Helen Ann Richardson Khan walked hundreds of miles to reach India.
Veteran Bollywood actress Helen Ann Richardson Khan, who mesmerised everyone with her charm, beauty, style and acting in the 70s, of course, needs no introduction. She was one of the most popular actresses back then.
But do you know she was a refugee in India? Yes! Helen, who was born on 21 November 1938 in Rangoon, Burma, to an Anglo-Indian father and a Burmese mother, survived World War II. She escaped Japan and came to India through the forest. During that time, she starved and started looking like a skeleton.
Her father died during World War II. In one of the interviews, Helen revealed that “we trekked alternately through wilderness and hundreds of villages, surviving on the generosity of people, for we were penniless, with no food and few clothes. Occasionally, we met British soldiers who provided us with transport, found us refuge and treated our blistered feet and bruised bodies, and fed us. By the time we reached Dibrugarh in Assam, our group had been reduced to half. Some had fallen ill and been left behind, some had died of starvation and disease.”
She added, “my mother miscarried along the way. The survivors were admitted to the Dibrugarh Hospital for treatment. Mother and I had been virtually reduced to skeletons and my brother's condition was critical. We spent two months in hospital. When we recovered, we moved to Calcutta, and sadly my brother died there due to smallpox.”
She quit her schooling because her family needed her support her family. Her mother started working as a nurse, but her salary was not enough to support her family of four members.
A family friend, an actress known as Cuckoo, introduced her to Bollywood (Hindi cinema) when a family friend. She helped her find jobs as a group dancer in the films Shabistan (1951) and Awaara (1951). But her major break was in 1958, aged 19 with her song Mera Naam Chin Chin Chu in Shakti Samanta's film, Howrah Bridge, which was sung by Geeta Dutt.
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