Sumeet Saigal

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.

Many kids have got bitten by the acting bug when they visited the movie sets with their parents, who were part of the film industry. They were children of not just film stars but also of producers, directors or other crew members like cinematographers, editors, dance directors, etc. Today’s actor also got fascinated to join Bollywood when he accompanied his father to a film studio. He is Sumeet Saigal.

Sumeet was veteran cinematographer Krishan Saigal’s son and his uncles were filmmakers Ramesh Saigal, Naresh Saigal and Suresh Saigal. His father would take him to the studios where he worked and it was around 1982 that a sixteen-year-old Sumeet visited the sets of Main Awara Hoon (1983) and made up his mind to be an actor.

Sumeet Saigal was born on 18th February, 1966 in Mumbai with sweet and charming looks. His innocent face would often make filmmakers cast him as a soft-spoken docile brother or friend of the main hero, whom the villains would easily manipulate to get even with the hero.

In the mid-’80s, Sumeet Saigal started preparing himself to be a Bollywood actor and connected with veteran dance master Kamal, who decided to formally launch him and hence, trained him in dance and horse riding. Unfortunately, this project didn’t take off.

The first film Sumeet signed was Nache Mayuri (1986), which was based on the life of its lead actress Sudha Chandran. After shooting for just three days, director T. Rama Rao replaced Sumeet with Shekhar Suman without disclosing the reason.

The ’80s decade was dominated by multistarrers and one name was famously associated with such movies – Rajkumar Kohli. Delivering big hits like Nagin (1976), Jaani Dushman (1979), Badle Ki Aag (1982) and Jeene Nahi Doonga (1984), Kohli approached Sumeet Saigal for his next multistarrer titled Insaniyat Ke Dushman (1987).

Sumeet had actually replaced Raj Kiran in the film and had the pivotal role of Dharmendra’s younger brother and Anita Raj’s boyfriend. Like Kohli’s previous hits, Insaniyat Ke Dushman had a huge star cast including his favourites Shatrughan Sinha, Dharmendra and Raj Babbar. Sumeet Saigal had a comparatively small role but his innocent face struck a chord with the audience.

Insaniyat Ke Dushman became a super hit but Sumeet didn’t achieve instant stardom. In the same year, he appeared in a triangular love story titled Imaandar. But the love triangle was between Sanjay Dutt, Farha and Rohan Kapoor while Sumeet Saigal played a negative role in the film. Though not a big success, Imaandar gave recognition to Sumeet Saigal on the acting front but also typecasted him in to second lead roles. He went on to play supporting roles in movies which featured Mithun Chakraborty, Sanjay Dutt and Govinda.

Sumeet did play lead roles in movies like Aag Ke Sholay (1988), Nishanebazi (1989), Sindoor Aur Bandook (1989), Apna Desh Paraye Log (1989), Tu Nagin Main Sapera (1989) and Ab Meri Baari (1989). But all of these were small town B grade films which didn’t do anything for his career.

One of his successful mainstream films during this time was Lashkar (1989), which had the legendary Dev Anand, Aditya Panscholi, Hemant Birje and Javed Jaffrey along with Sumeet Saigal in the lead. Apart from Madhavi’s cameo opposite Dev Anand, Sumeet Saigal was the only hero in the movie who had a heroine (Sonam) cast opposite him.

The year 1990 proved lucky for Sumeet Saigal, where he had around seven releases including Sudhakar Bokade’s Nyay Anyay in which he played the lead role. His character was named Sumeet, a soft-spoken shy guy, who turns in to a serial killer to avenge the murder of his girlfriend Shilpa Shirodkar. Nyay Anyay didn’t do well commercially but Sumeet’s character received appreciation from the critics.

Sumeet’s next notable releases were Bahaar Aane Tak and Shandaar. Interestingly in both these films, he plays a character with grey shades who defames the lead actress. His Bahaar Aane Tak song ‘Kaali teri choti’ became a chartbuster and is still played in sangeet functions across North India.