Sulakshana Pandit

Sulakshana Pandit is an actress and playback singer, who won the Filmfare Best Female Playback Award in 1975 [cite web|title=IMDb| work=Sulakshana Pandit |url=http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0659264/awards|accessdate=|accessyear=] .

Career

Sulakshana comes from a musically-inclined family. Her brothers are Jatin Pandit and Lalit Pandit, better known as the composing duo Jatin Lalit. Her sister is actress and playback singer Vijeta Pandit who had starred in the teen hit film Love Story (1981 film).Sulakshana had a mid-level career as heroine in the 1970s and early 1980s, usually cast opposite Jeetendra in films, such as Apnapan (1977). Simultaneously, she also had a playback singing career, where she not only sang for some of her films that she starred in, but also for other heroines. She won the Filmfare Best Female Playback Award in 1975 for singing "Tu hi saagar hai tu hi kinara" in Sankalp (1975).She was received a Filmfare Nomination as Best Female Playback Award for rendering the classical "bandhi re kahe preet" in Sankoch (1976) but lost it to Hemlata. Besides Jeetendra and Sanjeev Kumar, she also worked with Shammi Kapoor, Amitabh Bachchan, Rajesh Khanna, Vinod Khanna, Rishi Kapoor, Raj Babbar and Rakesh Roshan.

She had recorded a song "Mujhe pyar mein khat" for the film Hera Pheri(1975)which was rejected by the music company and re-recorded by Asha Bhosle. Sulakshana who was rejected as a singer got selected as the leading lady for the same film which also starred Amitabh Bachchan and Vinod Khanna. Incidentally the song "Mujhe pyar mein" was picturised on Sulakshana on-screen.

Sulakshana was mostly confined to playing glamour doll roles in films and seldom got a chance to display her acting ability. She did play an author backed role in Anil Ganguly's version of Parineeta which was named Sankoch (1976) where she got the opportunity to portray Lolita which was earlier played by Meena Kumari in 1954 and later by Vidya Balan in 2005. Even in a film like "Apnapan" (1977) where Pandit played the leading lady, it was Reena Roy who walked away with the accolades and also the Filmfare Best Supporting Actress Award for portraying a role with grey shades. Pandit was always confined to play a typical Indian heroine who could do no wrong and romance the Hero according to his convenience.

Even though Pandit never got an award for acting she did manage to remain in the bracket of mid-level heroines of the 1970s alongside Leena Chandavarkar, Moushmi Chatterjee, Ranjeeta Kaur, and Vidya Sinha.One of the most under rated Indian stars somewhere and some how one feels that Hindi Film Industry has not done justice to her.

Some of her popular hit films are Hera Pheri, Apnapan, Sankoch, Khandaan, Raaz, Thief of Baghdad, Chehre Pe Chehra and Waqt Ki Deewar.

Some popular songs sung by Sulakshana are:
* Beqarar e dil tu gaaye ja - Door Ka Raahi (1971)
* Sapnon ka raja - Chalte Chalte (1975)
* Bandhi re kahe preet - Sankalp (1976)
* Somwar ko hum mile - Apnapan (1977)
* Boliye surili boliyaan - Griha Pravesh (1979)
* Mausam lovely mausam - Thodisi Bewafaai (1980)
* Mana teri nazar - Ahista Ahista (1981)
* Jiske Liye Sab ko Chhoda - Saajan Ki Saheli (1981)

She sang duets with accomplished singers like Lata Mangeshkar, Mohd. Rafi, Kishore Kumar, Shailender Singh and Udit Narayan.

Personal life

Sulakshana has never married. She wanted to marry actor Sanjeev Kumar, but he turned down her marriage proposal, because he never got over his heartbreak after actress Hema Malini rejected him to marry her frequent co-star Dharmendra. She also fell on hard times when she stopped getting work. She was living in an apartment with no furniture and that required serious repairs. [ [http://downloads.movies.indiatimes.com/site/aug2002/ivw9.html Filmfare - Print Edition ] ] . She was forced to put it up for sale, and it remained on the market for several months, until finally her former leading man Jeetendra came to her rescue by convincing his brother-in-law to purchase the flat. From the proceeds of the sale, she was able to pay off her debts and purchase three apartments. [ [http://www.mid-day.com/news/city/2005/june/111513.htm Mid-Day - Mumbai News, Mumbai City News: Share & get involved with news from Mumbai as it happens ] ] . Her sister Vijeta Pandit and brother-in-law, music composer Aadesh Shrivastava took her in and are helping her get back on her feet. [Unfortunately though, Sulakshana was able to retain only one of the apartments as an older brother and sister stole most of the proceeds of the sale of her house. [http://www.indiafm.com/news/2006/09/12/7817/index.html Sulakshana Pandit’s riches-to-rags story ] ] . Aadesh has indicated that he was composing a devotional album for Sulakshana. [ [http://www.screenindia.com/fullstory.php?content_id=12320 Quality Matters ] ] . Recent update: Unfortunately, Sulakshana has since been able to retain only one of the new flats, as an older brother and other sisters stole most of the proceeds from the sale of her flat.

Trivia

Sulakshana began her career as a child singer singing the song "Saat Samundar paar se" in Taqdeer(1967) which she sang with the legendary Singer Lata Mangeshkar.
While recording songs for Mahua(1971) composer Hemant Kumar recommended Sulakshana to take up Acting as he thought she could succeed as a Singing Star.
In 1976 Sulakshana was the busiest actress with the maximum number of films besides Hema Malini, Neetu Singh & Rekha.
Mallika Sarabhai was originally cast as Vinod Khanna's heroine in Hera pheri(1976)by Director Prakash Mehra. After an obnoxious dispute between Mehra & Sarabhai the latter walked out of the film & Sulakshana was chosen at the eleventh hour by Mehra who had seen her while she was recording a song for the same film.
Besides singing for herself Sulakshana also sang songs picturised on other heroines like Tanuja, Shabana Azmi, Rekha, Sharmila Tagore, Padmini Kolhapure & several others.

References

External links

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###@@@KEY@@@###succession box
title=Filmfare Award for Best Female Playback
years=1976
before="Asha Bhosle"
after= Hemlata