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Born on 29th Aug 1950 in the Dharwar/Karwar region in the State of Karnataka (formerly known as Mysore), in the Marathi-speaking Chandavarkar family, this beautiful actress, with an oval cherubic face and innocent smile, has acted in many films like Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi (1970), Humjoli (1970), Rakhwala (1971), Jaane-Anjaane (1971), Manchali (1973), Bairaag (1976), Aafat (1977) just to name a few.
A former student of Bassel Mission High School, she won a talent competition, gained enough confidence to consider acting in Bombay's Bollywood, but faced challenges including being written off as 'too young'. She refused to play 'sister' and other character roles and instead committed herself to print advertisements.
She was finally given a break by Sunil Dutt, who noticed her ads, and cast her in his 1968 film Man Ka Meet (1969), opposite his brother, Som Dutt. This movie also launched Vinod Khanna as a villain.
She was assisted by none other than Nargis, who helped her improve her Hindi, non-classical dancing, and driving vehicles.
Petite, conservative and traditional, she refused do any bikini-clad character on or even off-screen photo shoots, and did not learn to swim, despite of facing stiff competition from taller actresses such as Zeenat Aman and Parveen Babi.
She has acted opposite well-known Bollywood heroes such as Sanjeev Kumar, Dharmendra, Rajesh Khanna, & Dilip Kumar.
She gave one of her best performances in Mehboob Ki Mehndi with Rajesh Khanna in 1971.
Bairaag is another example where she acted with the great screen legend Dilip Kumar and a mighty star cast of Saira Bano, Prem Chopra and Helen.
She had an arranged marriage to her first husband, Siddharth Bandodkar, who came from a prominent political family. He died from an accidental gunshot wound, a few days into the marriage, leaving Leena a widow at age 25. A few years later, she defied her father by marrying singing legend 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 Kishore Kumar named Sumit Ganguly. Kishore died in 1987, leaving Leena once again a widow at age 37. She lives with her son Sumit, her step-son Amit, his wife, and with Amit's mother.
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.
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0151293/bio
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