Glamorous Urmila takes success in her stride

The sobriquet of ‘glamdoll’ sits easy on Urmila. She has already co-starred with the top names in the industry and more offers keep pouring in. She has learnt her lessons well and has started taking success and failure as two sides of the Bollywood coin. This explains why she is not overly excited about the success of ‘Pyar Tune Kya Kiya,’ says Nutan Sehgal.

Shut your eyes for a while and go back to the early eighties and think of that little girl who created a sensation with the song ‘Lakdi ki kaathi, kaathi pe ghoda’.... Now open your eyes and look at Urmila Matondkar, who plays the sizzling model, Ria Jaiswal of ‘Pyar Tune Kya Kiya’. Any similarities between the two are not purely coincidental.

The innocent kid of ‘Masoom’ is today hot property in Bollywood. She has had audiences panting with her bump and grind numbers in ‘Rangeela’ that, thanks to her, ranks among the 10-most-successful movies of the decade. The other big movie ‘Satya’ in which she played a gangster’s moll also created a sensation. And her latest starrer, ‘Pyar Tune Kya Kiya’ was a hit at the box office.

But there have been many roadblocks and potholes to success. Films like ‘Jaanam Samjha Karo’, ‘Dillagi’, ‘Mast’, ‘Jungle’, ‘Kunwara’, ‘Deewane’ and many more have been box office duds and it has been some time since she’s had the cash registers jingling.

Despite the flops, Urmila has held out her own and carved a unique niche for herself as a glamour actress, a title that was once used for stars like Madhubala and Zeenat Aman.

The sobriquet of ‘glamdoll’ sits easy on Urmila. She has co-starred with the top names in the industry and more offers keep pouring in. More importantly, she has learnt her lessons well and has started taking success and failure as two sides of the Bollywood coin.

Also now, she doesn’t think a string of box office duds will have a telling effect on her career. "My performances have been well-appreciated in most of the films. So I don’t see any reason why their success or failure should have an impact on my career," she says nonchalantly.

She says she’s not a pessimist and always likes to see the brighter side of life. "Films like ‘Rangeela,’ ‘Judaai’ and ‘Satya’ have done so much for me. I am quite certain my latest film, ‘Pyar Tune Kya Kiya’ will give a further boost to my career," says the oomph girl of Bollywood.

Choreographer Ganesh Hegde is all praise for Urmila who picks up dance steps in no time despite the fact that she has had no formal training in either Indian classical or Western dance.

Says she, "This is my second film with Fardeen Khan and we’ve hit off well with each other. He’s got a great future. It’s been fun working with him." What about her lush hair that she had to chop off for the movie? "The role demanded it, so off it went," she says nonchalantly and adds, "Don’t worry, it will grow back."

So what keeps this dynamic lady going? "I like to keep a very positive self-image that makes me feel like an accomplished actress. Success or failure in the film line is extremely unpredictable. I began my career opposite some of the top stars in the film industry — Shahrukh Khan in ‘Chamatkar,’ Rishi Kapoor in ‘Shreeman Aashiq’ and Kamal Hasan in ‘Chanakyan’ — and yet most leading banners gave me a lukewarm response. However, this did not deter me in the least and I kept going because I was determined to make it to the top."

Not content with the stereotypical role of the heroine toeing the hero’s line, Urmila chose a wide range of roles, including those of a girl-next-door in ‘Satya,’ a home-breaker in ‘Judaai,’ a glamorous star in ‘Mast’ and a crazed killer in ‘Kaun’. Different roles threw up different challenges but the most difficult by far were the roles of an actress in ‘Rangeela’ and ‘Mast’ as she had to suppress her natural mannerisms to play the parts well.

Today, Urmila has come a long way from the ‘Masoom’ years and despite the big fee she is charging, the lady is hot in demand. "I can now afford to be choosy about my roles and not sign any trash. Before ‘Rangeela,’ I took up all offers that came my way but luckily for me, some of those films were shelved and I opted out of others," says she.

She takes her roles as they come. "A little re-invention of oneself from time to time goes a long way," says one of Bollywood’s leading stars.

 (NF)

Star kids all set to invade Bollywood
Sitesh Debnath

THE Hindi film industry is facing an unprecedented invasion by assorted star kids and star secretaries’ sons, each anxious to become the next Hrithik Roshan. The consistent failure of established stars like Shahrukh Khan and Sunny Deol at bringing in the crowds has further triggered off this trend.

Leading the list of star kids is Jeetendra’s son Tusshar, who makes his debut in Vashu Bhagnan’s ‘Mujhe Kuch Kehna Hai’. He plays the male lead opposite Babita and Randhir Kapoor’s daughter (also Karisma’s kid sister) Kareena Kapoor.

Later this year, Hema Malini and Dharmendra’s daughter, Eesha Deol will show up in Vinay Shukla’s ‘Koi Mere Dil Se Pooche’. In order to be doubly sure about her prospects, she has also signed a multi-starrer, ‘Na Tum Jaano Na Hum’ with Hritik Roshan and Saif Ali Khan as the male leads.

Then there’s yesteryear comedian Mehmood’s son, Lucky Ali who is now getting more opportunities at flexing his facial muscles rather than his vocal chords. He has reportedly signed five films, including Sanjay Gupta’s big-budget ‘Kaante’ with Amitabh Bachchan, Sanjay Dutt and Sunil Shetty leading the cast.

There’s also Karan Nath, who makes his debut in Kuku Kohli’s ‘Dil Aashiqana Hai’. The actor happens to be the son of Rikki Rakeshnath, better known as Madhuri Dixit’s trusted secretary. Rakeshnath is also said to be partly financing the film.

For models and singers, too, acting has become a new career option. While Lisa Ray made her debut recently in ‘Kasoor’, Kelly Dorjee and Meghna Reddy will be seen in Shamim Desai’s road movie, ‘Auroville 316.’ Also making their debut are beauty queens Priyanka Chopra and Yukta Mookhey.

These youngsters might well enjoy a head start over rank newcomers, but eventually it will be sheer merit that will take them ahead. Past casualties include Dev Anand’s son, Mala Sinha’s daughter, Johnny Walker’s son, Rajendra Kumar’s son, Amjad Khan’s son... The list is endless.

(MF)