Click to play videoHema Malini’s professional destiny was written by her mother, Jaya Chakravarthy. From determining that she would grow up to be a renowned dancer to managing her film career.
She fashioned a superstar we know today. And at 57 Hema Malini is more carefree than she is ever been before. And she says Amma knew best.
Anuradha SenGupta: When people stop to authorise biographies, they are either happy or very sad.
Hema Malini: So how did you find it – happy or sad?
Anuradha SenGupta: You can’t question me like this. This is my show. You are my guest. This is not one of your ballets. What made you decide to give us a perspective into your life?
Hema Malini: I have a lot of interesting things happening in life. The sequence of events from making the script to music recording, a lot of spiritual experiences, performing in various places in India and abroad, meeting different people. That was very exciting. And every one used to ask me to put across my journey to them. So me and my brother used to always talk about what happened when and it’s all very interesting.
Anuradha SenGupta: Through the book it is replete with references to your parents of course, to your two brothers, to your aunt (mother’s sister), cousin (Prabha), daughters, Dharmendra. Everywhere you go into the book, it’s almost as if Hema Malini doesn’t know what she will do if she is alone.
Hema Malini: It looks like that? May be because I am always surrounded by my own people. And they are the pillars of my life so it is difficult to live without them.
Anuradha SenGupta: Do you think you would have been such a successful career woman if you didn’t have family around you playing these kinds of supportive roles?
Hema Malini: First of all it’s my mother who has groomed me and she was a pillar of my strength. My whole family, my children have been great support form me. Dharamji (Dharmendra) also for not interfering with my career.
Anuradha SenGupta: Just when you were born, your mother decided that this child of mine will be a someone.
Hema Malini: Even before I was born, she had decided my name and she wanted me to be a dancer. So she used to take me to Delhi for performances of Vaijyantimala, Padmini, Kamalakshmi.
Anuradha SenGupta: What if you didn’t have nay talent?
Hema Malini: That’s exactly what I was asking her. She used to laugh at me. But she told me that she felt I would be able to do it. She had that much confidence in me.
Anuradha SenGupta: So she was a very strong-willed woman. This is what she wanted and she would make it happen.
Hema Malini: Absolutely. She wanted me like that and she made me like she wanted. We come from a highly orthodox family and so when suddenly films started coming, my father wasn’t very happy. But she convinced him. I really miss my parents today.
Anuradha SenGupta: They have had differences over your career.
Hema Malini: Yes. Because my father was more for dance. And when films started taking too much of my time, my mother used to tell me to perform at least two shows in a month. But I was a very obedient and nice daughter.
Anuradha SenGupta: When you were growing up, you were taught to surrender. But your daughters today are taught to negotiate.
Hema Malini: Times have changed. I experienced different things. But I want to experience other things with my children. I don’t want to be like my mother, who was a force behind me. But now we have to let our children find their own way.
Anuradha SenGupta: If you look at stories of a lot of people who have achieved outstanding success, it is thanks to a mother or a parent who has been so strong willed, perhaps dictatorial, of having a childhood which is not normal in a sense. The point I’m trying to bring is, to achieve outstanding success, to have this kind of sacrifice?
Hema Malini: I wouldn’t even know if it’s a sacrifice because I was brought up that way. I didn’t have any other option. And there was no time for me to think.
Anuradha SenGupta: And yet there was a time when you decided that you don’t want that much of interference. Isn’t it?
Hema Malini: When you start growing up, you start understanding, you want to have your own friends. But I used to like whatever she told me. I didn’t protest.
Anuradha SenGupta: I am very surprised with the move to join a political party because you don’t come across as a political person.
Hema Malini: I don’t think you decide anything in life right at the beginning. I believe that destiny takes you slowly. I was a dancer, became an actress and then I was just pushed into this (politics). I am liking it. What is the other option? I will be sitting at home so like this at least I can do some work. And my idea is more to help the public.
Anuradha SenGupta: Do you see yourself contesting elections?
Hema Malini: No. I am happy where I am in Rajya Sabha. I am not a person to fight and come to power. I am not crazy about anything like it.
Anuradha SenGupta: You are content with the fact that where the Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) is concerned, you are a campaigner. You like the role of a campaigner – of someone who the crowds come in to see.
Hema Malini: Yes.
Anuradha SenGupta: But I find it difficult to relate it to the person I see – the person who is in control, you have strong views – look at the magazine you have worked with, the kind of TV programmes and film you have made. How can you be content not controlling, not directing?
Hema Malini: Not at the moment. But if my mindset changes later, then I will accept whatever comes to me. So if I am pushed into something, I will think about it and go ahead.
Anuradha SenGupta: How did you get pushed into this? You were a nominated member of the Rajya Sabha, a few months later you joined the BJP.
Hema Malini: First I did the campaign for Vinod Khanna. And at that time, I did not know anything. When I told my mother about the campaign, she said I must go because she was a big fan of Atal Bihari Vajpayee and L K Advani. First I went because my mother told me to. And it was very interesting interacting with the people directly.
Anuradha SenGupta: What is the most interesting thing about interacting directly with people because all this while, all of us have seen you far away on the big screen as this film personality.
Hema Malini: So when they see me directly, personally, I can see that they have a lot of love for me.
Anuradha SenGupta: Do you have any funny stories?
Hema Malini: Lots of them. I think I should write another book on that.
Anuradha SenGupta: Give us an ad for the book.
Hema Malini: I was campaigning somewhere in Madhya Pradesh where I was being taken in a helicopter from one place to another. And interesting because you land in the middle of people from your helicopter.
We reached a place at around one in the afternoon, and there are times when they don’t even offer you lunch. I didn’t mind that. But I told them I wanted to use the washroom. The police refused. When I asked them what happened, they told me this area has a lot of dacoits and that I must leave soon. So then I realised what kind of a place am I landing at.
Anuradha SenGupta: It gives you a kick.
Hema Malini: Yes. It is interesting. Sometimes scary also because the captain says ‘There is not time. If you don’t hurry up, you will have to stay.’ And I obviously don’t want to stay there. But I’m told to wrap up and come in five minutes. But it’s exciting for me to meet the people, make them happy, tell them what I had to say and then rush back.
Anuradha SenGupta: It gives you a sense of power as well.
Hema Malini: I don’t know.
Anuradha SenGupta: The UP elections are around the corner, how busy are you going to be campaigning
Hema Malini: I’ll be giving two-two days. And in those days they will be doing about eight to 10 meetings or may be even more. I am prepared for that.
I generally talk about the party. Whatever I do, they listen to me. But at the end of it the speech they want Basanti. It’s funny because they look at me as Basanti. It’s funny.
Anuradha SenGupta: And you oblige them by spouting dialogues?
Hema Malini: Yes. Otherwise they get really hurt.
Anuradha SenGupta: So what’s the one that gets most reactions?
Hema Malini: Even one line – like if I say Chal Dhanno, they are very happy.
Anuradha SenGupta: When you joined the party, just a few months after that in May 2004, your party lost elections. And after that party doesn’t seem to be the united force that people had got to believe that it was.
Hema Malini: They might be having internal problems. But that happens everywhere. Once we come back, everything will be sorted out and I’m sure we will be doing a very good job.
Anuradha SenGupta: You’re still very confident and comfortable being with the BJP.
Hema Malini: Yes. People will try to ridicule the party when it is not in power. But I don’t accept that.
Anuradha SenGupta: I was reading about the time when your relationship with Dharamji first started off and the kind of intense media speculation there was on it. Do you feel it was good…
Hema Malini: Thank god it’s not happening now.
Anuradha SenGupta: That’s just what I was going to ask you that are you relieved that it happened in the ‘70s and not in 2007?
Hema Malini: I’m so happy that it happened long back and it’s all over now. Had it happened now, they would have been running behind me with the camera everywhere. I really pity the girls today. They are simply after these people.
Anuradha SenGupta: What does that mean - that Esha (Deol) has a tougher time being a film star than you did?
Hema Malini: Absolutely. She is all the time compared to me. That is not right. We became a competitor for them.
Anuradha SenGupta: How much does that bother you?
Hema Malini: It bothers me a lot. I have to keep a low profile.
Anuradha SenGupta: You feel guilty at some level, annoyed with yourself as if you have to curb your personality sometime?
Hema Malini: No. But I became what I am today after so many years of hard work. She has just come. You have to give her enough time to prove herself.
Anuradha SenGupta: You think it’s the flipside of the coin that on one side if you’re the child of a very successful parent and parents, you’re always going to be compared with what they have done. On the other hand because of the success of your parents, you have opportunities that aam janta (common man) doesn’t.
Hema Malini: These girls have to prove much more than other children coming into films.
Anuradha SenGupta: You are very clear about that.
Hema Malini: Yes. She has to work very hard. May be she has to work double.
Anuradha SenGupta: For example Shah Rukh Khan, who you gave the first break to, came to the industry, he didn’t know anybody. He has carved his space in the film industry from scratch. Would you say that he has had it tougher?
Hema Malini: It’s the talent. If you have it, you will come up. If you don’t, it’ll be tougher.
Anuradha SenGupta: Your younger daughter is going to be a filmmaker.
Hema Malini: She says she wants to make films.
Anuradha SenGupta: Why did you stop after making one? You enjoy directing.
Hema Malini: I made Dil Ashna Hai. I really enjoyed being behind the camera. But financially it became difficult for me to handle.
Anuradha SenGupta: You produced that film?
Hema Malini: I produced and directed it. So it was a big burden for me. So if somebody else produces, it’s easy to direct.
Anuradha SenGupta: What do you say is your biggest achievement?
Hema Malini: I am able to do things on my own without any help. So I keep advising each and every woman in the country to be independent.
Anuradha SenGupta: Do you see yourself as an icon for feminists?
Hema Malini: I don’t expect that. But if I’m made to be, I welcome it.
Anuradha SenGupta: As one of the most beautiful women that India has seen in recent times, over the past 57 years…
Hema Malini: Oh you’re telling me my age.
Anuradha SenGupta: Which is there in the book so please stop acting. You know everybody knows your age and you revel in the fact.
Hema Malini: I don’t why people obsess over my age. What ahs age got to do? It is the mind and what I’m able to do things that others are doing or not doing.
Anuradha SenGupta: As a society where we have respect for older people, or the older generation, there is a sense that after this, you retire from the pleasures of life. Whereas I think you are an example of the fact that you can enjoy life all the time.
Hema Malini: Ofcourse.
Anuradha SenGupta: Are you enjoying life more today than lets say when you were 30 years ago?
Hema Malini: I think I have enjoyed every minute of it.
Anuradha SenGupta: I know that you are inevitably asked about the very unconventional relationship and later marriage with Dharmendra.
Hema Malini: It’s really old story.
Anuradha SenGupta: So I am not going to go into.
Hema Malini: It’s so old and boring.
Anuradha SenGupta: But it is so dramatic, romantic, exciting.
Hema Malini: All the romance is there in the book.
Anuradha SenGupta: When I was reading the book , I was amazed that all those proposals, all those actors crazy about her.
Hema Malini: If somebody is not married, naturally proposals will obviously come. There is nothing wrong in that. I don’t know why people used to make a big story out of it.
Now Aishwarya (Rai) is getting married and they try to link so many names to her. It happens when you’re number one. I don’t see anything wrong in that. If proposals came, that means you are liked and wanted by so many people. That itself gives the woman a nice feeling.
Anuradha SenGupta: You are credited with being the longest reigning number one star. Don’t you wish that you would get some really exciting film projects to do now?
Hema Malini: I am really disappointed that I am not getting.
Anuradha SenGupta: Why is that you think?
Hema Malini: I don’t know. May be I will make it myself. Because at this time, when you say how I look, I want to project it onscreen.
Anuradha SenGupta: We are waiting for it. It would be great if you can do a film where you play the age you are and have a fantastic meaty role. Not as a mother or a wife, but as a woman, as an individual. And get Gulzar sahab to direct it.
Hema Malini: Oh sure. I am already preparing a lovely script with Esha and Rekha. And I narrated the story to Gulzar ji and he simply loved it. He said it’s ‘beautiful, just make it. Don’t wait.’
Anuradha SenGupta: We would love to see you in a film again soon. We love the fact that you are living life and enjoying every bit of it. You are radiating it. Thank you very much for your time.
Hema Malini: Thank you.
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