Vidya Sinha

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Vidya Sinha was born in family that were in film line. Her father was a film producer Pratap S. Rana, also known as Rana Pratap Singh. Her maternal grandfather was director Mohan Sinha, a native resident of Jodhawali village in Punjab. Vidya Sinha she went on to pursue modelling from the age of eighteen and was awarded the title of ‘Miss Bombay’ which led her to getting a foothold in the modelling world. She modelled for some of the major brands like Colgate, Khatau Fabrics, Lipton and many more. She modelled for several brands which gave a give a kick start to her film acting career when she was first noticed by film maker Basu Chatterjee.

Vidya Sinha was earlier married to her teenage neighbour Tamilian Venkateshwaran Iyer at the age of nineteen after a brief relationship but he died in the year 1996. The couple has a daughter Jhanavi. Vidya was forced to take a break from the film industry at her career peak to raise her daughter single handed . Young Vidya along with her daughter moved to Sydney for a few years where she met with an elderly doctor Netaji Bhimrao Salunkhe online in 2001 and they got married after a brief courtship at a small wedding ceremony at a temple in Sydney. They adopted a daughter shortly thereafter. However she filed a complaint against him in 2009 , citing Physical coercion and harassment which was the main reason for them parting ways. In a latest interview has cited that she regretted the offer to do Raj Kapoor’s Satyam Sivam Sundaram which would have been a huge turnaround for her then.

Film debut and rise to prominence ( 1974-1976) Vidya Sinha made her film debut with the low key movie Raja Kaka opposite Kiran Kumar. However she rose to fame with her mentor Basu Chatterjee’s directorial off beat movie Rajnigandha in 1974. The highly successful movie saw her pairing with Amol Palekar in the lead and made her noted among Bollywood with her popular film, ‘ Chotti Si Baat’ . She followed up with a rom com with the same team which had her playing the object of desire in a comedy of errors love story. The movie saw her bringing on a supreme sense of finesse to the character and she was by then a regular popular face for the audiences. She in the meantime also went on play the lead in many smaller canvass productions like Mukti, Inkaar, Mera Jiwan and many more which were all moderate outings. She took a major detour to the glossy mainstream section of Bollywood cinema with B. R Chopra’s comedy flick Pati Patni Aur Woh which had her pairing with Sanjeev Kumar, Asrani and Ranjeeta Kaur in the lead. The comical take on extra-marital affairs had Sinha playing a dutiful wife who starts doubting her husband’s illicit relationship with his office secretary, leading to much laugh out comedy of errors situations. The next release Tumhare Liye had her sharing screen with Sanjeev Kumar once again helmed by Basu Chatterjee. Other Major Bollywood releases ( 1979-2011) Basu Chatterjee once again cast her in his comedy drama flick Safed Jhoot, where she co-starred with Vinod Mehra and Amol Palekar. She was then called upon to play a supporting role in ace director Gulzar’s mythological drama Meera which boast of an ensemble cast consisting of Hema Malini, Vinod Khanna, Shammi Kapoor, Dina Pathak and many others in the lead. The critically acclaimed movie saw her playing a side-lined character that did not have anything worthwhile to do. The movie flopped at the box office. Vidya Sinha was then spotted in the horror thriller Saboot; she was seen as one among two sisters who loses her father and husband, only to be lead on to the murder of the people behind the killings. In the same year in 1980 she was once again seen along with Rakesh Roshan and Vinod Mehra, Amjad Khan ,Yogeeta Bali and many others in the lead. The film became noted for its music and is still popular numbers but was only a mediocre outing at the time of release. She was then offered supporting role in Rajendra Kumar’s romantic drama film Love Story in 1981 along with actors like Kumar Gaurav, Vijeta Pandit and Amjad Khan. The movie went on to be a cult romantic tale in Bollywood but had nothing in special for Sinha. After another underperformer in the 1986 movie Kirayadar she took a long break from Bollywood only to comeback in the year 2011 blockbuster Salman Khan starrer Bodyguard which had her in a trivial supporting character and incidentally was her last outing till date.