Rarely has a second lead actress, in just her second film, walked away with the trophies and tears as Supriya Pathak did in Bazaar. She even had the film’s finest songs filmed on her. The mystical Dikhayi diye yun, the poetic Phir chiddhi raat and the poignant Dekh lo aaj humko jee bhar ke... she was the muse to the music. Flowers, kohl and bangles only embellishing her virginal beauty. Even before that, when she played Anant Nag’s young bride in Kalyug, unaware of his incestuous leanings towards his bhabhi, her cascading innocence held its own against the towering strength of her co-stars. Kya hai tera gham bata... what’s your problem sung by Preeti Sagar and filmed on her ominously suggested the betrayal coming her way. The 20-something Supriya followed this with a string of layered characters – the esoteric unwed mother in Masoom, the doting sister in Shahenshah... till she wed co-actor Pankaj Kapur. Three children and domesticity could not confine her for long and she acquired cult status as Hansaben in Khichdi and Gunvanti Mami in Ba Bahu Aur Baby on TV along with sporadic screen appearances in films like Wake Up Sid and Mausam. But what can be viewed as the watershed of her career is her rendering of Dhankor Ba in Goliyon Ki Raasleela – Ram-Leela, the heartless matriarch being a nemesis of the all-heart mother that she’s in real life. Awards and applause aside, what she cherishes most is her journey with husband Pankaj Kapur. That’s one role, which is bigger than any lifetime achievement for Supriya…
RELUCTANT ACTOR
Though Supriya is the daughter of veteran actor Dina Pathak, she was too shy to consider acting as a profession. “My parents socialised a lot. They often had guests over. But I was a sehma huwa (withdrawn) child. I’d sit in my room, putting off the lights so that no one would know of my existence. No way did I think of being an actor,” says Supriya who grew up in Parsi Colony in Dadar. Inclined towards the fine arts and scriptures, she procured a bachelor’s degree in dance from the Nalanda University and was keen to do her PhD in the theory of dance and mythology. “Religion was a major part of my life,” she says. “I fasted throughout the week and ate only on Sunday and Wednesday. I’d often go and sit in the courtyard of Datta mandir in Matunga even if I read a Mills and Boon there. But after my father (dressmaker Baldev Pathak) passed away, I became disillusioned with religion,” says Supriya who was just 17 then. She adds, “To supplement my pocket money, I began giving tuitions. I even packed khakras and papads at a samaj in Matunga Later, I applied at the All India Radio for doing voiceovers and radio dramas. Of course they rejected me saying my voice was not good!”
TAKING CENTER STAGE
Incidentally, Dina Pathak in her heyday had acted in the play Maina Gurjari, which was a huge hit. “Mom kept getting requests to revive the natak with my older sister Ratna (Pathak). But my mother believed only I could do it. Perhaps, because it was about bhakti. Ratna had a rational bent of mind. Mom believed that it wouldn’t excite her.” But Supriya was not keen to do it either. “My mama (maternal uncle, Vipin Gandhi) cajoled me to do it for his club Baal Udyan under mom’s direction. We first staged a play in a school in Dadar. We were then asked to stage it in Ahmedabad. The press covered it,” recalls Supriya. Following this, she did a play with Dinesh Thakur titled Biwiyon Ka Madersa (based on a play by French playwright Moliere), which was staged at the Prithvi theatre. It was there that Jennifer Kendall (late wife of Shashi Kapoor) spotted her and wanted her for their home production Kalyug (1981), an adaptation of the epic Mahabharata.
FILM FORAY
Director Shyam Benegal however was a hard nut to crack. “Shyam Babu rejected me saying I was fat. He issued an ultimatum, ‘If you can’t lose weight then I don’t want you!’ I got a little intimidated by him. But Shashiji wanted me. Govind Nihalani was the cameraman. He educated me all about the camera,” she smiles. After Kalyug, the diffident Supriya saw a surge in her popularity and even bagged the Filmfare Best Supporting Actress Award. “All India Radio, which had initially rejected me, approached me again saying that I possessed a beautiful and husky voice,” laughs the actor who had signed Sagar Sarhadi’s Bazaar (1982), a stinging indictment of ‘bride selling’ in Hyderabad.
BAZAAR
“Sagar saab said, ‘I have just Rs 500, with which I’m going to Hyderabad to begin the shooting. You can fly down with your money. He had booked hotel Rockcastle there, the payment of which was to be made later. So our food and stay was looked after. We bought fabric for our costumes from Hyderabad and got them tailored there too. Only Smita Patil’s clothes came from Mumbai. The hotel was like a house. We shared everything, including kajal,” she smiles. “But when the film did well Sagar saab said, ‘Aakar apne apne paise le lo’!” She reminisces about the late Farooque Sheikh, her co-star in Bazaar and also in the recent Shanghai. “There was something pure about him, which remained unchanged.” She has fond memories of Smita Patil too. “After the screening of Bazaar, Smita came up to me and said, ‘The film is yours (Supriya won her second Filmfare Award for Best Supporting Actress). You’re fabulous!’ There was not an iota of bitterness though she was a star. I noticed the same ease when I shot with her for Ketan Mehta’s Mirch Masala. We used to travel, all huddled up, from a hotel in Rajkot to this dilapidated haveli an hour away. It was an actual mirchi ki ghani (chilli factory). We’d make do with haystacks instead of chairs. Smita also sat with us. She was so unassuming. In fact, when her staff served her tea in a special cup she’d insist, ‘Give me in the same cup as the others. Kuch bhi le aao’!”
CO-STAR COMFORT
Supriya worked with Rekha in Kalyug, Vijeta (1982) and Jhoothi (1985). “We had a sit-out area outside the bungalow at Altamount Road where we shot Kalyug. Rekhaji would also sit there. Though she was a star, her warmth was unmistakable. She never made it difficult for you. In Vijeta, we didn’t have many scenes together. But during Jhoothi I interacted a lot more with her. Hrishida (Mukherjee) made all his actors sit around him. Rekhaji and he would discuss their pets. She had got a new puppy those days!” Supriya played Amitabh Bachchan’s sister in Shahenshah (1988) and completed the circle when she played his wife in both Sarkar (2005) and Sarkar Raj (2008). “I was in awe of him and still am. During Shahenshah we hardly interacted. Though he made things easy for you, his personality is such, that you feel intimidated. I’m just happy looking at him even today.” Though Supriya did a spate of films between 1980-90, including Masoom, Arjun, Kamla Ki Maut and Raakh, she didn’t really take to mainstream cinema. “I was put off by the world of commercial films. I didn’t want to be in the maahol. I found it uncouth. I couldn’t take it. I wanted to go back and do comparative studies in dance forms. Honestly, I didn’t get interesting offers either. Perhaps, I was not made for it. Theatre became my preoccupation. Until I met Pankaj...”
PANKAJ AND I
Supriya met the talented actor in 1986 while doing Sagar Sarhadi’s Agla Mausam, a film which never released. But Pankaj went on to become the eternal season in her life. “With him I understood a different passion for acting, which was way beyond mine. Personally too, I found perspective. I found myself again. I had heard that he could finish off a bottle of alcohol in an evening, I was surprised to know that he didn’t drink at all. He made for great company,” says Supriya who’s seven and a half years younger to him. “He brought therav in my life. I returned to religion but with sanity. From the pagalpan of sitting in a mandir to the pagalpan of flitting away, I found my ground, my moorings. He brought stability, security, happiness in my life. He gave me a home, a family. Whatever I am today, it’s because of him.” That she’s madly in love with him is evident. “He’s the best human being I have come across. I am stressing on the word ‘human’ because I don’t want to put him on a pedestal,” she insists.
MOTHER OF THREE
“I had no problems at all that he was married before (to actress Neelima Azim),” confides Supriya. “I met him with a clean slate. He had made it clear from the beginning that his son (Shahid Kapoor) meant the most to him. He wanted my support in three things - in bringing up his son, in his work and in his belief in the Masters and the Radha Swami philosophy. I went through the marriage (1988) knowing that I already had a son. Shahid was just six then. His vibe was so correct that I took to him easily.” She adds that while she ‘played’ a mother to Shahid, it was only when daughter Sana was born (1990) that she understood ‘what being a mother is’. “My relationship with Shahid became much stronger after Sana was born. I realised kitna khubsoorat hai yeh rishta. Even though Shahid calls me aunty, he shows the same feelings and respect that one would to a mother.”
That perhaps also explains her putting her career on hold for a few years. “I didn’t want to work at all. After my third child Ruhaan, I felt complete. The world didn’t matter.” But the acting keeda would not let her be. “In 1994, Pankaj and I launched Grass Company, our own TV production house. Mohandas B.A.L.L.B was the first serial we produced and acted in.” Incidentally, her TV career also boasts of superhit shows like Idhar Udhar, Khichdi, Baa Bahoo Aur Baby, Naya Office Office, Taarak Mehta Ka Ooltah Chashmah and Chhanchhan among others.
FULL CIRCLE
Last year, the gentle Supriya did a volte face when she took on the vitriolic avatar of Dhankor in Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s Ram-Leela. “I was apprehensive about the role. But after meeting Sanjay I was floored. Kya gappe mare mere saath! He’s so down-to-earth and made me feel at home,” she says adding, “At the costume trail, as designer Maxima Basu was trying different ways of draping the odhni, I started feeling bit by bit like Dhankor Ba. I was required to puff a beedi for the introductory shot. It was just the way Sanjay had envisioned it,” she beams adding, “His being a perfectionist is a high for an actor. He pushes you into doing your best. One day, I asked him what made him take me. ‘The evil spark in your eyes!’ he replied. I said, ‘Good you saw it’.” Presently, she’s doing White Lies with Bosnian director Danis Tanovic (of No Man’s Land fame). She’s also doing Bobby Jasoos. But strangely Ram-Leela has not thrown open the floodgates. “I am waiting. No offers yet,” she states candidly. Back home her other two children Sana and Ruhan are nurturing Bollywood dreams. “Sana has attended an acting course at the Lee Strasburg Institute in New York. She has also attended workshops with Pankaj. Ruhan is smarter than the rest. He wants to have a back up and so has done a professional chef’s course. He’s done an acting course in London too. But he wants to complete his studies first.” All said and done Pankaj continues to remain the pivot in her life. “I wish I’d met Pankaj earlier. I’d have made lesser mistakes. He’s not the first person I fell in love with. But he’s the only one I actually fell in love with. He filled the vacuum in my life left behind by my father.” Any wishes for her star son Shahid? “Shahid is a beautiful person. Hope he finds a girl who realises his worth!” We’re sure he will.n
FILMFARE AWARDS WON
Best Supporting Actress for Kalyug (1980)
Best Supporting Actress for Bazaar (1982)
Best Supporting Actress for Goliyon Ki Raasleela – Ram-Leela (2013)