Sharmila Tagore on missing out on Rocky Aur Rani Kii Prem Kahaani with Dharmendra, “I fell ill and couldn’t do the film”

“We shared the same birthday. He was my co-star in seven films. I knew he was not keeping good health. But the news of his passing is still very saddening,” said Sharmila Tagore, who worked in films as far-ranging as Satyakam and Chupke Chupke with Dharmendra. She reflected on their screen togetherness. “We first worked together in Devar and then during the same year in Anupama. Two very serious subjects, followed by an out-and-out commercial film Mere Humdum Mere Dost. Shooting with him was a breeze. He was as effortless on screen as he was off it. He was never ‘The Star’ on the sets, always his natural self. There was nothing put-on about him.” Sharmila Tagore recalled her first meeting with Dharmendra. “Before we worked together, we met when I was shooting with Yash Chopra’s Waqt. I don’t know in what context he was there. But I remember he was dressed… how shall I put it… not like a star at all. When s...

Roman Holiday at 70: Audrey Hepburn’s star-making role remains luminous

The 1953 romantic comedy may lack heft but the Oscar-winner’s charming lead turn makes it an escape worth taking again

When Roman Holiday was released, 70 summers ago, the monarchy was having a fashionable moment. Two months before, the world had watched the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II, a relatively young, glamorous face for a fusty institution: the first such event to be globally televised, it made the very principle of royalty seem less like the realm of ancient history. I say “relatively”: the frilly pomp and ceremony of English royalty can’t have been much sexier in 1953 than it was in 2023, though at least they didn’t have official broad-bean quiche to contend with.

There was certainly ample scope for Hollywood to prettify the notion a bit, which is where Roman Holiday proved most fortuitously timed. A romantic comedy that set a quasi-fantasy template for the genre that has endured to the modern era – take Notting Hill, a veritable homage – it played on a mid-century fascination with real-world princesses, with all the duller formalities taken out. Its protagonist, crown princess Ann, is a blank slate on to which any number of princessy ideals could be projected: she’s beautiful, gracious and charismatic, with an all-purpose Euro glamour that can’t be tied to any specific identity, since the screenwriter Dalton Trumbo had elected to make her from a vague imaginary nation. Beside her, England’s young new queen looked positively, rain-soddenly drab.

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