Jaya Bhaduri is a well known icon in the Hindi film industry and now in politics. Born on the 10th of April 1948, Jaya was a bright, vivacious child. Her Jabalpur based, Hindu Bengali parents persistent on getting their daughter convent educated, enrolled her in St. Joseph Convent schools, Bhopal. The young girl soon found her calling in the glittery world of films and theatre. She debuted with Satyajit Ray's Mahanagar at the age of 15. Inspired by this experience, Jaya decided to study acting in the Film and Television Institute of India (FTII), Pune.
Jaya Bhaduri's foray into Bollywood was with quite a brilliant performance. She starred in the 1971 film, Guddi. The Hrishikesh Mukherji film earned her a lot of appreciation and this led to her working with the famed director in a lot of future endeavors. Guddi created for Jaya a niche, that would go on to define her journey in this industry.
Jaya, desperately wanting to change her demure onscreen image, decided to take up a glamorous role in the 1972 flick, Jawani Deewani. Bhaduri also went on to feature in Anamika. She played a negative character of a woman faking amnesia in this film. She was also instrumental in popularizing Midlle cinema with films like Uphaar(1971), Parichay( 1972), Koshish (1972) and Bawarchi (1972). In the few years of her journey in Bollywood, Jaya Bhaduri had established herself as a strong and versatile actor.
As her career flourished, there was something happening on the personal front too. The shy and reticent actress met Amitabh Bachchan on the sets of her first feature film, Guddi. The tall, brooding magnificent persona floored the woman. She was in love. Rajesh Khanna, a good friend of Bhaduri's, counseled her against Amitabh. He would even snub Bachchan when he would come to visit her on the sets of Bawarchi (1972).
Jaya was successful over night, where as for Amitabh it was slow.
The love blossomed when they were filming the movie Ek Nazar. Amitabh professed his love and they were married by 1973. Zanjeer, Amitabh Bachchan's cult film was a huge box office success and to celebrate this, the couple decided to go on a vacation to London. However, Harivanshrai Bachchan, Amitabh's father refused to let them go without formalizing their relationship.
The marriage was a private affair with only a few close people in attendance. The couple went on to work in a string of iconic films after Zanjeer. Abhimaan (1973), Chupke Chupke(1973), Sholay (1975), Silsila(1981) etc were films that were great success at the box office, thus making the two a reel life star couple as well. The pair was extra ordinary. They were both highly superficial artists and constantly did well at their work. Their love blossomed with time too. However three years into their marriage, Jaya faced her biggest set back. Rumors of her husband's link up to the Southern actress Rekha started surfacing. Amitabh was filming for his movie 'Do Anjaane' in the year 1976, when he fell for the sultry actress. Their romance blossomed, constantly hampering his relationship with his wife. The sordid affair left Jaya emotionally drained. However hard the couple tried to evade the issue, they constantly got embroiled in it...
From DNA News
