BERHAMPUR: There’s an Odisha connection of Waheeda Rehman who will be conferred the prestigious Dadasaheb Phalke Lifetime Achievement Award this year. The veteran film actress did her first stage show as a dancer at Ganjam Kala Parishad in Berhampur around seven decades back. The show not only brought accolades for her, but also gave birth to an all-India-level football tournament in the silk city. In fact, her maiden show was organised by Dr Ferose Ali, a famous physician and social activist of Berhampur who was known as the poor man’s doctor.
In 1952 before she hit the silver screen, Waheeda performed Bharatanatyam at the show. The event was a success which is why she returned to Berhampur to perform at another show later. Granddaughter of Dr Ferose, Nargis Natrajan wrote a biography of her father titled ‘Daddy-A Bouquet of Memories’ in which she vividly mentions the details of Waheeda’s visits to the Silk City.“Waheeda had the combination of beauty and talent. When approached by my parents, she immediately agreed to a Bharatanatyam performance at Berhampur,” says Nargis in her book the first edition of which was published in 2003.
A famous Telugu film director reportedly saw Waheeda’s performance at Ganjam Kala Parishad and approached her for a brief dance sequence in his film ‘Rojulu Maraayi’, which was released in 1955. Although the cast included famous south Indian stars, Nageswar Rao and Sowcar Janaki, Lady Luck smiled on young Waheeda as her dance sequence and the song was an instant hit. During the 100-day celebrations of her debut movie, legendary filmmaker and actor Guru Dutt was so charmed by Waheeda’s beauty that he offered her a lead role in his film. In 1956, Waheeda was paired with Dev Anand in Guru Dutt’s ‘CID’. And the rest is history.
The collections from Waheeda’s first show were used to start a football tournament in Ganjam. “A few thousand rupees were collected and the famous ‘All India Fieaz Memorial Tournament’ for football was born in honour of my late grandfather. Sporting activities in Ganjam district received a big boost in 1952 when daddy donated a large six-feet black wooden plank shield for the tournament,” writes Nargis.
Dr Ferose organised another charity show in Berhampur for the construction of a Red Cross Hospital in 1960. He invited her to perform again and Waheeda obliged. She even brought along famous playback singer Manna Dey to Berhampur.