Waheeda Rehman

14 May, 1936 | Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh

Actress

Biography

Waheeda Rehman is a famous Indian actress. Early Life Waheeda Rehman was born into a traditional Muslim family in Hyderabad. Her father was a DM (District Magistrate), and was posted all over the South and he settled in Vizag where she was brought up and did her schooling. Her dream was to become a doctor but she did not get to have 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. Career She was spotted by Guru Dutt in a song in a film and was brought to Mumbai and cast as a vamp in his production C.I.D. (1956), directed by Raj Khosla. A few years after joining the 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 tore them apart personally and professionally, although they continued to work together in the 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 and died on October 10, 1964 in Mumbai. Waheeda Rahman was cast as "Gulabi" in Satyajit Ray's Bengali film 'Abhijan' in 1962, which she obliged to by cancelling her usual schedules in Mumbai. Later 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, Kamaljeet (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 after her husband died following a prolonged illness she moved back to her sea-facing bungalow in Bandra, Bombay where she lives currently. In later 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 2004, a Waheeda Rahman film retrospective was held at the Seattle Art Museum and the University of Washington where Waheeda participated in a 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. Personal Life Rehman was linked to Guru Dutt, and gossip mills were ripe with the rumours of their affair. She married Kanwaljit Singh in 1974.