Leela Naidu was born to Dr. Ramaiah Naidu, a renowned
nuclear physicist from Andhra Pradesh (South India) and Marthe Naidu, an Irish
Indologist of Swiss-French origin, Leela Naidu possessed the polish and sobriety
of the Indian educated upper classes.
Naidu entered the limelight in 1954 when she was crowned
Miss India. "Leela Naidu was aware, but not vain, about her beauty. She
imbibed the nuances of European aesthetics from her mother and the resolve to
stand up for her values from her father", wrote the biographer and
columnist T.J.S. George, who knew the family very well. Along with Maharani
Gayatri Devi of Jaipur, she was listed as one of the 10 most beautiful women in
the world by Vogue.
Naidu made her debut as an actress in Hrishikesh Mukherjee's
Anuradha (1960). A discerning director, Mukherjee displayed great insight by
choosing her for the role of a lonely housewife (Anuradha) in a remote Indian
village who gives up her career as an established singer to live with her
doctor husband, Dr. Nirmal Chowdhury, played by Balraj Sahni. Under Mukherjee's
deft direction, Naidu played her part with subtlety, restraint and poise and
the film turned out to be one of the classics of Hindi cinema. The film won the
Indian government's coveted National Award for Best Film (1961) and was
nominated for Golden Bear at the Berlin International Film Festival (1961).
Naidu's big break in popular cinema came with R. K. Nayyar's
crime thriller, Yeh Raaste Hain Pyar Ke (Love's Pathways, 1963), in which she
played the lead female role of the adulterous wife. Its story was a
fictionalised adaptation of a real-life murder that had taken place in Bombay
in 1959. Known as the Nanavati murder case, in which a high-ranking navy
commander, Kawas Nanavati, killed his close friend, Prem Ahuja, upon finding
out that he was his English wife Sylvia's lover, it sent shockwaves throughout
India. The case also marked a milestone in Indian legal history since it
resulted in the abolition of one of the legacies of the British Raj, the jury
system.
It was presumably the sensationalism of the case that led
Nayyar to make Yeh Raaste Hain Pyar Ke. Naidu's Westernised looks and bearing
fitted her well for the role of Neena (Nanavati's wife). It was nothing unusual
for a hero like Sunil Dutt, who played Nanavati, or a seasoned villain like
Rahman, who acted as Prem Ahuja, to have accepted their roles. Leela Naidu's
situation, however, was exceptional because it was only she who took a risk by
agreeing to act as Nanavati's unfaithful wife, a role which many leading Indian
actresses of the 1960s had refused. Luckily, her boldness paid off. Yeh Raaste
Hain Pyar Ke proved a commercial success and helped to turn Naidu into
something of an icon for women's liberation in India.
Another film that brought Naidu critical acclaim was Gharbar
(The Householder, 1963) a film by Merchant Ivory Productions. Based on the 1960
novel of the same name written by Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, it was directed by
James Ivory. It was the first collaboration between the producer, Ismail
Merchant and the director, Ivory. Shot entirely on location in Delhi, The
Householder is a comedy that revolves around Prem (Shashi Kapoor) and his young
wife Indu (Naidu). Portraying the role of a lower-middle-class girl called Indu
only proved Naidu's versatility. India's internationally acclaimed master
director Satyajit Ray, who had made some creative input in the making of The
Householder, was reportedly so impressed by Naidu's performance that he planned
an English film with herself alongside Marlon Brando and Shashi Kapoor, but the
project never materialised.
She was considered for the role of Rosie in Vijay Anand's
Guide (1965), but the role required a trained dancer, and so Naidu lost out to
Waheeda Rehman. Her last film in Hindi mainstream cinema was Baghi (1964) a
costume extravaganza co-starring Pradeep Kumar, Vijaya Choudhury, and Mumtaz.Later,
Naidu made a guest appearance in the Merchant-Ivory film, The Guru (1969).She
returned to cinema in 1985 to play a Goan matriarch in Shyam Benegal's period
film, Trikaal. Her appearance in Electric Moon (1992), directed by Pradip
Krishen, turned out to be her last cinematic role.
Leela Naidu produced a documentary on mentally challenged
children, A Certain Childhood, which was Kumar Shahni's first directorial
project under the banner of Leela Naidu Films. Later, she registered under
Unicorn Films to make another film, Houseless Bombay, which was never made. She
briefly held a job as an editor at the Bombay-based magazine Key Notes.
In September 2009, Lila, a documentary on Leela Naidu's
life, by Bidisha Roy Das and Priyanjana Dutta was released.
But in spite of her talent, dedication and commitment, Naidu
only ended up acting in a handful of films. This was because in a film industry
ridden with stereotypes, the strengths of her personality and innate style
turned into disadvantages or drawbacks.
Naidu's personal life was far from happy. She married and
divorced the affluent scion of the Oberoi Group of hotels, Tikki Oberoi, and
then poet and writer, Dom Moraes. Her two failed marriages and her failure to
get custody of her children left her shattered and shaken. To fight her sense
of loss and loneliness, she sought comfort in the philosophical teachings of J.
Krishnamurthi in London. Later on, she lived like a recluse in Mumbai. Leela
Naidu died in Mumbai on 28 July 2009, due to lung failure after a prolonged
bout of influenza, at the age of 69
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/leela-naidu-miss-india-of-1954-who-went-on-to-forge-a-career-as-an-actress-with-a-touch-of-western-1790753.html
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