My father was shaving in the balcony, he looked good. I was telling him that I want to be an actress. This is a very strong visual. I must have been five years old. We used to stay in Santa Cruz in Bombay, in a one-bedroom hall.

I was very scared of him, he had a temper.  Mom, a very beautiful woman, was still studying after she married. They – Chunibhai and Betty – had fallen in love. He had gone to see my mother’s sister for an arranged marriage. He fell in love with the sister instead. Dad used to have a black Fiat, he’d wear those grey and black suits.

Another image is of my younger sister Reem, falling off the first floor. But a sari cushioned her fall. I also fell off from this balcony on to the mali’s charpoy. The charpoy broke. I used to be a fat kid, when I’d walk by, boys would whistle the Baby Elephant Walk tune. I remember being slapped by a neighbourhood boy. I must have said something nasty to him. That slap was the first and the last time I really saw stars.

I was enormously fat but pretty. I didn’t think about my name then. Dimple sounds a bit frivolous, it has no character. When my sister Simple and I’d travel together, officials at the airports would ask, “Are your names for real?” I suppose Dad had a crazy sense of humour.  Actually, I was given another name by the present Aga Khan’s father. It was Ameena but no one ever called me that.

So, there I was the ice-cream-chocolate-six-cokes at a time type. I did the twist. I was a cute baby. A lot of love was showered on me. I did lie like every child, at studies I was a no-no. I was close to my mother. I remember dad being slapped by his father. Dad and his brother had a fight over a business deal.

Dad manufactured socks, then barrels. Pa was proud of being a factory owner. Mom raised the kids, born to her quickly. She was married when she was 16. Believe it or not, I was born when she was 17.

We were four kids. Simpi, my brother Munna, Reem and I. But I wasn’t possessive of my parents. All of us girls wore identical clothes, we would go for parties wearing the same ribbons and bibs.

Mom would see a movie a day, making dad hopping mad. We’d lie that we’d gone out shopping or to a friend’s house. Ziddi was the first movie which registered on me. I wanted to be Asha Parekh, like the girl she played, a rebel.

To me, movies were very real. It was life up there on the screen. But today’s generation knows how films are made, that there is a camera and every thing is being enacted.

Mom would sing loris like Chanda mama door ke to us. Perhaps, she could have become an actress. It’s not that I became one because she couldn’t. It’s just that she was the asli movie buff while dad liked to socialise with film people.

Sound recordist Manna Ladia and character actor Sunder were our neighbours. Dad was friendly with the Rawails, Rajendra Kumar, Joy Mukherji. Everyone said I could be a child star. Maybe that’s where it all started. The door to our house was open even when we shifted to Juhu. There was little privacy.

I was to play the kiddie version of Vyjayanthimala in HS Rawail’s Sunghursh. But tragically, I looked older than the junior Dilip Kumar. Actually, because of my tomboyish looks, it was felt I’d look older than Rishi Kapoor in Bobby. I nearly lost the role.

I was an addict of comics: Richie Rich, Wendy the Good Little Witch, Stumbo the Jumbo, Casper, L’il Lotta, Dot, Wonder Woman. After I got married, I was very shy to ask my husband (Rajesh Khanna) to give me money for comics.

What else do I recollect? Dad hitting me on two occasions for my bad school report card. Once mom hit me for wearing her panties. Yet, those were the best years of my life. No tensions, no worries.

I grew up too fast. I knew it all. I had older friends – Rita, Beena, Ranu. I had seen them wearing make-up, going out, looking very independent.

Honestly, my acting career was dad’s decision, he knew I was good for nothing else. I had read in the papers that Raj Kapoor was looking for a heroine. I knew it had to be me.

I was 13 but I had fallen seriously ill with a terrible skin illness. Raj Kapoor was told there is this beautiful girl but who may not recover from illness. Yet he saw me.

Dad’s father objected when Raj Kapoor chose me. Dad took him on and was thrown out of the family business. Seems funny but I had discovered boys by then and how.

My first boyfriend was called Kaania. He’d stand on his balcony for hours to get a glimpse of me. On another balcony, another guy would wait to see me. I felt lovely.

I slimmed down for Bobby. I felt like an actress. It was the easiest film I have ever done. I felt the emotions from within. I was conscious of being an actress. I was fine in the solo shots but with Rishi I’d be very conscious.

Again in Bobby I was trying to be older than my age. In the Beshak mandir masjid todo sequence, I looked so mature. I didn’t look like a girl of 15. I felt like a woman of 20.

In fact, when I see the song Jhoot bole, I wonder how I ever did it. I cringe, but the world loved it.