Jameela Malik talks about the exciting times in the film school and the struggling years as a young artiste.Jameela Malik was in the company of extraordinary minds in the FTII. She rubbed shoulders with John Abraham and K G George, Shaji N Karun and K R Mohanan, Jaya Bhaduri and Rehana Sultan. The veteran talks about the exciting times in the film school and the struggling years as a young artiste.
My mother was keen on sending me to the Film and Television Institute of India. She did everything from filling up the application to mailing it to Pune. The journey to Madras for the initial test was unforgettable. That was my first long-distance travel from Thiruvananthapuram. My mother was accompanying me. We stayed at the house of playback singer B Vasantha, who was my mother’s friend.
There was a small crowd to write the test. To my shock, I was among the toppers in the test. I still had to pass the audition. Vasantha helped me face the audition. Her character was as sweet as her voice.
The candidates were required to perform an act during the audition. I presented a one-act play named ‘Lottery’. Bhimsingh, Jagat Murari and P Bhanumathi watched my performance with a smile on their lips.
Pune days
The institute was not too unfamiliar to me. Of course I was scared but I was greeted by a gang of Malayalis, including K G George, Ramachandra Babu, K R Mohanan and Shaji N Karun. They were the seniors. Our batch had 12 students. Manju and I were the only girls in the batch. There was another student from south India - the handsome Omsuri Gandhi. He left the institute after three months.
Principal Roshan Taneja was a loving teacher. We girls were put up in a building next to his residence.
Jaya Bachchan (then Jaya Bhaduri) was our senior. She mockingly ragged us. She made us sing Hindi songs. She and the other seniors broke into laughter when they listened to our accented Hindi. I can still hear her laughter. Jaya’s boyfriend Amitabh Bachchan used to frequent the institute. Girls were very few in the institute. Jaya’s close pal was Rashmi Sharma. They were always together. Rashmi later married Anil Dhawan.
Jaya BachchanJohn Abraham was also around. He always cared for me. The Malayali gang was there too. George seemed to be their undeclared leader. George shot his diploma film, ‘Faces’, with me in the lead. Ramachandra Babu was the cameraman. Perhaps I was the first heroine Babu watched through his viewfinder.
Shaji N Karun was their junior. He was a shy boy. I couldn’t help remembering those days when I watched his world-famous movies later.
I had never seen anyone as gentle as Mohanan in my days in the institute. A Kabir Rawther and M Azad were popular too.
I also acted in the diploma film of Sudheendra Chowdhary. Vice-principal Jagat Murari recommended me to act in ‘Vilaap’. Everyone was afraid of him. My mother had entrusted my care to him. Whenever he spotted me roaming around with boys, he would call me. My friends would vanish into thin air!
I acted in ‘Jai Jawan Jai Makan’, a short movie directed by Vishram Bedekar. I acted with my senior Ravi Menon as a penniless couple who lived beneath a stair. Menon was an exceptional talent. Jaya Bhaduri also acted in the movie.
Gopal Datt was the star among our teachers. He made a movie titled ‘Pareeksha’. I acted along with Vijay Arora in that movie. Arora later became a busy actor in Hindi. Mithun Chakraborty was our junior. His rise was phenomenal.
When Mrinal Sen visited the institute to give us a lecture, I was the only girl in the hall. “One lady and gentlemen,” he greeted us, sparking a laugh riot. He interacted with us after the class. He was happy to learn that I was from Kerala. He went to the canteen with the students. We all had a good time, sipping cola and cracking jokes.
We were not assured of many opportunities. One of our classmates, Rehana Sultan, acted in ‘Chetna’. It was directed by our teacher B R Ishara. They were together in life too.
Life is a stage
After the course, I stayed on in Bombay for some time with a hope of getting an offer. My uncle was living in the city. I lost many of the offers at the last minutes. Some others were inordinately delayed. I returned home to Thiruvananthapuram.
I was not disappointed. N N Pisharody, the director of ‘Ninamaninja Kalpadukal’, cast me in ‘Ragging’. Vincent played the protagonist. The movie was not well received. It was more like an experimental film.
Jameela in her early days‘Ragging’ had a stellar cast including P J Antony, Sudheer, Rani Chandra, Balan K Nair and Cochin Haneefa. Newspaper featured about the movie introduced me as the first Malayali woman from the Film and Television Institute of India.
Yet the my first movie to be released was K S Sethumadhavan’s ‘Adyathe Katha’. I also acted in ‘Sathi’, directed by Madhu. I acted as the younger sister of Jayabharati.
When I heard that Sethumadhavan was shooting ‘Line Bus’ in Kottayam, I went there to meet him. Bharanikkavu Sivakumar was also there looking for a chance.
K P Ummer and Prem Nazir were on the set. Ummer was acting the role of a roadside romeo. I was supposed to play a girl who slapped him. I was not at all prepared for that. Sethumadhavan laughed at my dilemma and told me to slap Ummer hard. It was supposed to be a screen test but that ended up in the movie. Whenever Ummer saw me after that, he would remind me of the slap.
John Abraham
John Abraham brought revelry to the institute. He was always pleasant despite all his wanderings. He always told me I would have a role in his movie. I saw John when I was living at Adyar in Chennai. John insisted that I dance at the Malayali Samajam meeting. I was not a trained dancer though. I obliged John and it was not a bad performance. I saved the day for him.
John AbrahamJohn took me to his sister’s house. I always travelled in buses with John.
We had rehearsed ‘Agraharathil Kazhuthai’ several times. I was supposed to be the heroine. I had never waited so much for another movie. But the shooting was always postponed for want of money or due to the idiosyncrasies of John.
Finally, he fixed a date for shooting. He assured me that the date would not change.
A scene from Agraharathil KazhuthaiOn the eve of the first day of the shoot, I had a surprise visitor - Jayabharati’s mother Saramma. She offered me a role in ‘Rajahamsam’ with Jayabharati and Prem Nazir. I told her that I had committed to John’s movie but she would not listen to me. I was in a dilemma. At last, I went with her after writing a letter to John.
The shooting was at Kodaikanal. John started his movie on the announced date. He completed the movie without me.
‘Rajahamsam’ was a hit. The movie featured the unforgettable song ‘Sanyasini nin punyasramathil...’ I was paired with Adoor Bhasi in that movie.
After the movie’s release, I was considered as a leading actor. When I returned to my house in Thiruvananthapuram, all my neighbours were there to congratulate me. Everyone said I was a star. But I was not sure if John was cross with me.
(To be continued...)
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