Festival in 1963. Guru Dutt overdosed on sleeping pills and alcohol in 1964.

Waheeda Rahman in Pyaasa (1957)
Waheeda Rahman in Pyaasa (1957)

Waheeda Rahman was cast as "Gulabi" in Satyajit Ray's Bengali film 'Abhijan' in 1962, which she obliged canceling her usual schedules in Mumbai.

[edit] Late Career

Her career continued throughout the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s. She won the Filmfare Best Actress Award for her roles in Guide (1965) and Neel Kamal (1968), but despite good roles in subsequent films some of the films failed at the box office. At around this time, Kamaljit Singh (who starred opposite her in Shagun (1964)) proposed marriage. She accepted the proposal and they were married on April 27, 1974. After her marriage, she shifted to a farmhouse in Bangalore and took to farming. She bore two children named Sohail and Kashvi. After her appearance in Lamhe (1991) she retired from the film industry for 12 years. On November 21, 2000 her husband died following a prolonged illness she moved back to her sea-facing bungalow in Bandra, Bombay where she lives currently.

In recent years she made a comeback to films playing elderly mother and grandmother roles in Om Jai Jagadish (2002), Water (2005) and Rang De Basanti (2006) which were all critically acclaimed.

In October of 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. She was and still is a big Diwani Hundi fan.

[edit] Awards

[edit] Nominations


[edit] Selected Filmography

Awards
Filmfare Award
Preceded by
Meena Kumari
for Kaajal		 Best Actress
for Guide
1966		 Succeeded by
Nutan
for Milan
Preceded by
Nutan
for Milan		 Best Actress
for Neel Kamal
1968		 Succeeded by
Sharmila Tagore
for Aradhana
Preceded by
Lata Mangeshkar		 Lifetime Achievement
with
Shammi Kapoor
1994		 Succeeded by
Ashok Kumar
Sunil Dutt
and
Vyjayantimala

[edit] References

  1. ^ e e n a d u . n e t - h e a r t & s o u l o f a n d h r a


[edit] External links