Vidya Sinha who remained away from Bollywood leaves this world silently

A beautiful actress of Bollywood who made a remarkable mark as a heroine unparalleled with her outstanding beauty and acting on the silver screen during the seventies and eighties, versatile actor Vidya Sinha is no more with us.

She left for her heavenly abode on the 15th August, after suffering from a severe lung ailment on the 73rd Independence day anniversary. When the entire nation was celebrating the independence of the largest democracy of the world the family of Vidya Sinha and Bollywood was grief-stricken as the 71-year-old actress once loved and adored by millions had left all of us in grief.

The winner of the Bombay beauty contests a simple-looking beautiful actress with sharp mesmerizing features Vidya Sinha was for the very first time noticed by the eminent filmmaker in one of the advertisements in the seventies and wasted no time in approaching her to act in his significant movie Rajnigandha which later on won several prestigious awards. There was no looking back for Vidya Sinha thereafter, once a shy girl who came into modeling after winning the Bombay beauty pageant before her debut film Rajnigandha. Vidya Sinha always maintained a safe distance from the razzle-dazzle of Bollywood.

However, when a win at Miss Mumbai beauty contest led to modeling offers she did not shy away. Rajnigandha in 1974 was her debut movie directed by eminent film director Basu Chatterjee who noticed her outstanding beauty and acumen after seeing her in one of the advertisements. Her unfussy, middle-class working girl, commuting in public transport, wearing printed sarees and carrying a faithful handbag, struck a direct chord with the audience of the middle class in particular and also with the people of other segments. She was indeed awesome and best at acting. In Basuda’s movies, her character as a middle-class woman suited her best.

Even after four decades her movies and acting as a beautiful heroine has left her imprint in everybody’s minds and hearts. It looks as if its justs yesterday’s films and Vidya Sinha is still the same young heroine acting flawlessly with stars like Sanjeev Kumar, Amol Palekar, Rajesh Khanna, Vinod Khanna, and Shashi Kapoor. Vidya Sinha acted with several prominent superstars and actors of seventies and eighties in movies like Rajnigandha, Choti Si Baat, Pati Patni Aur Woh, Inkaar, Karm, Mukti, Meera, Swayamvar, etc from 1974  till 1980. She acted in several serials as well, the recent one being Tulsi on the television screen. Vidya Sinha showed that she is equally adept in mainstream ‘Rona Dhona’ as she is in middle-of-the-road cinema.

Long before the live-in relationships became acceptable to Indian society Vidya Sinha and Rajesh Khanna portrayed one in B.R. Chopra’s Karm. Owing to some ominous predictions made by a family astrologer, the duo could not marry. They lived together anyway, causing much hue and cry, this among one of the many affairs of Rajesh Khanna.

Vidya Sinha’s greatest regret was of turning down Raj Kapoor’s SATYAM SHIVAM SUNDARAM.