Curated By: Chirag Sehgal
Last Updated: January 26, 2024, 08:03 IST
Saira Banu says she grew up watching films of Vyjayanthimala Bali. (Photos: Instagram)
Besides Vyjayanthimala Bali, Chiranjeevi has also been bestowed with the Padma Vibhushan award.
Hours after it was announced that Vyjayanthimala Bali has been honoured with the Padma Vibhushan Award 2024, Saira Banu has congratulated the veteran actress. Banu was speaking to E-Times recently when she said that Vyjayanthimala is ‘truly deserved’ for the honour.
“I am so happy about this…the award is truly well deserved…I have grown up watching her films and she is ‘akka’ (elder sister ) to me,” Saira Banu said.
Interestingly, in September 2023, Saira Banu went down memory lane when she revealed that she was once left jealous when she saw her late-husband Dilip Kumar’s photo with Vyjayanthimala on a magazine cover. The two had worked together on the 1958 romantic drama Madhumati.
“It was a beautiful photo, and in my childishness, I got so jealous of Sahib’s proximity to her face that I took a pair of scissors and deftly started to snip away that portion of the photograph. Just imagine! I am hysterical with laughter when I recall this. Until then I had never seen her in any film and as fate would have it, I grew up to meet, admire, and associate with her as a member of my family. There are many interesting memories with her wherein I hold Akka in high esteem and shall narrate it one day,” Saira had written in one of her Instagram posts.
Vyjayanthimala Bali is one of the Indian Cinema’s finest actors. She made her acting debut at the age of 16 with the Tamil film Vaazhkai (1949). Her first Hindi movie was Bahar, which was released in 1951. Later, Bali also worked in several films from the 1950s and 1960s, including Devdas, Naya Daur, Aasha, Sadhna, Gunga Jumna, Sangam and Jewel Thief. Interestingly, she was also awarded Padma Shri in the year 1968.
Besides Vyjayanthimala Bali, Chiranjeevi has also been bestowed with the Padma Vibhushan award. He is one of the most popular stars from the South cinema. He has worked in over 150 feature films in several languages including Telugu, Hindi, Tamil and Kannada.
