Sadhana

Sadhana (Hindi: साधना, Sindhi: ساڌھنا) is a popular Indian Bollywood actress. She was born 2 September 1941 in Karachi, Sind, which was at that time part of India and since 1947 part of Pakistan. Her cousin was actor Hari Shivdasani, the father of actress Babita.

Early life

Sadhana was born in Karachi, the only child of Shivdasanis, a Sindhi Family. Her mother schooled her at home until she turn 8 year. They fled to Mumbai after the partition of India in 1947.

Early career

Hari helped Sadhana enter films. She was a chorus girl in Raj Kapoor’s Shree 420 in 1955. She played a second lead in a Sindhi film called Abana (1958), which got her noticed and entry to an acting school. The school was run by film producer Sashadhar Mukherjee, and also had another aspiring actress named Asha Parekh as a student. When Mukherjee was casting Dil Deke Dekho (1959), he gave director Nasir Hussain a choice between Sadhana and Asha to play the heroine; Hussain chose Asha.

However, for his next project, Love in Simla (1960), Mukherjee again gave his director, R.K. Nayyar (Raj Kapoor’s assistant) a say in who should play the heroine. Nayyar chose Sadhana, and she was paired with Mukherjee’s own son Joy Mukherjee in the film. During the making of the film, Sadhana and director R.K. Nayyar fell in love, and married in 1965.

Film career

R.K. asked Sadhana to style her hair with a fringe (like Audrey Hepburn); this hairstyle later became a craze and is still referred to as the “Sadhana cut” in India .

Sadhana’s film Mere Mehboob (1963) with Rajendra Kumar was one that helped make her career and is said to have some of her most beautiful closeups in early Technicolor. However, it was Raj Khosla’s “Woh Kaun Thi?” (1964) which really became a landmark in her career and gave her the image of the “mystery girl,” where her spellbinding performance kept everyone guessing to the very end. The film became a huge hit and earned her her first Filmfare nomination as Best Actress. Khosla was so enthralled with her performance that he would cast her in two more big-budget mystery films, Mera Saaya (1966) and Anita (1967). She would earn her second Filmfare nomination as Best Actress for the blockbuster Waqt (1965), where she set another fashion trend with her tight churidar kurtas.

In the late 1960s, a thyroid problem required taking a leave to goto Boston for treatment. Thankfully, she made a successful recovery, after her health scare, and continued to deliver hits like Inteqaam (1969), Ek Phool Do Mali (1969), and Geeta Mera Naam (1974), which she also directed. She then decided to retire from acting, saying that she wanted her fans to remember her as a young, beautiful leading lady. She and her husband formed a production company afterwards.

Personal life

Sadhana married R.K. Nayyar in 1965, she was happily married to him for nearly thirty years, till his death in the late 1990s. She still lives in Mumbai meeting with many friends and family and keeping busy with her beautiful home and multiple projects.

Today, Sadhana meets regularly for lunch with other 1960’s actresses: Asha Parekh, Nanda, Waheeda Rehman, and Helen.. Its mistakenly said that her daughter is actress Sheena who recently made her debute in telegu movies and starred in Tere Sang. She is the daughter of actress Sadana Singh

Personal quotes

On director Raj Khosla who directed her in the maximum number of films: “He had become a sort of family friend, and he knew my strengths and weaknesses as an actress. I felt comfortable working with him. We vibed well together.”

Filmography