Jinxed!
V S Srinivasan
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Hard times: Ghulam Ali.
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The spillover from politics into other spheres has been a regular feature in Indo-Pak relations, the most recent being the case of Pakistani singer Ghulam Ali, who was not allowed to perform last month after the Shiv Sena disrupted the show.
This was also the time that the right wing party objected to world squash champion Jansher Khan, who was to help Indians make a mark in squash. Note, also, that the central government distanced itself from its noisy coalition partner. This, while it knew of the impending nuclear tests at Pokhran.
But Pakistani artistes have often had mixed reactions when in India, with the reactionary element quick to take umbrage. Some of them attracted trouble purely due to unprofessional attitudes. But most of them just appeared jinxed.
Salma Agha, one of the earlier visitors to India, had a good time in films initially but later her films began flopping.
"People came to see her for curiosity value. Not many knew that she was a Pakistani. She had
beautiful eyes and a different voice, which made people come in and see her. But then she used to go back to Pakistan once in a while without informing us, which put us in a soup. However she was a nice person and co-operated to finish the shootings fast," says a producer with whom Salma worked.
But Salma entered the bad books of Sena chief Balasaheb Thackeray when she failed to turn up for a show organised by a Thackeray acolyte. And with her films already in trouble, Salma didn't have a chance.
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Jansher Khan
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She is now remembered for her Nikaah and numbers like Mera naam Salma and Dil ke armaan ansuon mein beh gaye. She resurfaced recently with a new album, Husn, but the old magic is all but gone.
Worse was the case of Anita Ayub, another Pakistani who had hoped to make it big in Bollywood. Unfortunately, her sister was caught on the India-Pakistan border along with a man with a string of espionage cases against him.
Anita, who had exposed her physique generously in a Dev Anand film, was taken away for questioning, her passport was impounded and she was warned in the nastiest possible terms that she couldn't leave the country. It took the combined might of all Bollywood, working together with Dev Anand, to help Anita across to Pakistan, safe and very sorry.
Zeba Bakhtiar came with a bang and went without a whimper. She came for a much-hyped performance in Randhir Kapoor's Henna and followed it up with a string of flops.
She often left for Pakistan and apparently had big trouble running with her men.
She allegedly married Javed Jafferey -- the man later produced the nikaahnaama to prove it all happened -- after divorcing her earlier husband -- a Pakistani. But she denied she'd married Javed.
"She did marry me. I can prove it anytime," Jafferey had protested. He's unwilling to speak of the matter, now that he's married again.
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Salma Agha.
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According to Mehmood's son Manzoor who was to star opposite her in Nargis, producer Khalid Mohammed fell in love with her.
"She also proposed to me during the film and I said no," claims Manzoor. "But Khalid was so jealous of the proximity between Zeba and me that he even shelved his film." After Zeba began worrying her producers, they demanded that either Pakistani artistes should be banned or their passports deposited with their producers.
Zeba meandered her merry way to a marriage with a Pakistani based in London and quit films. Her last venture was Jai Vikranta opposite Sanjay Dutt. When she divorced her last husband, arguably her fourth, she lost possession of her son.
Around the same time as Zeba came Pakistani cricketer Mohsin Khan who married Indian star Reena Roy. He told her to quit films and entered them himself. His behaviour convinced Reena that it was more prudent to stay on in India even after he left.
Mohsin Khan allegedly used to come in late, have short flings with every available starlet, use foul language, behaving in a way calculated to annoy most producers. His career in Bollywood, as expected, was very short.
Somy Ali lacked talent but caused no trouble and suffered none either. She fell in love with Salman Khan during the making of her first film, Bulund. That was around the time Salman parted ways with Sangeeta Bijlani who went on to marry cricketer Mohammed Azharuddin.
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Somy Ali. Click for bigger pic!
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She gave a better performance in her last film, Chupp where she had less of body to show. Now all that is stalling marriage is Salman's career which is picking up again now.
Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan had the biggest welcome accorded to a Pakistani artiste in Bollywood.
His novel different music in Bandit Queen and Aur Pyar Ho Gaya gave it a standing that was independent of the success of the films.
The famous Tu cheez badi hai mast mast number in Mohra was lifted by Viju
Shah from Nusrat's composition Mast kalander dum mast.
"Nusrat was a great artiste. He transcends all boundaries. I could not have got a better music director for Bandit Queen," says Shekhar Kapur, who made Bandit Queen.
Ataullah Khan may not made his name in India expect for his song, Accha sila diya which was sung by Sonu Nigam in Bewafa Sanam. But he had a better time in India than others did, often visiting it for shows without the right-wingers hounding him.
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Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan. Click for bigger pic!
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Another singer, Hasan Jehangir, created a sensation in India with his Hawa hawa which was also incorporated into a video film, Don-II, made by Sunil Agnihotri.
Ghulam Ali gained popularity with his ghazal Chhupke chuppke.... And looked like having an easier time till he too ran into the Sena.
The Pakistani Sufi rock group, Junoon, was touring India just when Indians were bristling with nationalism after the nuclear tests at Pokhran. But available reports suggest they have had a better So maybe there isn't a jinx after all.
Indians like Pandit Jasraj, Jagjit Singh too have visited Pakistan. Pandit Jasraj, in particular, was effusive about the reaction there. "The shows were wonderful. There was no interference from the government. The love that the people of Pakistan showered on me was unbelievable," he says.
Naushad, on the other hand, is not so certain.
"Indian artistes have never been well received in Pakistan," he says. "The government has never invited us for public performances. Art and culture can remove enmity to a great extent, but taali dono haath se bajti hai..."
Anupam Kher does not think politics and culture are separate entities, feeling sportsmanship is ridiculous, considering the number of people maimed, killed and humiliated in Kashmir by Pakistan-backed groups. But he says he isn't happy the way Ghulam Ali was treated either. "It is a shame. It shouldn't have happened at all," he says.
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