The Bold & The Beautiful: Asha Sachdev

Asha Sachdev was a big, plump chick when she entered the Poona Film Institute, says a batch-mate of hers, but she was more sophisticated than the rest. Asha was frank, independent and mixed around with boys, hugged them, kissed them and used to run around with them. The result was that Asha started being called a flirt but as she told a friend, "I care a damn for what they talk behind my back." Her popularity with the boys naturally made all the other Institute girls jealous and a few of the boys too.
Rumours were spread about her so fast that she couldn't do anything to control them. "Why are people so vicious and narrow-minded?" she used to tell a good friend of hers. Any producer or director or actor who came down to Poona from Bombay to inspect the Institute merchandise naturally liked

Asha and took her out (like they took anybody else) for dinner or lunch to discuss matters-and the conclusions started all over again. The "notorious" reputation that she acquired at the Institute preceded her entry into films. People thought she was an "easy kill" ( Looking at the pic I wonder why she was thought of as an easy kill?) and they were disappointed because she just wouldn't play. Result? The roles were long in coming for her even in C grade films.

Suddenly in her second year, Asha went on a crash diet and thinned down in all the right places and became even more beautiful. A cute face, big boobs, curves in the right places and showing talent for acting that wasn't there in the first year. Then luck came Asha's way. There was suddenly a dearth of good looking actresses in the industry and she got her first movie offers - A grade roles in B grade films and B grade roles in A grade films.
Asha followed her "I-don't-care-what-people-think" philosophy. "I have never made use of my body to get a role," she once said.Better roles started coming in for Asha, but they were all second grade and that was the time when Asha's romances started doing the rounds more than her work.

VijayArora was stuck on her and followed her around everywhere, before realizing the better and leaving the field to others. Asha was always stuck on Vinod Mehra but at that time he was stuck on Rekha. "He is the only gentleman I know," she used to rave about him.

Then all hell broke loose at Feroz Khan's party. Dharmendra dragged a willing Asha into a bedroom (some say toilet) and the press was right there ready to play it up to the hilt. (What did they exactly do int the bedroom/bathroom? I don't think Dharam would do that with the press around especially when he was courting HemaMalini!) But this didn't stop her from getting the plum role in Mohan Segal's Woh Main Nahin. The film brought out all the sexiness of Asha Sachdev, the actress. She showed she could act. But yet everybody wanted her in her negligee. "I guess I'm stuck." she told friends.

Today, she wears nothing but a sari, hiding "the most famous bustline after Katy Mirza". It was just the image she had, or projected, that earned her a notoriety she didn't deserve. The cleavage-showing, bikini-wearing Asha will be there no more and in her place we will have the new bindya-sari clad Sachdev in her place. And if that doesn't succeed, she can always change her name and start afresh like Nilu Bobby changed her name to Shoma Anand and became an instant hit.

Reproduced from the original article published in Cine Blitz. Copyrights exclusively owned by VJM Media Pvt. Ltd.