Chances are that if you grew up in the 90s, the name Anu Aggarwal will instantly bring to your mind the iconic Aashiqui audio cassette cover that had a boy and girl kissing with a jacket covering their heads.
The beautiful, dusky model who became a star overnight with this superhit, a film quite progressive for the 90s, was next seen opposite Jackie Shroff in King Uncle and in a negative role in Khalnaika (1993). She was the lead in Mani Ratnam’s Thiruda Thiruda (1993) and won international acclaim for her role as a sensuous princess in Mani Kaul’s erotica The Cloud Door (1995). However, just a few years after she had taken Bollywood by storm, Anu left it all and disappeared.
In her tell-all Anusual: Memoir of a Girl Who Came Back from the Dead, the former supermodel and actor returns to tell her tale. Of how she got her first big break, navigated the choppy waters of the glamour industry, called it quits disillusioned by the caprices of showbiz and enrolled in a yoga ashram, cheated death by surviving and recovering from a near-fatal accident that left her paralysed, and eventually became a sanyasi on discovering “that my greatest pleasure came from helping others”.
Spotted by a talent scout while on a holiday to Mumbai, Anu, a Delhi University graduate, found herself pitch-forked into the modelling world with her very first advertisement. More modelling offers followed suit that took her to fashion shows across the world. In 1989, when she was on the verge of moving to Paris to pursue a modelling career, she was approached by Mahesh Bhatt with Aashiqui, who told her he had based the film on her life and written it to suit her modern sensibilities.
The doe-eyed actor became a sensation overnight. Her success was extraordinary not just because she was an outsider in the industry, but also given her dusky complexion in a country where fair has been deemed lovely since time immemorial. Choosing to explore herself as an artist rather than just rake in moolah, Anu made some rather brave choices. She agreed to play a negative character in Sawan Kumar’s Khalnaika, a 360-degree turn from the ingénue she portrayed in Aashiqui. Much against the advice of industry friends, she stuck to her beliefs and said yes to a condom commercial. And her role in The Cloud Door is something most mainstream actors would shy away from even today.
Anu tells her story in both the first and third person, which makes the book a pacy read. Her tone is breezy and conversational as the narrative deftly traverses the past and present. The rich, descriptive writing works well to keep the reader hooked till the end, making the short autobiography an entertaining, one-sitting read.
On the candidness parameter too, Anusual scores high. Anu discusses in detail her intense spiritual and sexual experiences—whether it be her rich romantic life, her astral experiences before and after her terrible accident or tantric lovemaking with the head swami of the ashram. Reminiscing about the men in her life, Anu writes, “I feel fortunate to not have left a leaf unturned, or a button unhooked, in my exploration of sexuality, sensuality, or just an honest human connect with members of the opposite sex.”
The book is a treat for cinema buffs, Anu Aggarwal fans and those interested in learning about the flipside of fame and the glamour industry, warts and all.