“I am just fed up of acting day in and day out”

NEETU SINGH

(Today Neetu Singh is celebrating her 62^nd birthday. We at bollyy.com and Mayapuri wish Neetu Singh a happy birthday and reproduce this intimate interview with NEETU SINGH by JYOTHI VENKATESH which had appeared 41 years ago in the now defunct CINELINK dt June 29, 1979, six months before Neetu married Rishi Kapoor)

The venue was Mehboob Studios. The shooting of Mohan Kumar’s Aatish directed by his main assistant Ambrish Sangal was on the floors. Both Jeetendra and Neetu Singh were shooting that day and hence the p.r.o had arranged a unit –meets- the press over lunch in the lawns of the studios in the afternoon.

Since punctuality has always been a casualty in filmland, I reached the studios late by an hour for lunch presuming that the shooting would go on and break for lunch only by 2. 30 p.m. I was mistaken and hence had to pay the penalty for reaching late. The lunch was over and Jeetendra had packed up for the day since he was shooting in Film City at the farther end of the suburbs that afternoon for some other film.

The few journalists present in the lawns were chatting with Madan Puri and Dheeraj Kumar who seemed to be thrilled at the extra ‘bhav’ that they were offered just because Jeetu had vanished from the scene and Neetu preferred to stay put in the makeup room. With the photographer in tow, I made a bee line to Neetu’s make up room. When I barged into it, only Neetu’s Chinese hairdresser was there. She informed me that Neetu had gone to the sets two minutes before we had knocked on the door.

I really cursed my luck that day. Not only was I terribly hungry but also had to wade through a crowd of junior artistes and gatecrashers into the shabbily lit dance sets  erected for Aatish where Neetu was obediently following the instructions of  her dance master. A girl was showing her the steps and the twists and Neetu was following suit. Clad in a chamak challo pathan type of dress, Neetu looked voluptuous every inch.

Neetu spotted me in the crowd hanging around to see her gyrating on the floors and beckoned me to come to the field since the lighting arrangements were being made and she was free. I did and after we exchanged pleasantries, she ordered for two chairs to be brought in. We seated ourselves onto the chairs and conducted our mini chat.

Is it yet another one of those routine roles of the glamorous leading lady? I asked Neetu, pointing out her dress. “Not exactly”, she interrupted and added. “I play a sort of double role in Aatish- the leading lady and the vamp. Today I am supposed to be the vamp and hence Ambrish has asked me to look glamorous. The film is almost complete though it was launched only about eight months ago.”

Neetu has stopped signing films. “Big banners, top directors etc have ceased to evoke my enthusiasm anymore. I am turning down every meaty offer that I am offered these days by big directors and bigger banners. I am just fed up with acting day in and day out. Have a heart. I am just a young girl just on the last lap of my teenage years (!) and would like to have time to call my own. I do not have the time even to socialize because I just cannot afford to say No to a producer who comes to me clamoring for my dates.”

Neetu shocked the entire industry recently when she refused meaty offers like Shakti in which she was cast alongside Amitabh Bachchan , Dilip Kumar and Raakhee, Aar Paar in which she was cast  along with Amitabh Bachchan,Shashi Kapoor and Zeenat Aman and Swarg Aur Narak in which she was cast with Sanjeev Kumar and Vinod Mehra. Thanks to Neetu’s act of returning the signing amount for these films, Smita Patil bagged the chance of  her lifetime to act opposite Amitabh Bachchan and Dilip Kumar in Shakti, Sulakshana Pandit found herself shoulder to shoulder with Amitabh and Shashi in Aar Paar directed by Shakti Samanta and Moushumi Chatterjee was signed to play opposite Sanjeev Kumar in Swarg Aur Narak.

When are you going to announce the D-day in your life? I asked Neetu. The grapevine insists that both Chintu and Neetu have made up their minds about how inevitable each of them is to the other and decided to plunge into matrimony by the middle of this year. The only films of Neetu on the floors currently are Duniya Meri Jeb Mein, Jhoota Kahin Ka with Chintu, Maano Ya Na Maano and Aatish with Jeetu and Kaala Paththar with Shatrughan Sinha. Chintu is all set to take her to the altar the moment all these films are released. And no wonder Neetu is even going out of her way to accommodate her dates to every one of these producers so that these films are completed and released.

Neetu seems to be getting a lot of spare time these days. Because gone are those days when Neetu used to jump in and out of shifts and her sets. She is content to work in one shift for one film. She was working on the sets of Aatish that day from the morning, till late in the evening. Her only condition is that she should be allowed to pack up by 8.30 pm every evening. And wherever Chintu may be shooting, he too sees to it that he gets time to be with Neetu. Their favorite haunts are the Café Royal and the Supper Club at the Oberoi Sheraton. In fact, Neetu celebrated her birthday this year at the Supper Club with Chintu and her mother Mrs Raajee Singh.

Neetu said that she was so impressed by the film Saturday Night Fever that she was all set to do one number based on her inspiration in Aatish too. Apart from Saturday Night Fever, she said she also saw Grease, a period movie yet to be released in Bombay. Did you see it while you were vacationing in London this year? I asked Neetu with a straight face. “A friend of mine had brought a video tape of the film and screened it for a select audience at his place last week. I was thoroughly bored by the film which had nothing to convey. I tell you that it was a classic bore”, she laughed.

Now that jaundice has invaded every star home, Neetu has taken every possible precaution to see that she is left alone by the virus. No. Like Jeetendra , she hasn’t taken any tonic to get immunity from it but is shrewd enough  to take home made  lunch, filtered water and refuses to touch outside food. “Touchwood, I have been spared by the disease, though I was least caring for my health whereas every other person in the industry is careful about what to eat and when.  Why, in spite of the fact that Chintu is so meticulous about his food habits, it has laid him down in his bed for a month.”

Now, at least in the case of Neetu Singh, jaundice has proved to be the other woman. Isn’t it?