Flashback: When Sharmila Tagore’s bikini posters were removed amidst her mother-in-law’s visit

Flashback: When Sharmila Tagore’s bikini posters were removed amidst her mother-in-law’s visit

Sharmila Tagore hit the headlines for her bikini look in An Evening In Paris.
Recently, the actress had opened up on the impact it caused

The years 60’s and 70’s belonged to Sharmila Tagore among the top actresses of the Hindi film industry.

Sharmila made her debut with ‘Apur Sansar’ in 1959 and was recognized for breaking the glass ceiling from time to time.

Notedly, in 60s, the actress headlined and emerged the talk of the town with her bikini appearance in the film ‘An Evening In Paris’.
Back then it was not as normal for women to wear bikini or skimpy clothes on screen.

Sharmila in conversation with authorTwinkle Khanna for her chat show ‘The Icons’, when quizzed on shooting in a bikini for ‘An Evening in Paris’, she just laughed about it sharing that she won’t get over that ever.
It was blown out of proportion that left her amused at how a piece of clothing’ could create so much controversy.

She went on to add that she cannot say she was pressurised or asked to do it as it entirely wrest on he decision. The photographer was not quite approving either. It was done spontaneously, which later created a huge uproar. She also shared that her director Shakti Samanta scolded her as he felt that people would not take her seriously if she is projected this way.

When Kareena Kapoor called her a ‘game changer’ in Bollywood, there were a lot of things into it and she wanted to grab eyeballs and she also wanted to be commercially more viable. But she thought she looked nice. She further revealed that her husband, the late cricketer Mansoor Ali Khan Pataudi was in London at the time but was the only support system in the whole matter.
He wrote her one telegram saying she must be looking nice and need not worry about anything.

Tagore said that there was also a learning curve to this whole incident. She realised that.. you cannot live in a world of your own. If you are a public figure, you must understand your audience, you must understand where you are.

In front of the camera, you are emoting which is landing very well with the Indian audience, because these people accepted me. But this kind of radical thing will not go down well with the Indian audience. So why do it?

Because you do not really want to shock people, adding that she then made a conscious decision to do films like ‘Aradhana’.

Tagore further revealed that she got the posters of her in a bikini removed from the areas she was living in and the reason behind it is quite hilarious.

It’s because her mother-in-law was visiting her. We (Mansoor Ali Khan Pataudi and her) were not married then, just engaged.

There was this huge poster with Shammi Kapoor standing, and behind it, was she. Her mid-riff is covered because of his body, so her bare legs and arms are outside. It was quite a titillating poster. At night, her driver and bearer went and took it out. But she shared there must be many other posters on the way which Amma might have seen.

However, Tagore mentioned that her mother-in-law was not bothered by the incident or the posters.

News Edit K.V.Raman