‘Rajesh Khanna’s dates were impossible to get’: Sharmila Tagore says she could’ve been ‘sued’ for compromising ‘Sapno Ki Rani’ shoot

She said, “When I was working in Aradhana – it was taking a couple of years to be made – Manik da called me and offered me the role in Aranyer Din Ratri. It required one month at a stretch, and that was clashing with ‘Sapno Ki Rani’ being shot in Darjeeling. Rajesh Khanna’s dates were impossible to get, because he was working with 12 producers who had introduced him.” Sharmila said that she told Shakti Samanta that she was going to accept Ray’s offer, which made the filmmaker ‘pull his hair out’.

She continued, “Kaka’s scenes with Sujit Kumar were shot in Darjeeling, and my scenes were shot in the studios, with rear projection. That was a huge compromise, and I think I would have been sued in today’s time. But because Aradhana became such a huge success, everything was forgiven, and I was repeated in his (Samanta’s) later films.” Sharmila said that Aranyer Din Ratri, on the other hand, became internationally acclaimed, and is still well-regarded in France.

Sharmila Tagore got her start as a teenager in the films of Satyajit Ray, and emerged as one of the biggest female stars of the ’70s. She was most recently seen in the Disney+ Hotstar family drama Gulmohar, co-starring Manoj Bajpayee.