Madhubala

A bet of a thousand rupees was struck at a fashionable restaurant in Bom­bay—the subject of the bet being the beauteous Madhubala.

The two parties concerned were Ramesh Chandra, producer of “Meenar”, and the Cal­cutta distributor of the film.

The latter asked the producer if it would be possible to have Madhubabla—who had step­ped out of the heroine’s role in the picture due to illness and was replaced by Bina Rai—make a trip to Calcutta for the opening of the film there.

So certain was the distributor of the impossibility of the star accepting such an invitation, he took out a new thousand-rupee note scribbled the bet on it. Beneath this Ramesh Chandra, too, signified his participa­tion in the bet.

Thereupon, the distributor asked the pro­ducer how he intended to get Madhubala to accept the invitation.

“Well,” said ex-lawyer Ramesh Chandra archly, “Madhubala featured in the mahurat shot of my film. So I’ll just tell her that since the first shot of the film was of her, the open­ing of the film, too, should be by her!”

So saying, the clever producer pocketed the thousand-rupee note and walked out!

The sequel to this story can only be writ­ten after the film opens in Calcutta.

Will the lovely Madhubala go to Calcutta? Your guess is as good as ours. (Filmfare)

Actress Nigar Sultana tells her story to the assembled film press (1954)

One of the most boisterous Press conferences ever to be held in Bombay’s filmdom was the one held on June 13 – 1954, when gazelle-eyed Nigar Sultana denied reports of her marriage to Pakistani actor Ishrat (Darpan Kumar).

Nigar’s outburst against “blood-sucking” producers and relatives was spiced with the choicest of adjectives which reflected both her poetic talent as well as her flamboyant, tom­boyish personality—the latter kind, of course, being unprintable.

Said Nigar to the reporters: “One of these blood-sucking producers, who has a face like a cauliflower and an intelligence which matches that of any illiterate tailor from Darji Gali in Lucknow, wanted me to work exclusively for years on his never-ending film. I have worked on it for 200 shifts and my role is still not com­plete.”

About some of her relatives, Nigar said: “My home is like an orphanage. For years I have been supporting more than forty-five per­sons in my home. In sheer desperation, I left my house to stay with a friend.” (Filmfare)

Ava Gardner

• Ava resisted the studio’s elaborate makeover process, refusing to thin her eyebrows and fill in a dimple with plastic surgery.
• Ava’s tolerance for both liquor and late nights was the stuff of Hollywood legends. When fellow revelers had to drag themselves home at dawn after an evening of clubbing and late-night parties, Ava still look terrific.
• The sultry, appraising gaze that Ava often gives on camera is really a squint – she needed glasses but couldn’t wear them in her pictures.
• Ava learned the Flamenco for The Barefoot Contessa (1954) and it became a favorite pastime. Needing little sleep, she would put on a flouncing skirt and dance all night. (Source – Turner Classic Movies)