Ekta

QAMYAB – THE FORGOTTEN GEMS OF BOLLYWOOD

Qamyab is our humble tribute to all those lesser-known actors, one hit wonders and junior artists who we see umpteen times but don’t know about; beyond their faces. These actors have been an integral part of Bollywood but didn’t get their due. This series is our sincere attempt to put a name to these faces, familiarize them to our readers and celebrate their achievements in life – however big or small. We believe that every artist contributes in his/her own way to the cinema’s success. Qamyab will explore the unknown lives of such actors and artists as we believe even these forgotten gems of Bollywood deserve their due recognition today.

The early ’90s saw many actresses making their big Bollywood debut. A few of them like Urmila Matondkar, Shilpa Shetty, Tabu, Karisma Kapoor, Raveena Tandon, Kajol, Manisha Koirala and the late Divya Bharti made it big while others like Aneeta Ayoob, Ruchika Pandey, Sheebha, Mamta Kulkarni, Priyanka, Shikha Swaroop, Pratibha Sinha and Pooja Bedi fizzled out after a promising start.

One such actress, who came around that time and worked with top stars like Sanjay Dutt, Salman Khan, Aamir Khan, Akshay Kumar, Aditya Pancholi and Mithun Chakraborty, is our forgotten gem for today. She couldn’t make it big in Bollywood but is still remembered for her glamorous image and beautiful looks.

Yes, we are talking about Ekta and would like to transport you back to the ’90s era when she acted in some popular movies and worked with the aforementioned stars. Let’s explore her life journey. All set?!! here we go…

Ekta was born to Arun Kumar and Chandraprabha Sharma on 27th March, 1971 as Aarti. Arun Kumar was the roommate of superstar Dharmendra in his struggling days and was said to be an army veteran, who later worked as a printer in the film industry. This is how Ekta or Aarti had an indirect connection to Bollywood.

Aarti was to be launched in a film titled Jawani Ki Leheren (1988) by director Sanil Khosla but got replaced at the last minute by some other actress.

Our readers must be eager to know how Aarti Sharma became Ekta. Well, that’s quite an interesting story. The ever-popular legend Dev Anand was known to launch new faces and few of his discoveries tasted success, which include Jackie Shroff, Tabu and Tina Munim.

Aarti Sharma was also a Dev Saahab discovery, whom he spotted on the sets of his film Sachche Ka Bol Bala (1989) and decided to launch her in his next movie titled Awwal Number (1990). This film was based on cricket and he advised her to change her name Aarti to avoid confusion with existing heroine Aarti Gupta (Surendranath). Aarti choose the name Ekta for her career, which was actually the name of her younger sister.

Awwal Number was like a dream debut for Ekta as she was being launched by none other than Dev Anand and was cast opposite the new sensation Aamir Khan along with the dashing Aditya Pancholi. The film revolved around cricketing rivalry and a terror plot of blowing the stadium where the game would be played. The focus was obviously on Dev Saahab himself playing the central character, who is the cricket board chief as well as the police commissioner. All this was too much for the audience to digest and the film was a box office bomb.

Interestingly, Awwal Number had another glamorous actress called Neeta Puri cast opposite Aditya Pancholi, who played the much-appreciated negative character of Maria. As a result, Ekta got sidelined despite playing the main heroine.

After the debacle of her debut film, Ekta did around ten films between 1990 and 1992; the first being Solah Satrah, which was the launchpad of Arbaaz Ali Khan, son of veteran villain Ajit. The same year, she got her first hit with the multistarrer Paap Ki Kamaee (1990) opposite superstar Mithun Chakraborty.

The year 1991 saw some notable movies featuring Ekta like Fateh with Sanjay Dutt, Namcheen and Hafta Bandh with Aditya Pancholi, Khatra with Sumeet Saigal and above all, the blockbuster Saajan with Salman Khan.

While Madhuri Dixit was the lead heroine in Saajan, Ekta played the love interest of Salman, who tries to seduce his physically challenged friend Sanjay Dutt just for fun, which takes a wrong turn. Her character was bit vampish and she had most scenes with Salman Khan including the popular song ‘Pehli baar jo dekha’. Unfortunately, Saajan’s super success couldn’t help her career at all.

Ekta followed up Saajan with Vansh (1992) in which she was the lead heroine and this movie turned out to be the surprise hit of that year. She was cast opposite Siddharth (Sushant Ray) making his Bollywood debut and had two lovely songs ‘Aa bhi jaa’ and ”Aake teri baahon mein’ picturised on her in a glamorous avatar.

Her next few releases were Shiv Raam, Yudhpath and Tahalka. While Shiv Raam was a flop, the multistarrer Tahalka directed by the Gadar (2001) fame Anil Sharma, was a huge hit of 1992. The film had four leading ladies – Sonu Walia, Pallavi Joshi, Shikha Swaroop and Ekta. But amongst all, Ekta had the lengthier role as Capt. Anju Sinha and was paired opposite her regular co-star Aditya Pancholi. Interestingly, Ekta starred with Aditya in close to five movies and they made a good onscreen pair.

The one film Ekta was heavily banking on to elevate her career was Yudhpath (1992) as the lead cast of Vansh was being repeated in it and she was quite happy with her role. Unfortunately, this college drama bombed badly at the ticket windows. Yudhpath might have not contributed to Ekta’s career but it benefitted her personally as she met the most popular villain of that time Mohnish Bahl on its sets and both fell in love during its shooting. Soon enough, Ekta got married to Mohnish in an elaborate wedding ceremony attended by their close friends and Bollywood bigwigs.

In the same year, Ekta appeared in the surprise B grader Basanti Tangewali. The film’s title was obviously inspired from Hema Malini’s iconic character from Ramesh Sippy’s all-time blockbuster Sholay (1975).