Navin Nischol

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Navin Nischol became famous with Wills Cigarette advertisement Navin Nischol first came into limelight when he was studying at King George Royal India Military College, Bangalore, when he was selected from hundreds of youth to do a commercial advertisement for the popular Wills Cigarette in the early 60’s. He was widely appreciated and many told him to join cinema. Though Navin Nischol had a passion for acting but he had not decided to take it up as his career. When he discussed the idea with his father, he wrote a letter to his friend, famous filmmaker Mohan Saigal, who made hit films like Lajwanti, Afsar, Raja Jani, Sajan, Kartavya, Ek Hi Rasta etc. Navin Nischol came to Mumbai and met Mohan Saigal, who suggested him to first learn acting from FTII, Pune and promised to launch him after he completed the three year course. Navin Nischol agreed. Navin Nischol wrote history by becoming FTII’s First Gold Medalist in acting FTII had just been renovated with added new courses. Navin Nischol became the First actor to pass out from the institute with the prestigious Gold Medal in acting. On the other hand filmmaker Mohan Saigal, as promised was ready with the script. Hence for Navin Nischol it was literally a dream start. To add cherry on cake his first film Sawan Bhadon (1970) opposite debutant actress Rekha was super hit.

Navin Nischol’s weakness for women wrecked his married life! Though gifted with a Macho personality and charming nature Navin Nischol, in real life, had a very sorrowful married life. His first marriage with Neelima Kapur, sister of popular film director Shekhar Kapur and niece of legendary actor Dev Anand was held in Mumbai with pomp and spectacle. It was attended by the who’s who of Bollywood as Navin Nischol was a rising star. But as his career began to decline he took to alcohol. Also his extra-marital affairs with many women added fuel on fire and led to constant quarrels with his wife. As a result Neelima took divorce. The couple had two daughters Natasha and Nomita. Actually Navin Nischol’s married life was broken due to his weakness for women and two ladies Padmini Kapila or Dilliwali Pimma, were the reason with whom he had extramarital relation. His other marriage to Geetanjali too failed as his brother Pravin played a villainous role in instigating Navin Nischol to torture her as a result she committed suicide by hanging. In her suicide note she held both Navin and Pravin for driving her to take the harsh step. This resulted in both brothers landing in jail. Navin Nischol died on 19 March, 2011 at the age of 64 due to heart attack.

After Sawan Bhadon Navin Nischol gave a string of hits Call it destiny after the success of Sawan Bhadon that celebrated Golden Jubilee at 38 to 40 centre in India, it was a major box office bonanza. Hence Navin Nischol was signed by top filmmakers like B.R.Chopra for Dhund; N.C.Sippy for Parwana (Opposite Amitabh Bachchan and Shatrughan Sinha) , Hrishikesh Mukherjee for Buddha Mil Gaya; Birj Victoria No. 203, Lekh Tandon for Ek Baar Kaho and Chetan Anand for Hanste Zakhm etc. And all these films were super hit making Navin Nischol a star! Bad decisions and ego cost Navin Nischol his career In an interview Navin Nischol himself confessed that he was blindfolded by the sudden success that he had never imagined. As a result he made wrong choices of films and left out good movies like Gulzar’s Mere Apne, in which he had been signed to play lead role of Vinod Khanna. Besides Manoj Kumar’s mega hit film Roti Kapda Aur Makaan, he was offered the role that later Shashi Kapoor played. Another very important film that Navin Nischol rejected and repented all his life was Yash Chopra’s all time classic Deewaar. The reason why Navin Nischol rejected the film was his ego. He was quite angry with Amitabh Bachchan as he had overshadowed him in the film Parwana and taken all laurels and applause. Hence when Yashji asked him to play the police officer role (later played by Shashi Kapoor) he declined wondering Bachchan would again overpower him! Incidentally after Amitabh Bachchan became a superstar, Navin Nischol realized his folly and when Manmohan Desai asked him to play a police officer role opposite Amitabh Bachchan in his film Desh Premee, Navin Nischol agreed. But it was too late. Navin Nischol switched to character roles After failure as hero in A grade movies, Navin Nischol moved to B-Grade movies like Khanjar, Hotel, Saboot etc But when he could not survive in such movies too he switched to character role in films like Teri Baahon Mein, Samundar, The Burning Train and Major Saab. Occasionally, his talent was recognized but towards the end of his career in films like Raju Ban Gaya Gentelman, Khosla ka Ghosla, Aastha (with Rekha) and Break Ke Baad Navin Nischol joined TV to make a living Though Navin Nischol was broken as an actor but he lived a princely lifestyle hence to make a living he joined TV and did many serials like Rishte Naate, Farmaan, Junoon, Waqt Ki Raftaar and the most popular Dekh Bhai Dekh, with Farida Jalal and Shekhar Suman.