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Actor Asha Parekh, who was recently announced as the recipient of the prestigious Dadasaheb Phalke Award — the highest film-related honour in the country — spoke about her life and career at the Indian Film Festival of Boston recently. Speaking with Connect FM Canada, she recalled a particularly scary stalker incident, and said that her male co-stars were afraid of approaching her because of how ferociously protective her mother was.
She also commented on the remixes of popular songs from her films, and called them awful. She said, “The sweetness of the original songs are drowned out by loud drums and beats in the remixes. The words are lost.” She said that this isn’t limited to remixes, but is indicative of a larger trend, where we’re losing touch with our own culture. “We have forgotten our own dance traditions, and we’re trying to copy Western dance.” She did, however, single out director Sanjay Leela Bhansali. She said, “Sanjay Leela Bhasali is an exception. He’s bound by it, you see. You can see the respect for Indian culture in his work.”
Recalling her stalker situation, she said, “There was once a Chinese man who started living outside my house. When people would tell him to leave, he’d pull out a knife and say that he wanted to marry me. I called up the police commissioner, and the man was arrested. The commissioner later told me that the man had written me a letter from prison, asking for my help in securing his release. I wondered, I’m the one who has had you arrested, why would I help you get released?”
Calling her mother her ‘backbone’, the actor said that no male co-star dared approach her, for fear of her mother. Asked how her mother protected her, she said, “She never allowed anyone to come near me. People were scared, I’m being very frank. There were quite a lot of heroes who used to get frightened of me, I don’t know why.”
On Tuesday, the Union Minister for Information & Broadcasting, Anurag Thakur, announced that Asha Parekh would be bestowed with the Dadasaheb Phalke Award this year. The ceremony will be held on Friday.
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