JAYA BACHCHAN: GUDDI TO GRANDMOTHER AND MEMBER OF PARLIAMENT

She was just fifteen when she realized she wanted to be an actress. She was born the daughter of Professor Tarun Kumar Bhaduri, a journalist who gave her the freedom to pursue her passion. She was very lucky to find her first break as a character playing her age in Dr. Saytajit Ray’s “Mahanagar” which had the only legend of Bengoli films, Uttam Kumar as the hero. She then decided to take up acting as a profession. She completed her studies and joined the FTII in Pune. It took her very little time to be the favorite of her teachers and her colleagues alike. She was called “the life of the FTII not only because she was a bright student, but also because she was very impish, child- like and even mischievous and took life very lightly”. It was only in the second year at the institute that she realized the importance of acting, all that film makers and teachers like Stanislavsky, Lee Strasberg and others had written about how difficult it was to be an actor. She took to acting very seriously and was declared the best student of her batch. She was Jaya Bhaduri, the pride of the institute who was treated like a friend by her teachers and all the others in high places and low. She was the instant favorite of well known filmmakers and stars who came visiting the FTII from time to time. 

Hrishikesh Mukherjee, the celebrated filmmaker from Bombay who had worked with almost all the big stars saw Jaya Bhaduri and even saw some of the student films in which she played the lead roles. He liked her performance and saw a great future for her. She was twenty and yet looked like a school girl. Hrishida never forgot her and decided to work on a script about a school girl in her teens who falls in love with her favorite hero in films. Hrishida was inspired by the hundreds of young girls who went crazy about Rajesh Khanna and did all kinds of crazy things like marrying his photographs, writing him letters in their own blood and waiting outside his bungalow for hours to catch a glimpse of him. Hrishida asked his favorite actor Dharmendra to play the star in the film he was planning and Dharmendra could never say no to him. He then thought of Jaya as the girl who falls for the hero. He visited the institute and met Jaya and told her about his decision to cast her as the Guddi in his film called “Guddi”. She said she was twenty three, but Hrishida convinced her that he would take care to change her into a girl fifteen. Jaya who had heard so much about Hrishida as a director agreed to do the film with great excitement. Hrishida then signed a young actor from Bengal, Samit Bhanja to play the leading man because he did not want a known name. He also signed FTII actors like Asrani to play a major role and had his friends like Ashok Kumar, Rajesh Khanna, Om Prakash and A K Hangal to make guest appearances, which they agreed to do without asking for anything in return. The film was completely shot at Mohan Studio where Hrishida had his own office. It was completed in less than a month and released as an experiment, but the experiment unexpectedly turned to be a great experience. The film made on a shoe string budget went on to become a very big hit and Jaya Bhaduri became a star of a very different kind, a star who became a part of every home and heart. 

The success of “Guddi” encouraged Jaya to stay on in Bombay and she bought her own apartment in Juhu where hundreds of young boys and girls stood down to have a look at this new heroine who had made it big with her very first film. She was flooded with offers to play similar roles but accepted a film called “Jawani Deewani” with Randhir Kapoor as her hero. The film with some very good music by R D Burman was the only film in which Jaya was seen as a mod girl dressed in pants, otherwise all the films she did had her in a saree which covered her completely and she made it her principle not to wear any kind of revealing clothes or do any kind of daring or bold scenes. She was again successful in a “Guddi” kind of role in “Uphaar” in which she stole the show. She came into the lime light again when she did some different roles with a struggling actor called Amitabh Bachachan. All the films she did with him flopped, but she was noticed as a very brilliant actress. She was also very good in films like “Parichay” directed by Gulzar and in “Shor” directed by Manoj Kumar. She was signed by Prakash Mehra to play the leading lady in a film called “Zanjeer”. He had problems in finding a hero for the film as is well-known now and finally had to settle for a flop hero called Amitabh Bachachan and what happened after the film was released is also a part of history now. Jaya also proved that she could be a very serious actress when she did films like “Koshish”, “Kora Kaagaz” and “Doosri Seeta” and the widow in “Sholay”. The number of films she did with Amitabh finally led the two to fall in love and by the time they did a film called “Abhimaan” also directed by Hrishikesh Mukherjee they decided to get married and Jaya Bhaduri became Mrs. Jaya Bachchan. The last film she did as a leading lady was “Naukar” with Sanjeev Kumar and then gave up acting to take care of her husbands rising career and to look after her two children, Shweta and Abhishek. After the children were sent abroad for studies, she created a sensation when Yash Chopra created a casting coup and brought Amitabh, Rekha, and her together in “Silsila” at a time when the gossip mills were working overtime spreading stories about the “great affair” between Amitabh and Rekha. It was her bold effort that helped in putting the rumors to rest and Amitabh and Rekha never worked together after that film even though they were the “hottest” ever team seen since Raj Kapoor and Nargis.

Jaya found time to get involved in ABCL, the company her husband was planning during his five -year break from films. It was also the time when she started her own television company and planned to start an events management company. She was appointed chairperson of the Children’s Film Society of India. She made a striking comeback as an actress in Govind Nihalani’s “Hazaar Chaurasi Ki Maa” and then made her mark in commercial Hindi Cinema with Karan Johar’s “Kal Ho Na Ho” and “Kabhi Khushi Khabi Ghaam”.

She is now a member of the Rajya Sabha representing the Samajwadi Party.  Jaya turned sixty two on April 9 and believes she has still not given her best as an actress and is waiting for the right roles to come her way and now she doesn’t mind doing a film with Amitabh and Rekha in it, because “what has passed is the past and should not come in the way of the future”.

MORE ON JAYA BACHCHAN:

• Jaya’s father Professor Tarun Kumar Bhaduri was a great fan of Dr. Harivanshrai Bachchan, the poet. He was thrilled when his daughter Jaya told him she was marrying the poet’s son Amitabh and later became a fan of Amitabh and both Jaya and Amitabh’s fathers took interest in film only after their children got into films.
• Jaya joined the FTII when she was eighteen and was called a born actress by all her teachers who saw a great future for her.
• Jaya had many friends at the FTII but she was very close to Danny Denzongpa and Romesh Sharma and they are still the best of friends.

• Jaya had father figures in Hrishikesh Mukherjee and N C Sippy and had “bothers” like Gulzar and Sanjeev Kumar. There was rarely any raksha bandhan day when Jaya did not meet her brother and tied raahkis round their wrists, unless they were shooting or were out of Bombay.
• Jaya had her own flat in a building called Beach Apartments, where she had neighbors like Rekha, Asrani and Shekhar Kapoor. Amitabh made friends with them and met them every morning to see where they were shooting so that he could go with them and try his luck with some better directors with whom they were working. He lived in a rented apartment in a building called “Mangal” on 7th Road in Juhu.
• Jaya tried her best to get Amitabh into all the films she signed the girl she had the power and was a bigger star till “Zanjeer”.

• Jaya and Amitabh had a very quiet wedding, and the only important guest was Amitabh’s best friend Sanjay Gandhi, the elder son of the then Prime Minister, Mrs. Indira Gandhi.
• There is the real story about how the doctors at Breach Candy gave up all hope for Amitabh on August 2nd 1982. He was given up as “clinically dead” but Jaya did not give up hope. The same night she walked bare feet to the Siddhi Vinayak Temple in Dadar, returned to the hospital at four in the morning. She sat next to him and saw one of his toes moving and she screamed, “he is alive, who says he is dead?” all the doctors were called and they started treating Amitabh all over again and he came back to life. People said it was a miracle and a great happening to prove how a wife’s prayer could work wonders.
• They had their differences, but they never let them be seen in the open, especially in front of their children. They have even made fun of each other in huge public meetings.

• Amitabh has always given all the credit for bringing up the children, Shweta and Abhishek to Jaya “without whose care I don’t know what they would be, at best they would be someone as bad as me”.
• Both Amitabh and Jaya are Padma Bhushans and even have roads named after them during their lifetime in Lucknow.
• Jaya has been a very good daughter–in–law and looked after Amitabh’s parents till the very end.

• Jaya worked very hard to bring out the biography of Amitbah, “To B or not to B”. She collected all the photographs and made sure that all the photographs she borrowed were returned just as they were given to her and with a very good thank you note.
• The only time Jaya has been in a nasty mood was when everyone talked about her husband’s affair with Rekha but she ultimately said, “If I have loved him truly, he will certainly come back to me”.

When Jaya Walked Around Temples for Amitabh’s Well-Being

In 1983, the action-comedy film Coolie, directed by Manmohan Desai, was released. Amitabh Bachchan played the lead role, while Rishi Kapoor, Rati Agnihotri, Shoma Anand, Kader Khan, Waheeda Rehman, Suresh Oberoi, and Puneet Issar played supporting roles. During the filming of one particular scene, a mishap occurred, and Amitabh Bachchan was accidentally injured by Puneet Issar. Amitabh suffered severe internal injuries to his stomach and intestines, leading to an eight-hour-long surgery.

At that time, wife Jaya Bachchan turned into a 'Savitri' figure, fighting for her husband's life. To ensure Amitabh’s recovery, Jaya went to great lengths, including visiting the Siddhi Vinayak temple, praying tirelessly for his well-being.

She didn’t stop there—Jaya even visited a pandal constructed by one of Mumbai's powerful and notorious dons, Varda Rajan, praying for her husband’s health. Her devotion and efforts ultimately paid off when, after two months, Amitabh Bachchan returned home safely from the hospital.

Jaya was very happy when Amitabh took that five -year break and she was also very happy when she decided to come back as a much better actress.

Jaya has been a “perfect actress and a perfect wife” according to Amitabh who says the best of Jaya is still to come. “What you have seen till now is only the beginning of the flame which will grow into a major fire one day and people will wonder if this was the real Jaya or that “Guddi”, who was the real Jaya”.

• She was recently conferred with a prestigious award, which was to be presented by Bharat Ratna Lata Mangeshkar. She however could not make it to the grand function because she told Lataji in a very exclusive talk that she was going to be in America on the same day “for some very important work which had to be completed”. When Lataji told the large audience about her not being present, there was a great deal of disappointment and even gossip about her being absent from the country after a very long time. 
• The “Guddi” has grown all grey before her time but refuses to dye her hair “because one cannot hide one’s age by changing the colour of one’s hair”.   

When Jaya Bachchan took a break

Jaya Bachchan took a break from acting when her children, Shweta and Abhishek, were young and took on the responsibility of managing her husband Amitabh’s career. However, once Abhishek and Shweta were sent abroad for their studies, Jaya made her comeback with the film Hazaar Chaurasi Ki Maa (1998). Following this, she continued to prove her acting prowess with films like Fiza (2000), Kabhi Khushi Kabhi Gham (2001), Koi Mere Dil Se Poochhe (2002), Kal Ho Na Ho (2003), Laaga Chunari Mein Daag (2007), and Drona (2008). With these performances, she showed that she was still a force to be reckoned with in the film industry. Her recent film, Rocky Aur Rani Ki Prem Kahani (2023), also earned her immense appreciation for her acting.

Talking about her illustrious career, Jaya Bachchan has acted in over 80 films and has won 14 Filmfare Awards. She has also been honored with the Padma Shri, one of India’s highest civilian awards.

Beyond the film industry, Jaya has also played a significant role in politics as a Member of Parliament for the Samajwadi Party in the Rajya Sabha. Today, as she celebrates her 77th birthday, Jaya Bachchan continues to be a prominent figure in both the film industry and politics. Her journey from an ordinary schoolgirl to a celebrated actress, mother, and politician is truly inspiring, making her an integral part of Indian cinema.

Mayapuri Magazine extends its warmest wishes to Jaya Bachchan on her birthday and wishes her continued success in all her future endeavors! We hope that she reaches even greater heights in the years to come and continues to mesmerize us with her acting magic. Her journey is truly inspiring, and we wish her a bright and successful future.

JAYA BACHCHAN MOVIES

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