As gorgeous as ever, Dreamgirl

Despite her age and poise, there is a childlike restlessness in Hema Malini. In town to promote her new television serial Kamini Damini, she is just as gorgeous and youthful as she appeared on screen in Baghban.
“I owe it all to my daughters,” she says. “Each time I gain a little weight, they make it a point to get me back in shape.” She laughs at the mention of Amitabh Bachchan’s comment that she looked more Esha’s sister than her mother during the shooting of Baghban.
Hema is emphatic that Baghban was not her comeback film. “What comeback? I have been around all the while. Have you forgotten Himalayaputra?” Not quite, but wasn't that 1997?
She is happy with the way she has executed her many roles in life — mother, wife, dancer, actor, social activist and now parlimentarian. “(On screen) I have played Razia Sultan, a Sita and Gita, a Dhano — and in playing these roles, I have really lived my life.”
Her huge success is in complete contrast to her lack of ambition. “I never wanted to be anything,” she says, “My mother persuaded me to become an actor, a dancer. And once I started working, I also started liking it, so I played along, despite my father being totally against my being in films.”
Hema must have had a moment of déjà vu when she guided her elder daughter Esha into films in spite of papa Dharmendra’s opposition. “I am not like my mother,” she insists. “I allow both Ahana (younger daughter) and Esha to do as they wish. I do guide them but I don’t force them.”
Of her two daughters, Esha is the clear favourite. “Esha is my baby, she just needs the right platform. She is the most promising actor among them all.” What better platform can she have than Hema directing a film with Esha in the lead? “Yes, I am working on that.” Ahana is “very different,” says Hema. “She is more like her father, even look-wise.”
Bollywood’s newest crop holds no interest for Hema, but given a chance she would love to act with Aamir Khan. “He is the cutest of them all, that boy.” Not Dharamendra? “No, I am his wife. I don’t think he will be comfortable acting with me any more.”

Published in Hindustan Times Next in January 2005