Among many actors and actresses who were once a sensation but faded away from people’s memory with time, is yesteryear actress Mandakini. If you grew up in the 80s, you couldn’t have been oblivious of her dream debut in Raj Kapoor’s Ram Teri Ganga Maili in 1985. It starred her in a leading role with Raj Kapoor’s son Rajiv Kapoor and Mandakini became an overnight sensation, particularly for her sensuousness. Her infamous waterfall scene in the movie has been talked about for decades. The actress could not match the success of her first film with her next projects and soon disappeared from the screen by the early 90s.
However, years later, Mandakini has spoken about various reasons why she couldn’t survive in the industry for long and one of them is because it was predominantly male-dominated. In a chat with Pinkvilla, the actress spilled the beans on the partiality faced by female artists.
According to her, 80s Bollywood only needed an actress for a few songs and a few romantic scenes without any meaty parts. On top of that, the choice of the heroine rested with the hero of a film and the hero could get the heroine ousted from the film if he did not wish to work with her. She acknowledged having been a victim of this treatment once or twice.
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Mandakini also said that actresses were subjected to pay disparity, often being paid only Rs 1-1.5 lakh for the entire movie. And that was not all. They could be removed from the film if someone else agreed to charge less for the role.
Even after an actress accepted a role after a narration and agreed on a Rs 1.5 lakh remuneration, the filmmaker could announce the project with someone else within 3 or 4 days if someone else accepted the role for Rs 75,000, she said.
Mandakini recently made a comeback to the entertainment business after 26 years, appearing in a music video titled Maa o maa, which also features her son Rabbil Thakur.
