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Back in the 1940s and 1950s, the film industry wasn’t considered a reputable place to work in, especially for women. But some of the greatest stars of that era began working in the film business as teenagers, partially because careers didn’t last all that long, and partially because they came from humble backgrounds. Their families were often victims of the Partition, and they were given the responsibility of feeding many mouths. Geeta Bali, for instance, began working as a 12-year-old. But it was after she starred in Kedar Sharma’s film Sohag Raat that she became a star.
Kedar Sharma is credited with having played a key role in introducing icons such as Raj Kapoor, Madhubala, and Bharat Bhushan to the film industry. Geeta Bali’s son, Aditya Raj Kapoor, said that her career changed overnight after Kedar Sharma cast her in Sohag Raat. In an interview with The Times of India, he recalled tracing his mother’s family, and discovering more about his grandfather.
He recalled that Geeta’s father was a “Pandit as well as Sikh” as he was born a Hindu and converted to Sikhism. He sang bhajans at the Golden Temple and became a philosopher. He visited people’s houses for satsang and Geeta would go with him. “Geeta would also go along with him. How much would a philosopher would earn? So, Geeta ji had to take up acting. She took up theatre first. Her community boycotted her. So, she ran away to Lahore and joined All India Radio and became a singer there at the age of 13-14,” he said.
He recalled that she did two films in Lahore and then moved to Bombay, and got introduced to Kedar Sharma. She did a few films, and before she knew it, she was a star. “And somewhere around that time, Mr Shammi Kapoor fell in love with her. At that time, Shammi ji had 15 flops to his name. Geeta ji was a top star but she decided to settle down at that time. She gave up her stardom completely in the blink of a second.”
Kedar Sharma himself recalled meeting Geeta for the first time, in an appearance on the show Ek Mulaqat. The interview was conducted just a few months before his death in 1999. He recalled, “Geeta was one of my favourites. She wasn’t educated, she came from nothing. But she knew that if she works hard, nobody can stop her. There used to be a dance master named Pandit Gyan Shankar, and he came to me one day with folded hands. He said, ‘Sharma ji, there is a poor girl named Geeta. She and her blind father have been living in a house next to the railway tracks. Please, could you come meet her, she is like my child.”
Kedar Sharma went to Geeta’s residence, and remarked at how spartan it was. “There was no place for me to even sit. They place a slab of wood, and covered it with a sheet, and asked me to sit there. And the second I sat down, I saw the girl I’d come to meet. That was Geeta. I selected her,” he said. Kedar Sharma cast Geeta again in the film Bawre Nain, alongside Raj Kapoor. She married Shammi Kapoor, but died at the young age of 34 of smallpox.
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