‘I want to be the next zohra sehgal’

The different star-mom

Rati skips the saccharin sentiments when asked how she feels about her son following her in the profession. Instead,she narrates an anecdote about how she had gone on a world concert tour with Laxmikant-Pyarelal during 1986 when she was pregnant with Tanuj and had to dance vigorously and perform on stage. “The world tours then were really whirlwind affairs with concert after concert to packed houses,unlike today. I recall Mrs. Pyarelal advising me to exercise caution and not do very demanding steps and my telling her that it was okay,I was a professional and all that. A few days ago,I met Mrs Pyarelal aunty at Sonu Niigaam’s house for Ganesh Darshan and introduced my son as an actor-to-be. And she immediately said,“Yeh wohi baccha hai na?” (Isn’t he the same boy?) You know,I think Tanuj was destined to be an actor!”

Films – her heartbeat

It was when Tanuj (her only child) stepped into teenage and got busy that Rati Agnihotri decided to return to cinema. “Now films are my heartbeat!” she says with a broad smile. “How much work I take up is my choice!” says the star,who has acted in five movies this year like Bin Bulaaye Baraati and Chatur Singh Two Star.

When she had acted in the cream of set-ups in her heroine phase and began her second phase with A-list films like Kuch Khatti Kuch Meethi,Yaadein,Kaante,Hum Tum and Dev,why did she later choose insignificant roles and small movies like these? “For me,grades of films do not exist. Even if it is a new director,for me it is about my role. New talents are so enthusiastic and charged. I am doing small but good films like Kuch Log,Diary Of A Butterfly,400,Pri & I and others.”

Rati now wants to die with her acting boots on. “My new mantra is to be the next Zohra Sehgal.” She admits that she got few films that allowed her to display her histrionic prowess in the first phase,but does not regret an innings full of many triumphs. “I had great roles in Ek Duuje…,Mujhe Insaf Chahiye and Shubhkaamna. I remember B.R.Chopra-uncle giving me a negative role in Mazdoor. He told me that if he got happy with my work,he would give me a great pivotal role. The film was Tawaif.”

In the second phase,Rati has a special place for Chupke Se…,her out-and-out negative turn. When she asked the director,‘Why choose me as Almira Kochhar?’,she was told that since her face was so innocent,no one would suspect that she was the main negative character! Another rewarding role was in Kuch Khatti Kuch Meethi. “To be appreciated by GenerationX as Kajol’s mother was a great high,” she says.

The multi-lingual heroine

Rati has done movies in Tamil,Telugu,Kannada,Malayalam,Bhojpuri,Marathi,Bengali,English and even in the New Zealand language Maori in her career. “That must be a record – 300 films in 10 languages as a heroine!” she chirps.

Rewinding to her beginnings,she says,“I spent all my life in Pali Hill in Bandra,Mumbai. My father was working for a very big company,Richardson Hindustan,and was instrumental in launching Vicks Action 500 in India. He was posted in Madras,as Chennai was then called,around 1974. I joined him as well and got into things like Dramatics. We staged the play Shakuntala in English and director Bharathiraja noticed me and approached my father for a film.”

Rati reveals that her father was very upset,“but I had stars in my eyes.” She cajoled him into agreeing because there was a two-month summer vacation till junior college began and they needed just a month. ‘It’s better than my idling away my time,right?’ she argued. “I would say that my parents and especially mom were the epitome of sacrifice for their children—- we would be at shoots for 18 hours and she had to sit doing nothing almost all the time!”

Rati’s first hero was K.Bhagyaraj-it was also his debut – and he would coach her in Tamil. When her maiden film,Puthiya Varpukkal (1979) became a blockbuster,life took a different course. She worked with the biggest heroes and makers,chalking up 35 movies in three years! There were L.V.Prasad,K.Balachander and other top filmmakers,and heroes from N.T.Rama Rao to Kamal Haasan,Rajinikanth,Krishna,Chiranjeevi,Shobhan and more. She had no time to breathe with almost a film released every month! “I was doing one dubbing and three shoots daily,sleeping barely for a few hours,” she says.

When Prasad and Balachander joined forces for Ek Duuje…,and she hit big-time in Mumbai,Rati had to choose – between her roots,when she could be based in Mumbai and go down South to do assignments there,and between remaining in Chennai. She chose the former.

Mumbai Matinee

Her tally in Mumbai was equally spectacular – almost every hero who mattered,and the creme-de-la-creme among filmmakers. From Dharmendra,Sanjeev Kumar,Shashi Kapoor,Jeetendra,Rajesh Khanna,Amitabh Bachchan,Shatrughan Sinha and Rishi Kapoor to Mithun Chakraborty,Raj Babbar,Rakesh Roshan,Vinod Mehra,Kumar Gaurav,Rajiv Kapoor,Sanjay Dutt,Jackie Shroff and Anil Kapoor,she was serenaded by all on screen,while her roster of filmmakers was amazingly luminous,with names like B.R.Chopra,Yash Chopra,Manmohan Desai,Dev Anand,Shakti Samanta,K.Vishwanath,Subodh Mukerji,Nasir Husain,J.Om Prakash,Mohan Kumar,Anil Sharma,Basu Chaterjee,Raj Sippy,T. Rama Rao and others.

Rati has so many memories of the legends that she worked with that she says it would take a full day if she started talking. “How can I even start talking about hundreds of moments at work,during lunch and so on?” she wants to know. “I am very proud to have worked with so many stalwarts! Nasir Husainsaab,who directed Zabardast,was an evergreen genius. Devsaab,who directed Swami Dada,was the ultimate charmer. Manmohan Desai during Coolie kept the atmosphere chilled-out,just like his enjoyable films. Sanjeev Kumar was a gentleman,but such a terrific actor that I was a bundle of nerves shooting for Aiyash. Subhash Ghai still has a grouse that I had turned down three films with him as a heroine and only signed Yaadein with him in my second phase!

“And what can I say about Shammi Kapoor-uncle,Shashi Kapoor,Dilip (Kumar) saab and Raaj (Kumar) saab and not to forget Dada Moni (Ashok Kumar) and even Asit Senji? I even had films with Nutanji,Nandaji,Waheeda Rehmanji and many more. The moments we shared are timeless. I had grown up watching their films. And to work with them all was lovely.”

Rati also cherishes a lot of the music she got. “My all-time favourite remains my first film Ek Duuje Ke Liye and the song Solah baras ki bali umar,but I had lovely solos in other movies like Wada na tod (Dil Tujhko Diya),Ae hawaa mere sang sang chal (Babu),Sadiyaan beet gayi (Triveni),the songs in Tawaif and so many more,apart from duets.”

As for stars like Amitabh Bachchan (Coolie and both Kaante and Dev),Mithun Chakraborty (Phir Kabhi and Shaukeen and Mujhe Insaf Chahiye et al earlier) and Rishi Kapoor (Tawaif then and Kuch Khatti Kuch Meethi and Hum Tum later),with whom she worked in both phases of her career,she says,“We just took off from where we left! The years in-between just dissolved.”

Love,marriage – and religion

It was about three years since her return to Mumbai and when she was at her peak,that Cupid struck. “I met Anil at friend’s house. But there was no love at first sight,” recalls Rati. “We gradually became good friends and someone else had to point it out to us before we realised that we had begun to love each other!”

And so,on February 9,1985,Rati and Anil tied the knot. “I was very clear that I would quit films after marriage,so I did.” Rati’s last Hindi hit was the blockbuster Anil Sharma actioner Hukumat (1987) opposite Dharmendra. The delayed Dil Tujhko Diya with Kumar Gaurav and another Dharmendra film Dadagiri (in which she did only a cameo) did average business the same year. Her last release was Jaan-E-Wafaa (1990) featuring Farooque Sheikh and Pradeep Khayyam.

Broach the topic of the omnipresence of the Virgin Mary in her living room and Rati confesses to an affinity to churches since she is a product of missionary convent schools. “But it’s also about my bloodline. My maternal grandfather was a Portuguese who married my Hindi Brahmin naani from Goa. My paternal grandfather was a Punjabi Brahmin who married a Sardar. Now I have married a Sindhi! So I am a true Indian!” she laughs.

Rati never misses going to any church when travelling for pleasure or at work,because she loves the peace within them. She also does havan every day. “I have always been connected to the Almighty. All religions should be respected and I try and find out about the customs of all religions and their origins and of why certain things are observed or done in temples,dargahs,masjids or churches.”

Today’s cinema

While Rati admits that today’s directors are more daring and experimental,she does have a problem with some vital issues. “After Ek Duuje…,my kurta-churidar became a fashion statement,but to us fashion wasn’t the be-all and end-all. Acting was the most important,while today that is given low priority to the frills! And today’s stars have a shorter shelf-life because everyone looks alike! They get obsessed with figures and diets,whereas we ate everything and maintained ourselves better because of better,healthier lifestyles!”

Among actresses,Madhuri Dixit,Kajol and Kareena Kapoor are the last complete packages in every department – acting,looks,expressions,dance and personae,she declares. “The heroes are all good,especially the Khans and the perfectionist Hrithik Roshan with whom I have worked in Yaadein and Na Tum Jaano Na Hum. But I guess I cannot be objective about Salman Khan. After all,he’s family since my nephew Atul Agnihotri has married his sister Alvira! We worked together in Yeh Hai Jalwa. And yes,in today’s films,where’s the music?”