Sandhya Shantaram, who passed away on October 4 and was known on screen as Sandhya, worked exclusively in her husband’s films. Most of them were instant classics: from her first appearance in V Shantaram’s Amar Bhoopali in 1951, to classics such as Jhanak Jhanak Payal Baaje, Navrang and Pinjra, Shantaram was to Sandhya what Carlo Ponti was to Sophia Loren.
Sanjay Leela Bhansali on once hoping for a glimpse of Sandhya Shantaram while mixing his film at Rajkamal Kalamandir studio, “We only saw her on screen”
Sandhya had no life outside Shantaram’s world. When he passed away in 1990, she was left stranded between this world and the other. From that point onwards, Sandhya led a life of a complete recluse in the home she and the filmmaker had made on the top floor of their Rajkamal Kamalamandir recording studio.
Sanjay Leela Bhansali, a huge fan of Shantaram, hoped for a glimpse of Sandhya when he was mixing his films at Rajkamal. “But it never happened,” he said. “We never saw Sandhya ji in person. Her screen images remain with us forever, particularly her electrifying dancing in Navrang, Jhanak Jhanak Payal Baje, Pinjra and Jal Bin Machhli Nritya Bin Bijli. She was a true star, in the sense that we only saw her on screen, like Suchitra Sen.”
After V Shantaram’s death, Sandhya was alone with no relatives or friends. She had no children of her own. Her last years were spent alone without visitors. So isolated was she from public life that she had no one to take her to the hospital when she fractured her leg, until the househelp arrived in the morning.
Sandhya never worked for any director except V Shantaram. Not that she had anything to prove outside her husband’s creative ambit. Her beautiful backyard was her playground.
Also Read: Veteran actress Sandhya Shantaram passes away at 94
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