How Life Changes For Some Stars (The Latest Story Of Ranjeeta, The One-Time Star)

Ali Peter John

I woke up to a shocking morning early last week. It was the shocking story of Ranjeeta Kaur, her sixty-eight year old husband, Raj Ratan Masand and their son who is also named Raj. It was a story of Ranjeeta and her son trying to threaten and throw out Mr Masand from one of the top floors of their Apartments in Koregaon Park in Pune. The story had taken the industry by shock, but luckily, before the story could turn more ugly, the police had taken recourse to counseling of the small family and now they are all happy and it is a story of all is well that ends well.....

Ranjeeta... the name brings a number of memories to my mind. She was one of the many young and talented actress from the FTII who had made it big with her very first film,“Laila Majnu"with Rishi Kapoor, the star in the limelight playing Majnu and Ranjeeta playing Laila. I had met Ranjeeta during the making of the film in a building called “Lhotse"or Air India building in Juhu where she had another FTII colleague, Mahendra Sandhu. They were both living with their relatives. Ranjeeta had told me about her ambitions and desires till late into the night and I don't know how I who was also a newcomer like her told her that she had all the chances of making it big.... And she did

Soon Ranjeeta acted in hits like“Pati Patni Aur Woh"(with Sanjeev Kumar) and“Ankhiyon Ke Jharokhon Se" (with Sachin). She made a famous team with Mithun Chakravorty in films such as“Surakshaa",“Tarana",“Humse Badhkar Kaun",“Aadat Se Majboor",“Baazi"and“Gunahon Ka Devta". She also was one of Amitabh Bachchan's heroines in“Satte Pe Satta". Her sister Rubina appeared in“Ek Main aur Ek Tu"opposite Rajeev Tandon (Raveena Tandon's brother). Ranjeeta was very closely associated with the Rajshri family having churned out so many hits like“Taraana",“Ankhiyon Ke Jharokhon Se"etc. She starred with Raj Babbar, Raj Kiran, Deepak Parashar, Vinod Mehra, Amol Palekar and many other heroes, but her most famous pairing was with Mithun Chakraborty. Her last film before her exit from the film industry was“Gunahon Ka Devta". She appeared in a few television serials in the mid 1990s and then took a long hiatus from acting.

She had seen a very efficient assistant of one of her directors, Desh Gautam whose name was Rakesh Nath(Rikku). She encouraged him to take up the job of her secretary and that was the beginning of the career of one of the most successful secretaries or managers who went on to look after the careers of Anil Kapoor, Madhuri Dixit, Salma Agha, Namrata and Shilpa Shirodkar and many others who he only helped or gave advice to.

After a gap of fifteen years, Ranjeeta returned to films in“Anjaane: The Unknown". In 2008 she appeared in“Zindagi Tere Naam"which reunited her with her frequent co-star Mithun Chakraborty. The film was completed in 2008 but was released in 2012. In 2011 she reunited with Sachin in“Jaana Pehchana", a sequel to her 1978 film“Ankhiyon Ke Jharokhon Se". She had also debuted on television years back but withdrew quickly.

She is sixty-two now, but the urge to be a part of film still lives in her. There is the fear of her being branded as a mother like many of her contemporaries, but she only wants to do roles that can give her the soul satisfaction of being remembered for a longer time and by the new generation. And the one film she is really looking forward to is the remake of B.R Chopra's film of the seventies, “Pati Patni Aur Woh". Will her career be remembered as she desires or will she go down as one of the many forgotten stories? The answer lies in the hands of destiny which plays a very important part in the lives and careers of people, destiny which is a power that forces the most hardened non-believer to believe in it.

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