Mumbai: Actress Geeta Bali, known for her effortless and smooth acting, is one of the top actresses of the 1950s. Geeta started her film career at the age of 12 and gave many hits in the Hindi film industry. After becoming the daughter-in-law of Kapoor family, Geeta was living a happy life until she passed away 21 January 1965 at the age of just 35. On her death anniversary, we tell you 10 special things related to her.
Geeta Bali was born in the pre-partitioned Punjab in the city of Sargodha in Pakistan as Harkirtan Kaur in 1930. Her family moved to Mumbai when she started getting breaks in films.
Beginning as a child artist with film Cobbler, Geeta made her debut as lead in the film Badnaami in 1946. In 1950s, Geeta dominated the industry and was one of the top actresses of that period.
Geeta Bali was almost the same age as Shammi Kapoor, but had been in the industry for quite some time, and in fact, had shared screen space with Shammi Kapoor’s elder brother and father, Raj Kapoor and Prithviraj Kapoor, respectively.
After having got married in the Kapoor family, actresses often distance themselves from films, but Geeta continued to work till her last breath. Her last film was Jab Se Tumhe Dekha Hai (1963). She did more than 70 films in her decade-long career.
Geeta’s parents always encouraged her to do things like classical music, dance and horse riding. Orthodox Sikhs socially boycotted the family because they did not like girls performing in public.
She married actor Shammi Kapoor 23 August 1955. The duo’s love affair started from the film Rangeen Raatein (1955). However, the family members of both were not ready for this marriage. But going against the wishes of the family, both of them got married in a temple.
The lovebirds returned at 4:30 in the morning and finally got married the traditional way with Hari Walia as the sole witness.
They had two children, a son (Aditya Raj Kapoor) and a daughter (Kanchan).
Geeta died having contracted smallpox while shooting for a Punjabi film, Rano, based on a novel Eik Chadar Maili Si by Rajinder Singh Bedi. Shammi Kapoor completely broke after her death and gradually gained weight.
She received a Filmfare Nomination as Best Actress for Vachan (1955) and another nomination as Best Supporting Actress for film Kavi (1955). One of her memorable movies is Anand Math.
Later, Shammi married nearly four years after Geeta’s death. Shammi proposed Neela Devi and placed a condition in front of Neela that she would never become a mother and raise Geeta’s children as her own child. Neela accepted this condition and went ahead. Neela is the sister of Shammi’s friend Raghuvir Singh.
