Devyani Chaubal

She was a dreaded female journalist from the 70s and 80s who was known for stripping the stars with her acidic writing.

This journalist was allegedly threatened by none other than Dharmendra when she made his marriage with Hema Malini public.

She never spared any of the stars, male or female and attacked then for reason real or imaginary. She believed that her word was final and no one had the courage to take up cudgels against her or they would have to pay a very heavy price in the column and columns to come

Devyani Chaubal came from a highly respected police family with most of the men being either police commissioner or deputy police commissioner. But Devyani had fallen in love with Dilip Kumar even before she had finished school. She wanted to find some way of getting close to the shahenshah and finally found her solutions, she joined“Screen”as a junior reporter, but was thrown out of the job within three days because the people in“Screen”wouldn’t tolerate her tantrums, whims and fancies. She behaved like a star and that was what went against her and she had to lose her job.

But, she did not give up. There was a new magazine called“Star and Style”that was coming up and it needed women journalist who could spit venom on paper and Devyani suited their requirements and very soon she had her own column which was titled“Frankly Speaking”with her name going as Devi. It was the beginning of a long career during which she made many cry, curse and even try to drag her to court. But nothing could stop her from her pen tearing people to pieces.

Her first target was Dilip Kumar who she even dreamt of getting married to, but the legend not only rejected her, but also carried out a campaign against her and asked his colleagues and new actors who to keep away from her. She found major flaws in all his performances and called him an overrated actor. She once called him“Khuswant Singh”the journalist when he played a major role in Manoj Kumar’“Kranti”.

She however found the chance of a lifetime to attack Dilip Kumar when she came to know about his first and only affair with a woman called Asma. She kept writing about the affair till Dilip Kumar had to do what he hated to do, he made some of his friends threatened her and she never wrote about Dilip Kumar again.

Her favourite was Rajesh Khanna who is said to have openly declared that Devi had a very vital role to play in making him the superstar. Devi used to create stories about Rajesh Khanna to keep him in the news. She once did a cover story in which she said Khanna was quiting films when actually he read at the peak of his career as the superstar. She wrote another cover story which said that the superstar was dying of cancer. It was like some kind of a prediction because years later her favourite actually died of cancer. Khanna’s wife, Dimple like many others hated her for all that she wrote against her because of wanting to please Khanna. I once came to know that baby had fallen sick in that same afternoon I happened to meet Dimple and told her about Devi’s falling sick and she immediately shot back,“Mari kyon nahi, yeh toh bahut dukhi khabar hai isko toh bimar nahi hona chahiye, usko toh hamare jaise logo ke shraapo se sadhkar mar jaana chahiye”. Devi was perhaps the only female journalist who openly wrote that Rajesh Khanna was the only man she slept with.

Devyani Chaubal | जिसके नाम से हर Star कांपता था,कैसे Dharmendra से बचने केलिए Bathroom मे छिपना पड़ा - YouTube