Sharmila Tagore Recalls Questions Getting Raised Over Her Bikini In Parliament, Calls Aradhana ‘RRR Of Their Time’ Which Ran For 50 Weeks Amid Hindi Boycott
Sharmila Tagore recalls removing her bikini posters from An Evening In Paris. She compares the success of Aradhana to that of RRR. Read On.
Sharmila Tagore In A Candid Chat Recalls Her Bikini Scene, Compares Her Film Aradhana To RRR. ( Photo Credit – Movie Poster/Still )
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Veteran Bollywood actress Sharmila Tagore recently made headlines with her comeback in the Hotstar original film Gulmohar. Now the actress in a candid chat at an event opened up on a lot of hits of her career, including the bikini scene in the film An Evening In Paris and her film Aradhana receiving a cult status.
Aradhana starring Rajesh Khanna and Pataudi Begum was iconic in the 60s. The film was released in 1969 and created historic records at the Box Office. The other film, Sharmila Ji recalled in her chat at this Delhi event was An Evening In Paris. The film grabbed a lot of attention because of her bikini scene.
The actress, in the event titled Breaking The Boundaries: An Accidental Actor To An Idol, also explained why she moved on to more meaningful cinema and did films like Amar Prem and Avishkar which are still talked about when we talk about the History of Indian Cinema. Scroll to read Sharmila Ji’s candid revelations about her iconic films.
Talking about An Evening In Paris, Sharmila Tagore recalled, “When I did An Evening In Paris, my bikini scene was shocking. The public, including the industry, was quite surprised. I believe there were questions asked in Parliament at that time. Although it looks very innocent now, compared to the kind of films we see today.”
The Amar Prem actress even remembered how she asked her driver to pull down the bikini posters of the film since her mother-in-law decided to visit her. “I remember there was a poster of the film on the road (near her home), and my mother-in-law was coming to town, so I got my driver to take down that poster in the middle of the night – not realising that there might be other posters on the way from the airport”, the actress innocently confessed.
Sharmila Ji explained that she wanted to be taken seriously, not just a bikini girl, so she started opting for more mature and content-driven roles. At that time, Aradhana was offered to her and she bagged the opportunity. Comparing the film to SS Rajamouli’s RRR of her time, the actress said, “When Aradhana was released, there was a huge protest in Chennai against Hindi. At that time, there was kind of a Hindi boycott ongoing. Yet, Aradhana ran for 50 weeks in theatres. It was the RRR of our time.”
Tagore further elaborated how Aradhana’s success was a marker in the industry that entertainment is beyond the language barrier and good content is appreciated everywhere. The actress added, “It just shows that emotions transcend language. Our films, irrespective of the region they come from, make people laugh and cry. Therefore, our commonalities far exceed our differences.”
According to IMDb, Aradhana ran for more than 50 weeks in the theatres, with four shows a day, in non-Hindi speaking areas of northeastern states of India and 4 southern Indian states. Aradhana ran for 3 years in theaters across southern India as well and was a platinum jubilee hit across India. The film featured Sharmila Tagore and Rajesh Khanna. Songs from the film Roop Tera Mastana and Mere Sapno Ki Rani have also received cult status. Tagore was recently seen in the Hindi film Gulmohar after 13 years. She took a break after a brief role in Deepika Padukone – Imran Khan starrer Break Ke Baad in 2013.
