The trend-setter of her day and age, Sadhana Shivdasani graced a number of films with her great performances from the time she entered Hindi cinema in the 60s. The top superstar of Bollywood, there was a time when she was the highest-paid actress in the country. Even though she retired quite early from acting, her career in the film industry spanned over 30 films, working alongside some of the greatest actors and directors.
Born in Karachi on 2 September 1941, Sadhana dreamt of being an actress from early on in her childhood. Around the time she was seven years old, post-partition the family moved to Bombay. Named after her father’s favorite actor-dancer, Sadhana Bose, her aspirations to be an actor were encouraged by him too. In 1955 she played a small role in a song of Raj Kapoor’s “Shree 420” as a child artiste. It was during the promotion of the movie that she was spotted by producer Sashadhar Mukherjee, and soon joined his acting school.
Before her major debut under Mukherjee, she had acted in India’s first Sindhi film called ‘Abaana’ in 1958. It was in 1960 that she debuted in the musical drama ‘Love in Shimla’. The film was a box office hit and was directed by R.K. Nayyar with whom her love affair too had blossomed on the set. She married him early in 1966 and their relationship lasted for thirty years until Nayyar’s death in 1995.
‘Love in Shimla’, her first film, was fittingly the actress’ breakthrough film in the entirety of her career. Carrying the fringe haircut- inspired by the iconic Audrey Hepburn- Sadhana came to be known as ‘fringe girl’, setting a trend for the hairstyle that became popular after her name. Later, her body-hugging churidar-kurtas from Yash Chopra’s 1965 ‘Waqt’ came to leave a lasting impression on Bollywood fashion.
Following her first film, she went on to deliver many other hits like “Ek Musafir, Ek Hasina”, “Asli Naqli”, “Mere Mehboob”, “Woh Kaun Thi”, “Rajkumar”, “Aarzoo”, “Mera Saaya”, “Gaban”, and more. Recognised for playing the roles of mysterious women in the films of Raj Khosla, famously earning the title of ‘Mystery Girl’, Sadhana retired from the industry in 1994. In following up with the sobriquet, she refused to ever be photographed after the said retirement.
As was (and still is) the norm in Bollywood, the movies offered to female actresses begin to diminish as they begin to age. In the case of Sadhana, it was also fuelled by some continuing health problems. She started to slowly ease out of the industry and its filmy spotlight after her 1974 film, “Geeta Mera Naam”, through which she had also made her directorial debut.
At 74, she passed away in her Mumbai home in the early hours of the day on December 25, 2015. Safe to say, along with her image of a popular fashion icon, she left a lasting impact on the film industry with her acting, intelligence, and grace.
