MUMBAI : Hindi cinema has seen how the shelf life of actresses has been very limited and especially during the 80s and 90s, if you were a married woman, the choice of roles and work was quite less. However there is one actress who broke all norms in her time when she got married at a tender age of 15 and was a mother by 17.
The actress we are referring to is Moushumi Chatterjee. She began her acting career with the Bengali film Balika Badhu at the age of 10, which dealt with child marriages. She wanted to finish her 10th standard but was married off at the age of 15 and became a mother at 17. Her real name was Indira but Moushumi became her screen name.
Speaking about getting married at 15, Moushumi revealed the reason in a previous interview saying, “My father was very close to his elder sister and she was in the last stage of cancer. Her last wish was to see me getting married. So, my father-in-law suggested that the wedding should happen. I even skipped my exams. I also got a film around the same time. Everything was just falling into place.”
Moushumi got married to Jayanta Mukherjee, son of music director and singer Hemant Rao. She said, “At the age of 17, I became a mother. I got my own Mercedes. I didn’t even understand the meaning of success at that time. I just used to get happy seeing my face on the big screen.”
Interestingly, she was a part of the film Ghayal which had Sunny Deol in the lead. One day the latter arrived late on sets and was busy talking on the phone. The actress scolded him a lot for ruining his dad Dharmendra’s reputation. Sunny reportedly was left speechless and later apologized to the actress.
Moushumi said she was replaced in many films due to her blunt nature. She said she had signed Desh Premee and Barsaat Ki Ek Raat but was replaced overnight. She said, “I signed them but then I was out of the picture. Because I never compromise. I had to be ‘yes woman’ on everything. And I can’t do it. Even a lot of elder heroines adviced me that you have good looks and talent but you are not in the good books of the heroes.”
Moushumi was last seen in the Amitabh Bachchan and Deepika Padukone starrer Piku.
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Credit-DNA
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