Vimi

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.

Bollywood, and the glamour industry at large, salutes only the rising star. The industry has showcased its dark side many times when popular actors were left penniless and lonely after their stardom faded but no one bothered about them. These included big names like Bhagwan Dada, Bharat Bhushan, A.K. Hangal, Mahesh Anand, etc who sought help from their industry friends to make ends meet. Actresses like Cuckoo and Silk Smitha, who made everyone dance to their tunes on celluloid, passed away living a life of penury after their career ended.

Vimi was one such victim who experienced the dark side of film world. Life was going perfect for her after a successful debut and a wealthy family as support system but she lost everything to cruel fate and faced a pitiable situation. From leading a luxurious life, Vimi became a pauper filled with a broken heart and engulfed in loneliness, which took a toll on her life. All this happened in span of just ten years since the start of her Bollywood career in 1967.

Vimi was born in 1943 in a Punjabi family in Jalandhar, as Vimlesh Wadhwan. Graduating from Sophia College, Mumbai, she was a trained singer and loved acting in plays and also participated in AIR Bombay children’s program. During her teens, Vimi met a Marwadi industrialist called Shivraj Agarwal, fell in love with him and both decided to get tie the knot.

Due to Vimi’s impressionable young age and the caste factor, her family objected to this relationship with Agarwal. But the couple went ahead and got married forcing Vimi’s conservative parents to break all her ties with her forever.

Post marriage, the couple settled in Calcutta (now Kolkata) and were blessed with two kids within a few years. Things were going great for Vimi on the family front when at a party, noted music director Ravi spotted Vimi and invited her and husband Shivraj to Mumbai to meet the veteran producer- director B.R. Chopra.

Though Vimi was a mother of two, the camera couldn’t hide her beauty which impressed Chopra a lot. He decided to launch her in Hamraaz as the lead actress alongside established stars like Raaj Kumar and Sunil Dutt. Shivraj supported Vimi in her decision but his family was against her joining films. This bold decision also forced her in-laws to part ways with the couple and both decided to shift to Mumbai to concentrate on her new acting career.

Hamraaz became a box office hit and Vimi attained instant fame and signed a few films. She was considered to be the future star of Bollywood. Though Hamraaz’s success gave her a name, it couldn’t help her established a strong foothold in the industry due to certain negative talk circulating about her.

Gossip mills abound that Vimi was more interested in her makeup and costumes than actual acting. It was only her good looks, which got her the next few roles. Even during the filming of Hamraaz, she was said to give several takes which irked B.R. Chopra at times.

Vimi’s next release was titled Aabroo (1968) opposite newcomer Deepak Kumar. The film turned out to be a mega disappointment, which even legends like Ashok Kumar, Nirupa Roy, Rehman and Shashikala couldn’t save from flopping badly. After the debacle of Aabroo, Vimi’s career came under a cloud.

Most expected that B.R. Chopra would repeat her in his next movie but that didn’t happen as she apparently broke her contract with BR films and signed other movies. It was rumoured that her husband Shivraj encouraged her to do this and would also interfere a lot on the sets during the shoots.

In 1969, Vimi worked in her mother tongue Punjabi film Nanak Nam Jahaz Hai, which won the prestigious National award, but again didn’t help her career in any manner. At one point, Vimi spoke about her husband wanting to make films featuring her. She also appeared in bold photoshoots, including a bikini shot for Filmfare magazine in 1970. But sadly, even this exposure didn’t work for Vimi and she disappeared from all the magazines soon and the movies to be produced for her never materialized.

Vimi’s next few releases like Patanga (1971), Kahin Aar Kahin Paar (1971), Kahani Hum Sab Ki (1973) and Vachan (1974) with established stars like Shashi Kapoor and Vinod Mehra, bombed badly at the box office. By the time these movies hit the theatres, Vimi’s career had hit an abysmal low as young actresses like Hema Malini, Rekha, Rakhee, Parveen Babi and Zeenat Aman had made their mark in Bollywood.

This career downfall, within a short time span, didn’t stop Vimi and Shivraj from living a lavish lifestyle of parties and extravagance. Soon enough, they ran in to a financial crunch. This led to differences between the two and Vimi complained of her husband turning abusive. By this time, Vimi had got addicted to alcohol. She separated from Shivraj, who went back to Calcutta leaving Vimi to face everything on her own.

Vimi was left with heavy debts and lost all her fortunes including her posh bungalow, her Impala car and other valuables in the bargain. The Calcutta based textile company which she owned, had to be sold off to redeem her dues.

Left all alone in a bankruptcy state, Vimi found solace in a small-time producer called Jolly. Unfortunately, Jolly is said to have made her life all the more hellish by making her dance to his tunes. Vimi descended in to prostitution just to make ends meet and fund her alcoholism.

Vimi had turned a chronic drinker and this alcohol addiction led to liver cirrhosis, which caused her untimely death at the age of just thirty-four years. She left the world on 22nd August, 1977 in a hapless and penniless state. She passed away in the general ward of Nanavati Hospital in Mumbai but there was no money to even conduct her funeral. Her body was wrapped up in a white cloth (dhoti) and taken on a thela (handcart) to the crematorium. The last rites were done by the Bombay Municipality (BMC) with not a single Bollywood person in sight.

Vimi’s last journey on handcart passed through the same road where she once rode her Impala car and watched her fans fondly waving at her. She had two posthumous releases – Premi Gangaram (1978) and Krodhi (1981). Showman Subhash Ghai’s delayed Krodhi was her last release in which she played an inconsequential role of the villain Amrish Puri’s moll and appeared in a swimming pool with him. A once lead heroine of the super hit Hamraaz was not even credited in Krodhi.

Vimi’s life story highlights the fickle nature of success, which can desert anyone anytime. The movie world is filled with such sad endings of once successful celebrities. One wrong move ended their career. Thirty years later, another actor met the same fate as Vimi. She was the well-known South actress, Nisha Noor.