Possessing both beauty and talent, Salma had her share of male and media attention. What’s the sense of drinking yourself to depression when your films fail?” It’s more important to remain normal and grounded. I learnt early that whether your films are successful or not, your life should be successful. I chose not to remember the bitterness even where rivalry is concerned. She dismisses any implication of rivalry, “I’m happy with whatever I got. Salma also acted in and gave playback for films made in Bangladesh and Pakistan. Success, in fact, humbled me.” Salma went on to do B Subhash’s Kasam Paida Karne Wale Ki (1984), Oonche Log (1985), Ramanand Sagar’s Salma (1985) and Rajkumar Kohli’s Pati, Patni Aur Tawaif (1990). It had a helipad, lakes and a riding ground. In fact, filmmakers would request my father to lend our castle like house in London for shooting. Women desire diamonds but Allah had given me everything. “I already had all that one acquires after success. Salma says she wasn’t carried away by the overnight stardom. I took a 6 am flight from London to Mumbai and stayed with my uncle, actor Subi Raaj Kapoor (Baby Naaz’s husband) and shot for Nikaah,” recalls Salma who was only 17 then. I fought with my family and ran away from home. He then asked, ‘Will you act if you’re also given songs to sing?’ That was a temptation hard to resist. “Chopra saab asked me whether I was interested in films.
It was a chance meeting with the late BR Chopra at musician Naushad’s house in Mumbai that retriggered her dreams. But Raj uncle couldn’t cast me because my dadi (paternal grandma) warned Raj uncle ‘ hamare khandaan ki ladki hai, don’t give her work and let no one else give her work either’,” says Salma a trained singer in the Kirana gharana. “I was considered for Henna (which the late Raj Kapoor had begun working on) as my grandfather Jugal Kishore Mehra was Raj uncle’s mama (maternal uncle). No point being aadha teetar aadha bater (neither here nor there).” Her teenage son Liaqat Ali Khan, a gold medalist in badminton, is also interested in films.ĭespite the pedigree, it wasn’t easy for Salma to enter films. If she hadn’t possessed the aptitude, I’d have stopped her. I told Sasha that by just being my daughter, you won’t make it, you need to have talent. “Sasha paints and writes poetry but her passion is acting. “My grandmother did Heer Ranjha, my mother Shahjahan, I did Nikaah and now my daughter Sasha will be seen in Aurangzeb,” she smiles. Her mother Nasreen Aagha debuted opposite KL Saigal in Shahjahan (1946). Her maternal grandfather Jugal Kishore Mehra was a noted actor and grandmother Anwari Begum, a singing star in the ’30s and the ’40s. He was given the title Aagha there, a kind of knighthood bestowed on a businessman of repute.” This is the fourth generation of Salma’s family in films. We’re Pathans from Amritsar settled in London where I grew up.” She traces the origin of her surname ‘Aagha’, “My father (Liaqat Gul Tajik) traded in precious stones and antiques in Iran.
In fact, the perky Sasha sits through the interview as her mother chats over cups of gur ki chai…Īt the onset she busts a myth, “I’m not from Pakistan. Her daughter Sasha Aagha is soon set to debut in Yash Raj Films’ Aurangzeb. She’s ready with a woman-oriented script, which she wants to direct. But today the 45-plus actor has hit equilibrium. Simultaneously, her personal life went through its high and low rhythms.
Though it was difficult to repeat the success of Nikaah, Salma went on to act and sing in several films in the Asian subcontinent (Pakistan, India and Bangladesh) right up till the ’90s. “Everyone could relate to the song as all of us have been let down at some point or the other,” she says of the chartbuster, which she’s still asked to sing in her live shows. That year she earned a Filmfare nomination as Best Actress in addition to winning the Filmfare Best Female Playback Singer Award for Dil ke armaan, where the nominees were the formidable Lata Mangeshkar and Asha Bhosle. Not only did replicas of Nilufer’s (her character in the movie) shimmery ghararas and jadav jhumkas flood the bazaars but flocks of women (burqa clad and otherwise) found a voice for their silent subjugation through her revolt in the film. The London-bred Salma Aagha fit into the Indian canvas seamlessly and reminded you of the legendary singing star Noorjehan. Secondly, it introduced a hazel-eyed beauty who could not only portray the angst but could also sing it in plaintive notes. It was the first time that a film tackled the sensitive ‘ talaq’ (divorce) syndrome with an empathy hitherto not shown towards women. BR Chopra’s Muslim social Nikaah in 1982 broke new grounds in more ways than one.
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