Kseniya Ryabinkina

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.

Circus was one of the earliest forms of entertainment when films weren’t so popular. The circus owners would travel across the globe with their troupe to bring joy to children and adults alike. The Russians were known to be the pioneers of circus and their shows were a big hit in India too.

In the mid-’60s, Raj Kapoor – the showman of Hindi cinema – decided to make a film titled Mera Naam Joker (1970). As the name suggests, the movie revolved around a circus where the hero works as a clown. Raj Kapoor enjoyed tremendous fan following in Russia and naturally, thought of bringing in Russian troupes to India for this movie.

Mera Naam Joker had three love stories woven in its narrative; the prominent one being between Raj Kapoor’s joker and a Russian trapeze artiste. The young Russian girl chosen for this coveted role was Kseniya Ryabinkina. Her name was quite difficult to pronounce for the average Indian and so, she was known by her character name Marina. For her Indian fans, she was Marina while her near and dear ones back home called her Ksana.

Kseniya played the trapeze artiste, who falls in love with the hero Raju despite the language barrier between them. Their cute interaction in form of ‘Dada Nana Haan Haan Neeyat Neeyat’ was much appreciated by the audience. Both – Kseniya and Kapoor- shared an excellent chemistry together and this particular segment of Mera Naam Joker was highly acclaimed.

Kseniya was born in Moscow in 1945. Her father was a geo-physics doctor and her mother worked as a ballet dancer. Her elder sister Elena became an accomplished ballerina like her mother. Kseniya also followed their footsteps and started her career as ballerina in Moscow’s Bolshoi Theatre. The manner in which she landed up as Raj Kapoor’s heroine is also interesting…

Raj Kapoor scouted for talent in Russia and Kseniya believed Elena would bag the role as she was the celebrity there, not her. But after watching Kseniya’s performance at a Bolshoi Ballet, Raj Kapoor was mighty impressed and expressed a desire to meet her.

Accompanied by officials from Sovexportfilm (a body representing Russian industry), Kseniya went to meet Raj Kapoor who promptly signed her as one of his heroines in Mera Naam Joker. This was truly incredible moment for her as she had just done one Russian film called The Tale of Tsar Saltan (1967) before this. She was thrilled to be on board for the legendary Raj Kapoor’s biggest project.

When Mera Naam Joker released, Kseniya never imagined she would get so much love and appreciation from the Indian audience. She not just held her own in front of stalwarts like Kapoor, Dharmendra and Dara Singh but also carved a place in the hearts of the audience through her natural acting.

Later, Kseniya revealed that a body double was hired for the trapeze act stunts. She recollected that doing the emotional scene when Raju’s mother (Achala Sachdev) passes away in middle of the circus show was one of the most difficult scenes she shot. She was advised to use glycerine for this scene but refused it and delivered a natural performance for the sad scene.

Another scene in Mera Naam Joker where she gifts a joker doll to Raj Kapoor, became the highlight of the movie as the doll is seen as a metaphor signifying his life. It became the most iconic prop from the film and was on display at RK Studio until 2017 when a fire destroyed it along with other artefacts.

Kseniya also disclosed that she stayed in Mumbai during the shooting of Mera Naam Joker and at that time, many Indian filmmakers approached her but she refused films and returned back to Russia to do ballet. She retired at the age of forty but nevertheless, ended up working in about fifteen movies in her career. Even today, Kseniya fondly remembers the fan mail she got after Mera Naam Joker. Though the film was a commercial failure at the box office, she made many fans in India.

After Mera Naam Joker, there was not much heard about Kseniya and she was largely considered to be a one film wonder in Bollywood.

In her personal life, Kseniya married Aleksei Stychkin in 1972 and continued her journey as a ballerina. She has a son Yevgeny Stychkin, who is a film and television actor. Her husband Aleksei passed away in 1998. Kseniya is blessed with four grandchildren and really dotes on them.

It was almost forty years after Mera Naam Joker that Kseniya arrived in India again to shoot for the film Chintuji (2009) which had Rishi Kapoor in the lead role with a tribute to his late father Raj Kapoor. Incidentally, Rishi started his career with Mera Naam Joker where he played the younger version of Raj Kapoor but didn’t share screen space with Kseniya.

In Chintuji, Kseniya played the wife of the Uzbekistan Vice President who visits India and recollects her fond memories of shooting at the same location. When the Chintuji offer came to Kseniya, she was more excited in meeting Rishi Kapoor rather than acting in the movie. In an interview, Kapoor spoke of reviving old memories of Mera Naam Joker with Kseniya during the shoot.

At that time, some newspapers published photos of Kseniya in a wheelchair but those were stills from Chintuji in which her character was wheelchair bound while in reality, she was quite hale and hearty even at seventy years playing mentor to young ballerinas.

Seven years later in 2016, Kseniya was back in Mumbai to celebrate the birth anniversary event of Raj Kapoor where she met his three sons Randhir, Rishi and Rajiv Kapoor and also got to interact with her Mera Naam Joker co-star Simi Garewal. Kseniya stated in an interview that Raj Kapoor still and will always remain an icon in Russia and that she was fortunate to have worked with him. She later regretted not getting a chance to watch his grand children’s movies. Who knows, she may act with them someday!!