Flashback Fridays: Why top heroes hated firebrand Moushumi?

Moushumi Chatterjee, who was recently seen in Piku alongside Amitabh Bachchan and Deepika Padukone, was considered to be one of the most beautiful faces to hit the Hindi screens in the early 70s. Married while in Class X, to big time music director-singer Hemant Kumar's son, Jayanta Mukherjee, Moushumi came to Bombay post her marriage and started her Bollywood career with Shakti Samanta's Anuraag, in 1972. Prior to this, she acted in few Bengali films likeBalika Badhu (1969), Parineeta (1969), Anindita (1972) and many more.

Moushumi and her bindaas attitude

Quite like her live-wire character in Piku, Moushumi has always been upfront and blunt by nature, she never tried to understand what diplomacy meant. She was someone who would never think twice calling a spade a spade. "I was never a Yes' woman. Certain people tried to dominate me but they couldn't. Till today I worked as per my terms and conditions. Some people would appreciate my honesty, some would be friendly, some ignored me, and some felt I didn't know how to talk and that I was mad. But at the end of the day you have to be truthful to yourself," says the actress, further adding. "If you spit on me, I will wash it off, but if you stamp on my tail, it will hurt me. I will then not keep quiet."

Interestingly, when she would shoot down South, in Chennai, while all the other actresses were given names for their make-up rooms on their doors, like 'Rekha Amma', 'Hema Amma', 'Reena Amma', Moushumi's name on the door read, 'Moushumi Garu' (Garu means 'Sir' in the South) just like it was done for the heroes - Dharmendra, Jeetendra, Sanjeev Kumar... "One day, when I asked them why Garu' for me and not 'Amma' like other actresses, they said, Because you are more than a woman, you are like Sir."

As a result of her bindaas attitude, Moushumi says, she was dropped from many movies as she did not want to compromise on her self-respect. "Some heroes found me boring. They would tell the producer, If you are taking Moushumi, take one more heroine, or they would openly say, Don't take Moushumi, there is no tuning with her'. At times I lost few big projects even after working for few days for those films. One superstar threatened to pack me back home in a year. Many couldn't take my attitude, or were not comfortable with me for whatever reasons," says Moushumi.

However, Moushumi, who was supposed to be the third highest paid actress between 1973-1984, went on to do films with all the top heroes of those times. Her on-screen pairings with actors like Rajesh Khanna, Shashi Kapoor, Jeetendra, Sanjeev Kumar, Vinod Mehra were extremely popular. And in her usual characteristic humour, she says, "Well, I never worked with Dabboo (Randhir Kapoor) because people did not want to take two mad people in one film. Nobody wanted to take the risk, he is also quite funny like me."

In a heart to heart and no-holds-barred chat, Moushumi talks about her leading men and the experiences she had while working with all of them. Read on...

Rishi Kapoor:

Rishi and I were like pals...buddies.We would fight a lot and patch up soon. He is as blunt and outspoken as me. One day, during an outdoor shoot, Rishi tells me, Arre, I wanted to travel with you in your car but it is always packed'. I would have my hair dresser, stylist, make-up man... so there would be no space in the car. Then one day Rishi tells me, Who do you think you are, Vyjayantimala or what? You have people to carry an umbrella over your head...!' And I told him, Yes, not just Vyjayantimala, I am more than that...'

Then one day, I didn't have my shoot whereas he was shooting for half a day. All of a sudden he came up to me with a bottle of oil. I was expecting my first child then. He tells me, Ae moti,..put some oil on my head.' I asked him to sit on the floor while I sat on the bed and applied oil for him. Rishi may be a spoilt brat but he has a soft side, too. He is very protective about his co-stars. While shooting forZehreela Insaan in Bangalore, Rishi would take good care of me. I was pregnant and the producer was a notorious man. There was a shoot on a hilly region and Rishi organised a palki for me. Not only that, he offered to sit in that palki and go up first to check out if it was good enough to carry me. He said, We can't trust the producer, what if it breaks down in between and you fall down?'

Shashi Kapoor:

I used to call him Shashi Uncle. Finally we got to work with each other in a film called Anari, and while we were shooting for a romantic song, he told me not to call him Uncle'. He wanted me to call him either Shashiji' or Shashi Baba'because everybody's hearing, my fans are all around and I am the hero'. I started calling him Shashiji. I learnt a lot from him. He would stop me from addressing others as Tum' and he also stopped me from getting over friendly with people. He would tell me, 'People can misunderstand. Address people as Aap' and keep a distance from people. Nobody gives you respect, you have to demand and command it.''

Vinod Mehra

He was my husband's very close friend, they would stay in the same building. He would call me Indu, short for my original name Indira. I learnt so many things from him, too. He was the best man for my wedding which he attended in Kolkata. By nature I am a tomboy. I would sit in the car with my hand stretched on the seat's top like how men sit. One day, Vinod slapped on my hand and said, Don't sit like that, sit like a lady, sit properly'. He would tell me, 'Indu, when you are talking to someone in excitement, you start walking towards that person and get too close. Keep your distance, you are a heroine.' Then he would also say, 'Don't jump around so much, everybody is not your family member.'

Rajesh Khanna

If somebody dominated me or tried to dominate me, I would give them back. I once had a tiff with Rajesh Khanna. He was a super duper star at that time. Everybody tried to please him in whichever way they wanted to. If somebody didn't do so, it would bother him a lot. He would start taunting but I refused to keep quiet and would give him back. But towards the end he mellowed down. I went to see him in the hospital just few days before he passed away.

Vinod Khanna

Like a true Libran, Vinod's a very private person. He wouldn't share much about his life. He was very protective about me. I have also worked with both his sons, Rahul and Akshaye. Earlier, when Vinod and I did films together, he would bring his sons along and I would play with them. I was very close to his first wife, Gitanjali and I am also friendly with his second wife, Kavita. They would send food for me along with Vinod's lunch. He would always call me when he would get ready to have his lunch. He did not like me talking to everybody on sets. Since I was very talkative and friendly by nature, some people would misunderstand and think that I am flirting with them. Vinod would stop me from talking to people and tell me to sit in one place. He didn't want anyone to take advantage of my innocence. Once we were shooting for a film together, there was one more hero cast in the film, who would give me a rose everyday. Vinod would take that rose and throw it on the ground right in front of him. Vinod would say, He is a married man and he knows that you are also married, then what is he trying to prove?' Vinod, at times, would get angry with my husband and would tell him, Why did he bring me in this industry?' Vinod found me naive.

Jeetendra

Most of my films I did were with Jeetendra. I did many films with him down South, too. He is actually a producer-hero. If he was told to come on the sets at 9am, he would be there by 8am. He would also take the responsibility for the entire unit. If he saw his colleague like me, was putting on weight, he would put us on the diet plan. During the shoot of Swarag Narak, his diet was boiled spinach and chicken tandoori. He used to make me eat that for lunch. Otherwise I would go for South Indian food if I was in Chennai.

Dharmendra

If Dharmendra saw me standing alone at a party, he would say, 'Where is your husband? Go and stand with him'. He was very protective about me. Once, when my husband was out of station, I went for a film's mahurat with a friend. That location and surrounding was not very conducive for women as the mahurat was happening in a bar. Dharamji entered the venue with his brother. As soon as he saw me, he walked up to me and asked me what I was doing there. I pointed to my friend and said, 'I came with her'. He stared at me and then told his brother to get his car and drop me home. 'Abhi jao yahan se, get out,' he said.' He used to say that I was very innocent. Many years ago, he had come home to offer me a role in Ghayal and I went on suggesting to him other heroines as I wasn't too keen. And he told me that I was still very innocent and child like.

Sanjeev Kumar

Sanjeev Kumar played my father in our first film together, N C Sippy'sZindagi. Mala Sinha played my mother. I used to call him by his full name, Haribhai Zariwala. He lived near our house in Pali Hill (Bandra, a posh locality in Mumbai). We were close friends. He was very affectionate and kind-hearted, with a good sense of humour. He was very passionate about food. Sometimes he would come home when my husband and I were going out. He would say, 'You carry on... just tell your maid to cook some non-veg for me. Is there fish in the fridge?' He would get movie videos, watch them, eat, drink and leave. Haribhai would tell my husband that I'm like his mother.

Raaj Kumar

He was much, much older than me, probably of my father-in-law's age. He tried to be difficult with me and would pass comments but I would give him back. Once I told him that I saw his movie Zindagi with my parents when I was a kid to convey to him that he was much older than me. But he overlooked what I told him. Finally I had to tell him that he was respectful so he should not be making any cheap comments. I also found him a bit insecure. I can say that my competition was not with the heroines but it was with the heroes. When I was doing a film with him, he was giving his profile in my over the shoulder shot and as a result every time the shot was cut. The director was scared to tell him. Finally, I told him that when he was giving his over the shoulder shot, I never gave my profile shot, then why was he doing this? I asked him if he was insecure. He was just trying to dominate me.

Mithun

He went through a lot of struggle. He would be sitting with the extras when I was a heroine. I had a love-hate relationship with Mithun. We often had this tu tu main main between us. We are in the same age group, rest of my heroes were older than me. He is like a buddy. He is a very nice and helpful human being. I did Jalladwith him for which he got the National award. He would scream at me and I would yell back. If he told me not to do something, I would do it...Then Mithun would do the same with me, while saying, 'Mera marzi...I felt like doing it.' Whenever I would visit Ooty, I would stay in his hotel. Both, he and his wife, Yogita would take good care of me. Whenever Mithun came to Geetanjali (the bungalow and dubbing studio that Hemant Kumar owned, and where Moushumi lived) for his dubbing, I would send him food. He would tell me to make typical Bengali food.