Salma Agha

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.

A beauty blessed with a sweet voice is a rarity in Bollywood. Hardly any actors have done consistent playback singing for themselves. A handful like Sulakshana Pandit, Vasundhara Das and Parineeti Chopra come to mind.

Our forgotten gem for today, is not just a radiant beauty but also gifted with golden voice. She delivered two consecutive box office hits on debut, yet remains highly underrated today. We are talking about Salma Agha.

Salma was born in Karachi, Pakistan on 29th October, 1954 to Liaqat Gul Agha and Nasreen Agha. Liaqat was a trader of antiques and precious items, while Nasreen was the daughter of Rafiq Ghaznavi, a noted Pashtun musician. Salma’s grandmother Anwari Bai Begum was one of the earliest actresses of Indian cinema, known for her film Heer Ranjha (1932).

It might surprise our readers that Salma Agha is a distant relative of the late great Prithviraj Kapoor. The relation is from her mother’s side as Anwari Bai had married the Kapoor cousin Jugal Kishore Mehra after divorcing Rafiq Ghaznavi.

Born in an affluent family, Salma was raised in Karachi and later, moved to London at the age of nine years. She started singing from school itself and at the age of just sixteen, worked with her sister Sabina on a record titled Agha. The album featured the popular ABBA hits redone in Hindi.

Sometime in 1980, the showman of Bollywood Raj Kapoor organised his son Rishi’s wedding reception with Neetu Singh in London, which was attended by all the stalwarts of the industry. Veteran filmmaker B.R. Chopra, fresh from the success of his Insaf Ka Tarazu (1980), was one of the attendees at the function. He was working on a Muslim social titled Talaq Talaq Talaq and was on lookout for a fresh face to play the heroine.

It was at this star-studded function that Salma Agha approached B.R. Chopra through Raj Kapoor for the much-coveted role. Salma not only impressed Chopra to sign her for Talaq Talaq Talaq but also bagged the role of playback singer for all its songs. The women-oriented film revolved around the taboo subject of triple talaq and generated controversy before its release. Its title was changed to Nikaah and the movie released in theatres in mid-1982.

Nikaah became a super hit at the box office and all its lead actors – Salma Agha, Deepak Parashar and Raj Babbar – became overnight stars. Particularly, Salma received tremendous appreciation for her scintillating and realistic performance and till date, Nikaah is regarded as the strongest debut by any actor-singer.

The super success of Nikaah triggered more offers for Salma, which she chose meticulously. Her next release was B. Subhash’s Kasam Paida Karne Wale Ki (1984) with superstar Mithun Chakraborty opposite her.

Unlike Nikaah, Salma Agha had a glamorous role in Kasam Paida Karne Wale Ki. She matched steps with the dancing sensation Mithun da quite impressively. The film became a box office hit and Salma was now on a hattrick

Simultaneously, Salma was acting in Pakistani movies as well and during the shooting of Hum Aur Tum (1985), she met and fell in love with her co-actor Javed Sheikh. Our readers may know Javed better as Shah Rukh Khan’s dad in Om Shanti Om (2007). Salma and Javed got married shortly later and despite being a mediocre film, Hum Aur Tum became a box office success due to the couple’s chemistry, on and off the screen

Back in India, Salma Agha’s next two movies were Salma and Oonche Log (both 1985). While Salma reunited her with Nikaah co-actor Raj Babbar, Oonche Log was her only collaboration with the first superstar of Bollywood Rajesh Khanna. Unfortunately, both the films bombed badly at the box office and adversely impacted Salma’s Bollywood career

Post marriage with Javed Sheikh, Salma didn’t have a Bollywood release for the next two years. She returned only in 1988 with not one but a lineup of four movies together. These were Jungal Ki Beti, Paanch Fauladi, the multistarrer Mahaveera and Kanwarlal in which she appeared in an item number. All the four films fared miserably at the ticket windows.

Next, Salma Agha appeared in Rajkumar Kohli’s Pati Patni Aur Tawaif (1990), which was an unofficial remake of her own Pakistani hit Bazaar-E-Husn (1988). Salma reprised her role of the ‘tawaif’ from the original. Pati Patni aur Tawaif was an average grosser and the last notable success for Salma in Bollywood. Her final Bollywood film was Meet Mere Man Ke (1991), in which she got to work with the Cowboy of India Feroz Khan.

Salma Agha’s singing career was marked with big hits like ‘Dil ke armaan’, ‘Come closer’, ‘Mera Naam Salma’, ‘O Sajana’ and ‘Mujhe log kehte hain’. Her voice was as sweet as her looks and she remained the rare singer-actor of the ’80s era.

In her personal life, Salma divorced Javed Sheikh after a few years. She married the famous squash player Rahmat Khan in 1989 and has two children from him. They are Sasha Agha and Ali Agha Khan. Sasha Agha tried her luck in Bollywood with Aurangzeb (2013), in which she was cast opposite Arjun Kapoor. She has inherited her mother’s genes and is a noted singer today.

Salma Agha divorced Rahmat Khan in 2010 and a year later, married the Dubai based businessman Manzar Shah. She lives in Mumbai now and was granted citizenship by the Government of India in 2017.

Today, Salma shuffles between Mumbai and Dubai and actively participates in various events and functions. She has no desire to return to Bollywood films at least for now. We wish this singing beauty all the very best in life!!