Celebrity Column | Taped Confessions, writes Sajid Khan

What I am about to tell you is from the most classified files of the Indian film industry. Only a handful of people know about it. Including me. True, shocking facts of the ’70s involving a huge star, a very popular heroine and a very popular filmmaker.

This small-town girl had great ambitions of making it big in the film industry. She left no stone unturned to make it big. The casting couch was no obstacle. In fact, she used to boast to her girl friends, ‘if you have to make it big, make sure you make his big.’ She started off with B-Grade cinema, but when she caught the fancy of this big filmmaker, (who was known for his opulent movies) she knew she could hit big time. He started wining and dining her, much to the wrath of his wife. His wife, a popular playback singer was the rakhi sister of this huge star. When the film maker announced his next big film with a very big action hero, he took her as the heroine. She knew she had arrived. But, the filmmaker was very possessive and made sure that the action star stayed away from her in between shots. Their affair was hush-hush but, the heroine knew that it wouldn’t last. The filmmaker even spoke of leaving his wife for her. When the wife came to know that the matter had become so serious, she asked her rakhi brother to help her. The plan she made was that he (the huge star) would take the heroine in his film and make her bitch about the cheating filmmaker.

This conversation would be recorded on a tape recorder and later played back by the wife to the filmmaker. Everything went according to plan. The heroine thought that because she was now an A-lister, she got the film on merit. The filmmaker wasn’t possessive about her, particularly in this case, because he knew that the hero was his wife’s rakhi brother. What happened next was shocking. The hero invited her for lunch to his make-up room and put his tape recorder on. He initiated the conversation by badmouthing her director boyfriend, because he wanted her to join in. But she started badmouthing the director’s wife. That she didn’t just have a drinking problem, but that she also couldn’t keep her husband happy, sexually. And it is the director, who was the suffering victim in that marriage. Since the plan was failing, the hero ended the lunch and said ‘I am going to take a nap’. As soon as she left, he removed the tape recorder from under his pillow and checked it. At that very moment, she entered as she had forgotten her cigarette packet. The hero was speechless and so was she. The next thing you know she was dropped from the film. And her director boyfriend also broke up with her because he came to know she had an intimate lunch with the hero in his make-up room. For the wife, the plan worked even after failing. That tape was heard for many years by several people in the film industry. They say, over the decades, more and more copies were made.

So did you like it? I bet you did. And oh, by the way… APRIL FOOL.