Roohi Berde

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.

Over the years, many regional actors from across India have made their mark in Hindi Cinema. Marathi actresses have also contributed significantly to Bollywood right from Lalita Pawar and Jayshree Gadkar in the golden era of ’60s to Laxmi Chhaya and Ranjana Deshmukh in the ’70s and later, Varsha Usgaonkar and Ashwini Bhave leveraging their stardom from Marathi to Bollywood movies. One such actress who came in this league during the ’70s was Roohi, who later went by the name Roohi Berde post marriage.

Roohi was a cute looking and talented actress who worked with bigwigs in the Marathi as well as Hindi industry. She did less than ten films in Bollywood yet managed to make her presence felt, even in her short filmography. Her contribution in Marathi Cinema as well as theatre is of course, significantly higher.

Born as Padma in early ’50s in Mumbai, she changed her name to Roohi just before entering the movie world. Right at a young age, Roohi started doing theatre to follow her passion for acting. Taking note of her performances in plays, many prominent filmmakers started approaching her.

In those days, Roohi was said to be a lookalike of actress Jaya Bhaduri. Coincidentally, both Roohi and Jaya were considered by director Hrishikesh Mukherjee to play the lead role in his film Guddi (1971). Finally, Jaya Bhaduri bagged the coveted role.

Around that time, Roohi’s Marathi play Darling Darling became a huge success and she caught the eye of famous writer Madhusudhan Kalelkar and everyone’s beloved Dada Kondke. Kalelkar recommended her name to director Raja Thakur, who cast her in his film Javai Vikat Ghene Aahe (1973) which was her Marathi debut.

The same year, top director Manmohan Desai signed Roohi for his film Aa Gale Lag Jaa (1973) which became her first Bollywood release. In this film, Roohi played an important role of Shatrughan Sinha’s younger sister Tikki, who is in love with her skating teacher and single parent Shashi Kapoor. Aa Gale Lag Jaa went on to become a box office hit and Roohi’s character Tikki received tremendous appreciation plus recall value.

Roohi went on to work with big names from Hindi and Marathi industry like Dharmendra, Shashi Kapoor, Shatrughan Sinha, Ramesh Deo, Amol Palekar, Ashok Saraf, Ramesh Bhatkar, Ravindra Mahajani, Nilu Phule and Raviraj. She was part of some big films like Agar (1977), Azaad (1978), Dost Asava Tar Asa (1978) and Duniya Kari Salaam (1979). One of her biggest hits in Marathi was the Diwali release of 1976 Aaram Haraam Aahe with then newcomer Ravindra Mahajani. The songs of this movie became quite popular.

In the ‘70s, Roohi worked in two Hindi films with actor Jeetendra: Suntan (1976) and Ek Hi Rasta (1977). Suntan remains the only double role (of mother and daughter), she played in her entire career. In Ek Hi Rasta, she played a negative role of the money minded sister-in-law of Shabana Azmi and her character had a funny name Vasna Singh.

Till the mid ’80s, Roohi continued to play character or supporting roles in significant Marathi films like Sundara Satarkar (1981), Galli Te Dilli (1982), Mumbaicha Fauzdar (1984), Zakhmi Wagin (1984), Lekh Challi Sasarla (1984), Maza Ghar Maza Sansar (1986), Dhakti Soon (1986) and many more. In Bollywood, Roohi worked in movies like Bezubaan (1982), Hero (1983) and her final Hindi film Asha Jyoti (1984), which was with superstar Rajesh Khanna.

While working in films, Roohi did Marathi theatre as well and it is here, she met a struggling actor of that time called Laxmikant Berde, a guy who needs no introduction. While he was still a struggler, Roohi predicted his stardom. When people would come to take her autograph, Roohi would ask them to also take autograph of Laxmikant Berde as he would be a future star.

Roohi’s prediction indeed came true and Laxmikant Berde became a star in the coming years but they never played main leads opposite each other as she had completely switched to character roles by then. They did work together in hit films like Dhakti Soon (1986), Khatyal Sasu Nataal Soon (1987), Mamla Porincha (1988) and Balache Baap Bramhachari (1989). They also worked in the popular Doordarshan serial Nasti Aafat (1989).

In 1985, Roohi married Laxmikant Berde who was still not a big star and started using the name Roohi Berde in her films post marriage. But in Hindi, she was always known as Roohi as she did not do any Bollywood movie after marriage. In fact, Roohi reduced her work substantially and stuck to a few Marathi movies only. She had small insignificant roles in Doctor Doctor (1991), Bandalbaaz (1991), Ek Full Chaar Half (1991) and Chikat Navra (1994) – all featuring her husband who had become a superstar by then. Interestingly, Laxmikant Berde played himself in Bandalbaaz and Roohi is shown with him on shoots. He refers to her by her real name Padma in this film. In Mumbai Te Mauritius (1991), Roohi had a negative role. It is the only film where she is credited by her real name as Padma Berde.

Her last released movie was Kamaal Majhya Baikochi in 1997 starring Laxmikant and Alka Kubal. Roohi played their neighbour and surprisingly, the length of her role was much better than the previous films.

In her last few years, it is said that Roohi and Laxmikant Berde were not living together due to some domestic issues. Roohi didn’t have much work in hand and was also dealing with certain personal problems.

On 5th April 1998, Roohi suffered a stroke while travelling in a car in Mumbai and passed away of brain haemorrhage. Tributes came in from Marathi as well as Hindi industry where she worked for over two decades. Roohi may not have had a spectacular innings in Bollywood but her cute and bubbly Tikki of Aa Gale Lag Jaa lives forever!!