Sister act

Siblings often take to the same profession. There are sister or brother pairs in business, law, medicine and media. But few have noticed that Bollywood and super-modelling, too, have produced famous pairs, writes Vimla Patil.

Looking at the massive response to contests like Item Girl or Star Search today, it is hard to believe that not so long ago, young women from khandaani families did not venture anywhere near a studio or film set. There were just a few families who allowed their offspring to take to acting. In the bygone era, therefore, many famous Bollywood stars came in pairs of brothers rather than sisters. For instance, Dilip Kumar and Nasir Khan were brothers. The three sons of thespian Prithviraj Kapoor — Raj Kapoor, Shammi Kapoor and Shashi Kapoor — became top stars. The sons of Raj Kapoor — Randhir Kapoor, Rishi Kapoor and Rajeev Kapoor — also took to film acting.

But among the women stars of yesteryear, this trend of siblings coming into the film industry was rare till the 1970s. Probably, the first pair of sisters, who made an impact on the silver screen was Nutan, who enjoyed a long career as a heroine and a character actress, and her sister Tanuja, who continues to do character roles even today. Both are daughters of the 1940s actress Shobhana Samarth. Nutan started her career at 13 with a film called Hamari Beti produced by her mother Shobhana, specifically to launch her. Then she was sent to Switzerland to do a finishing school course and settle down in life. But the film industry had other plans for her. On her return, she was in great demand for roles in films made by directors like Bimal Roy. She performed memorable roles in films like Bandini, Sujata, Milan and Saraswatichandra, which are considered classics even today. Tanuja was a later arrival in Bollywood and her personality was different from her sisters. She was the bubbly, pouty heroine who never earned any great distinction for her acting prowess. Her hits included Haathi Mere Saathi.

If Tanuja missed the bus in becoming the number one heroine of Hindi films, her daughter Kajol made up. With Kajol shot to the top position among actresses within a short time. At 24, when she opted out of her career, she had given Bollywood some of the biggest hits the industry had ever seen. Among these were Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge, Kuch Kuch Hota Hai, Pyar to Hona Hi Tha, Hum Aapke Dil Mein Rehte Hain; Baazigar, Kabhie Khushi Kabhi Gam and many others. Her younger sister Tanisha is a new entrant to Bollywood, is much more of an extrovert with a ringing laugh that makes her ideal choice for a film like Popcorn Khao Mast Ho Jao. Tanisha’s career is yet to take off but if predictions of film pundits are to be believed, she is sure to go far. Kajol and Tanisha’s cousin Rani Mukherjee is riding the crest of the popularity wave right now, with her hit film Hum Tum and Veer-Zaara. Beginning with the record-breaking film Ghulam with Aamir Khan, she acted in many hits like Chalte Chalte, Kuch Kuch Hota Hai apart from others.

Dimple Kapadia came to Bollywood with Bobby, a hit from huge RK films. Though she soon gave up films to marry superstar Rajesh Khanna, she returned to acting after their separation with many noteworthy films to her credit. Her sister Simple acted in Anurodh the only film she made with Rajesh Khanna. Dimple’s daughters Twinkle and Rinke Khanna are also actresses. Of the two, Twinkle had relatively more success but she too opted out, marrying Akshay Kumar a few years ago. Rinke acted in a few off-beat films and then settled for marriage to an NRI.

But the sister pair which has held the film industry and audiences all over the world in their magical spell for over a decade is that of Karisma and Kareena Kapoor, daughters of Randhir and Babita Kapoor. In the beginning Karisma made films with over-the-top storylines, dressed in garish clothes and sporting gauche hairstyles. But over a period of time, under the expert care of Manish Malhotra and other designers, she emerged like a butterfly from a chrysalis, to become one of the most glamorous and sought after actresses with hits like Raja Hindustani. She also acted in some fine films like Zubeid and Fiza, made by Shyam Benegal and Khalid Mohammed, respectively. At 20 Kareena had a big budget film — Refugee made by JP Dutta — as a launch pad with Abhishek Bachchan. At 23 today, she has worked with most A-list directors in super hit films and also made path-breaking films like Chameli, Yuva and Fida.

Sisters Malaika Arora Khan and Amrita Arora have both achieved success in films. Malaika is principally a dancer and Amrita has mostly acted in multi-heroine movies. But both are celebrities and seen in music videos, as VJs and anchors of many Bollywood and society shows.

The super model too has its own sister pairs. These are: Ujwala and Alesia Raut, Aditi and Arzoo Govitrikar and twins Tapur and Tupur. While brother pairs like Salman Khan and Arbaaz Khan, Aamir and his brothers have shone with a dimmer glimmer on the starry firmament, sister pairs seem to have stolen a march over them in the last decade.

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