Rehana Sultan

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Rehana Sultan was a film buff and bold lady Rehana Sultan hails from Bahai community, a religion established by Bahaullah in 1983 in Iran. Though people of this community have Muslim name but they do not follow Islam hence they do not classify themselves as Muslim. She was born and brought up in Allahabad and passed her High School from Allahabad in 1967. She was a film buff. As she was gorgeous and had a stunning figure hence she decided to become an actress. Her parents were supportive but told her to first do a course in acting and then try luck in Mumbai. She listened to her parents and got selected at Film and Telivison Institute of India ( FTII) which was just established. Since FTII was a brain child of Indian filmmakers hence students of FTII were given first preference in Bollywood.

Rehana Sultan had a good marriage with filmmaker B.R. Ishaara Rehana Sultan came from affluent family. During the making of Chetna filmmaker B.R. Ishaara came close to Rehana Sultan but the relation did not jump INto marriage. They gradually understood each other. Rehana admired Ishaara as an intelligent writer and director while Ishaara was spellbound with Rehana’s stunning beauty. The two married after approval from Rehana’s father, who was a British style gentleman and had faith in her daughter.

Rehana Sultan is the First FTII student to get work in Bollwood No sooner Rehana Sultan completed her course at FTII, she got a red carpet welcome in Bollywood. Reason, she was from the first batch of FTII and created history by becoming the First actress to fetch her debut film Dastak (1970) directed by eminent film maker Rajinder Singh Bedi. The film was an art cinema tackling the lives of prostitutes in red light area. Dastak was a success both critically and commercially. Hence Rehana Sultan became a star. Further with her next film Chetna in which she played a prostitute, she literally created sensation with her bold and seductive avatar. On the film poster itself her bare long legs created a flutter and people (particular youngster) became wild and thronged cinema halls to take a glimpse of her sexy scenes. The film was based on the rehabilitation of prostitutes and had few hits songs also like Main To Har Mod Par…..The film was a huge hit. After this she became famous as daring and bold actress who dared to bare. She did few more such films like Man Tera Tan Mera, Tanhai, Prem Parvat, Dil Ki Rahen, Ek Ladki Badnaam Si etc. but fail to create her magic. In her bit to run away from sexy roles she did few wrong films Her sexy image virtually ruined her career. After Dastak she was only offered roles to display her skin clad in sari under rain, bathroom scenes and prostitute roles. Hence in a bid to escape from such roles she selected few wrong films like Albeli, Zindagi Aur Toofan, Nawab Sahib, Deen Aur Imaan, Jwala Daaku etc. which totally ruined her career. She also did experimental films like the famous political satire Kissa Kursi Ka (1977) and Vijay Anand’s Hum Rahe Na Hum (1984) with Shabana Azmi but failed to succeed. She even did a Punjabi film Putt Jattan De (1981) with Shatrughan Sinha but failed to acquire fame. In her entire career after Dastak and Chetna, she did just 2 more hit films viz. Khotey Sikkay and Agent Vinod.