Bollywood Flashback: How did Sadhana get the famous fringe – The Sadhana Cut?

It wasn’t easy getting an interview with yesteryear diva Sadhana, who breathed her last on Friday. It needed a lot of persuasion and persistence and the few lucky ones were able to convince her who would be welcomed in her abode. The reclusive actress, who renounced acting after the silver jubilee hit Geeta Mera Naam in 1974, lived in a dilapidated old bungalow in the Western suburbs of Mumbai. Talking about the reasons behind not giving interviews, she would say, ‘The day I quit, I never looked back. That’s why I don’t give interviews.’ Not many know that she never wanted to play mother roles as she wanted to be remembered as the “beautiful” Sadhana. Incidentally, she played the mystery girl in quite a few films, mostly thrillers like Woh Kaun Thi, Mera Saaya and Anita, all in the 60’s. Sadhana was one of the top stars in the 1960s and the early 1970s. She was the third highest paid actress with Nanda from 1970-1973 and was the highest paid actress in Hindi Cinema from 1962-65 with Vyjayantimala.

The Famous ‘Sadhana Cut’

Sadhana aspired to be an actress since childhood. She began as a chorus girl in1955 with the song, “Mud mud ke na dekh mud mud ke in Raj Kapoor’s Shree 420. When she was 15 years old, she was approached by some producers who had seen her act in a college play. They cast her in India’s first Sindhi film titled Abaana(1958). A photograph of her publicizing the film appeared in the film weekly Screen. It was then that Sashadhar Mukerjee, one of Bollywood’s top producers at that time, noticed her. She joined Mukherjee’s acting school along with her debutant co-star Joy Mukherjee, Sashadhar’s son. R. K. Nayyar, who had previously worked as assistant director on few films, directed this film. Nayyar (who she later married) also created her trademark look, called the Sadhana Cut, inspired from British actress Audrey Hepburn.

Once, while narrating how she got the famous ‘Sadhana fringe’, the veteran actress told a reputed film magazine, ‘I had a broad forehead, which showed prominently in photo tests. It would then be covered with a patch of hair. When we were about to start Love In Simla, the director said the patch wouldn’t do. Those days Audrey Hepburn’s Roman Holiday (in which Hepburn sports a fringe) had just released. So I was promptly rushed off to a Chinese hairdresser and given a fringe. It became famous as the ‘Sadhana cut.’

The Filmalaya Production banner thus introduced Joy, Sadhana and her iconic hairstyle in their 1960 romantic film Love In Simla.. The film was declared a hit at the box office and was listed in the top 10 films of 1960. Sadhana played the role of a simple, bespectacled girl who is transformed by her grandmother into a beautiful woman and encouraged to pursue the hero. In the film, Sadhana wins a beauty contest and is awarded a three-year film contract with Filmalaya, which was the case in real life too. During this period she again worked under the same banner opposite Joy in Ek Musafir Ek Haseena.

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