Down the memory lane with Tabassum : Bollywood News

The First Lady of Television, Tabassum, is one of the very few living legends in our film industry and has been around for more than 60 years. Starting out when she was a kid. Born on July 9, 1944, she started her stint in Bollywood with film Nargis as child artiste. Since then, there has been no looking back.

Childhood memoriesâ€¦

My parents had an inter-caste marriage, so since birth I was taught to respect all religions. My father was a Hindu- Punjabi while my mom was a Muslim-Pathan. My father named me Tabassum, a Muslim name because my mother was a Muslim. The meaning of my name is smile and I have always been smiling ever since. My mother named me Kiran Bala, so my name was a mix of two religions. I got my first movie offer from D.D. Kashyap for the film Nargis wherein I was the child artiste. I was just two years old then. My parents were both journalists and besides that my mother also used to be a dialogue writer so that is how my filmi connections actually happened. In all the films that I did as a child artiste I would always see my name in the end and it would go like, Nargis, Dilip Kumar and Baby Tabassum. Eventually I started thinking that my name was And Baby Tabassum and when anybody would ask my name I would proudly say that my name is And Baby Tabassum!

Looking backâ€¦

For my first film I was paid of Rs 5000, which was pretty high considering it was almost 60 years ago. After my film Nargis, my parents werent too keen to allow me to continue acting and because of this reason my parents decided to hike the fee that I demanded, thinking that the producers would not be able to afford such a high amount. But then, all the producers who approached me were rich and were ready to give more money than what my parents had quoted! This way I started my journey as a child artiste and acted in several movies like Deedar, Jogan, Baiju Bawara and Bahar. I have acted as a child with stars like Dilip Kumar and Ashok Kumar. I have done movies with Vyjayantimala, Suraiya and Meena Kumari. Overall I have done about 70 to 75 films as a child artiste. It was then that I got tagged as Indian Shirley Temple. Shirley Temple was a name of a famous child artiste in Hollywood and it was a privilege to be addressed by that name.

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