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The second coming

Padmini Kolhapure is staging a comeback

LUCKY AGAIN? Padmini Kolhapure has a couple of releases in 2006

Padmini Kolhapure was the only one of her era who traversed the distance between two formidable rival camps, RK Films and Navketan with the finesse of a trapeze artiste. But just when her career began to look up, she married producer Pradeep Sharma and made a graceful exit from films leaving behind some memorable performances in Raj Kapoor's Prem Rog and Saawan Kumar's Souten.

And now almost two decades later she is making a comeback of sorts.

She is appearing in writer-director Karan Razdan's Souten — The Other Woman as well as in his Eight.

But why this return to acting?

"I was never out of films really, and was very much part of the industry. My husband was making films, and I had set up a number of successful acting academies all over the country. But while the other ones have flourished, the one in Delhi has taken the shape of a regular workshop."

Plenty of time

"I now have plenty of time on hand. My son has grown up, and is almost on his own. I did a Marathi film some years ago, and will be doing another one soon. My brother-in-law, Shakti Kapoor is also doing this film with Karan Razdan. I don't really know what transpired between them, but Karan called me up one day and said he was in search of someone to play an interesting role in Souten. He narrated the role to me and I liked it. Unlike the earlier Souten where I essayed a positive character, in the new one I am doing a somewhat negative role. And unlike the earlier Souten (the 1983 Rajesh Khanna-Tina Munim-Padmini Kolhapure starrer) where I was a misunderstood rank outsider, in the new film the story is within four walls, and I play a sister-in-law who queers the pitch for a young couple. I have a far more challenging role in Eight." Both the films are likely to have a back-to-back release early in 2006.

SURESH KOHLI

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