Leena Chandavarkar

Leena Chandavarkar (born 29 August 1950) is an Indian actress who appeared in Hindi films as a leading actress and now appears in reality shows. She was active during the late 1960s and early 1970s. She played the leading heroine opposite almost all the notable Hindi film actors of that era and was frequently paired with Rajesh Khanna, Dharmendra, Jeetendra, Sanjeev Kumar, Vinod Khanna, Shammi Kapoor, Dilip Kumar, Sunil Dutt, and Raaj Kumar.

Early Life Leena Chandavarkar was born to an army officer Sreenath Chandavarkar at Dharwad in Karnataka in 1950. She comes from a Konkani family.

Career

She was supposed to debut with the film Maseeha (1967) opposite Sunil Dutt costarring Raaj Kumar and Mumtaz too under the direction of Sunil Dutt himself. The film got shelved and she made her debut under the direction of Sunil Dutt with the movie Man ka Meet in 1968. The movie was a hit and she became an overnight star. She was one of the topmost heroines in early 70s alongside Hema Malini and Mumtaz.

Chandavarkar came into the limelight after finishing as one of the runners-up for the Fresh Face Competition organized across the country by Filmfare. Initially, she worked in advertisements but eventually ventured into films. She made her debut in Man Ka Meet for Sunil Dutt, and it was his wife Nargis who groomed her to be an actress. Between 1969 and 1979, Leena acted in many films. She was cast opposite many of popular heroes of that era. She gave one of her best performances in Mehboob Ki Mehndi with Rajesh Khanna in 1971.

Bairaag, in 1976, is another example where she acted with Dilip Kumar and an ensemble star cast of Saira Bano, Prem Chopra and Helen.

She appeared as a guest judge for the first 2 episodes of "K for Kishore", a new reality TV singing show launched by Sony TV during December 2007. She is now appearing for the reality shows. She also penned some songs for Amit Kumar and Rajesh Bambal for a music album.

Personal life She had an arranged marriage to her first husband, Siddharth Bandodkar, who came from a prominent Goan-Marathi political family. Shashikala Kakodkar, the elder sister of Siddharth, was then the Chief Minister of Goa, Daman and Diu. Siddharth was the son of Dayanand Bandodkar, the first Chief Minister of Goa, Daman and Diu. Siddharth died from an accidental gunshot wound, a few days into the marriage, leaving Leena a widow at age 25.

A few years later, she married playback singer Kishore Kumar. Her father initially objected because Kumar had been married three times already, and was more than 20 years older than her, but he soon came around and welcomed Kumar into the family. She has a son with Kumar named Sumeet. Kumar died in 1987, leaving Leena once again a widow at age 37. She lives with her son Sumeet, her step-son Amit Kumar, and his wife.

She had an elder brother Anil Chandavarkar who married director Atma Ram's daughter and has a daughter from the marriage. He died by heart attack in 1985. She quit Bollywood after marriage with singing legend Kishore Kumar only to return for two movies later.

Filmography