‘Devdas changed me’

BENGALURU: Vyjayanthimala, a trained classical dancer, played leading lady opposite the three superstars of her time – Raj Kappor, Dev Anand and Dileep Kumar. The actress, who was in the city visiting her student, talked of playing Chandramukhi – a courtesan who turns into a devoted woman of her lover- in Devdas opposite Dileep Kumar. “Devdas changed me; as a person and as an actress. Prior to Devdas, all my films were majorly based on dance. When I performed my first scene opposite Dileep Kumar, who was already a superstar then, he looked at me and said, ‘You are a wonderful actress.’ Those words gave me so much confidence, that few years later I came to be known as the first lady superstar,” she says.

“Films, like you all know, was an accident. So was my political career,” she recalls. “Rajiv Gandhi, during a conversation, randomly asked me to contest in elections. I fumbled and said ‘As you wish Rajivji’ and that’s how my political career began,” she says.

Sports star

Vyjayanthimala is also an avid badminton, tennis and golf player. “I always enjoyed golf, which I was introduced to by my husband, after our marriage. I don’t play anymore. Sometimes I follow tennis on television,” she says.When asked why she never acted in Kannada films, she says, “During the initial years of my career, I was under contract. Though many producers from here approached me, I could not act in a Kannada movie. After moving the Bollywood, I got so busy that I had no time to act in any other industry,” she says.