Sharmila Tagore Got A Tight Slap From Mala Sinha In Front Of The Entire Set After A Horrid Confrontation, Joy Mukherjee Once Confessed, “They Took Turns…”
Joy Mukherjee wanted two heroines for his film but casting Mala Sinha and Sharmila Tagore led to an ugly slap - here's what happened.
Mala Sinha & Sharmila Tagore Once Had A Horrible Confrontation ( Photo Credit – YouTube )
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Bollywood and rivalries go hand in hand since time immemorial. These days, they are mostly masked under the name of competition, while in the past decade, there was a lot of mud-slinging. Before that, it was just brushed under the covers. And even before that, there were just ugly confrontations, and one such confrontation was between Sharmila Tagore and Mala Sinha.
The two veteran actresses were pitted against each other during their primes, and while two heroine films were avoided in that decade, it was Joy Mukherjee who once had to cast the two as he needed two leading ladies for his film Humsaya.
The 1968 film was directed by Joy Mukherjee and starred him in a double role alongside Mala Sinha and Sharmila Tagore. The spy thriller collapsed at the box office but was an effort by Joy Mukherjee to do something different in those days. However, more than the film it was the slap between the two actresses that were talked about.
According to a report in Masala, Mala Sinha and Sharmila Tagore once had an ugly confrontation in front of the entire unit, and one thing escalated the other, and it all ended with Mala Sinha slapping Sharmila Tagore! The entire crew was stunned.
However, years later, Mala Sinha dismissed it all, calling it a publicity stunt for a film that had to struggle at the box office. In one of her interviews the actress said, “Such rumors were merely an attempt to create some publicity for the film.”
However, actor-director Joy Mukherjee did not hold back and confirmed that the two actresses had a cold war amidst them during the film’s shooting. In one of his interviews, he confessed, “I made Humsaaya with great flamboyance. I got tired of directors making me sing and chasing heroines in the park. So I decided to make a different film. I spent money without giving it a second shot. I bought and blew up 16 trucks. I bashed a Mercedes in my film. In the process, I bashed the budget for my film. Mala Sinha and Sharmila Tagore took turns bashing me. They kept demanding that their role be better than that of the other person.”
On the work front, Mala Sinha quit films in 1994; meanwhile, Sharmila Tagore was seen in an OTT film, Gulmohar, after a break of almost thirteen years.
For more such throwback stories, stay tuned to Koimoi.
