When the spanking new Indian-origin PM was invited to step into 10 Downing by the new King of England, one of the best memes had Rishi Sunak saying, “I’m the replacement for Liz”, with Charles quipping, “So am I”.
Meanwhile, the Mumbai actress with the strongest connection to the King of England is still a little baffled. Although he will be officially coronated only in May 2023, the announcement of the new monarch had swamped the Internet with 1980 videos of Padmini Kolhapure kissing Prince Charles. She was in her mid-teens when the 31-year-old had visited Rajkamal Studio where she was shooting Ahista Ahista, her first as a heroine.
“When he became the king in September, I was hounded,” she remarked. She had been in 1980 too, when she’d spunkily told all of us, “He looked so cute, I spontaneously kissed him.” In reality, it was hardly a kiss, it was just a peck on his cheek. But 42 years ago, it had overshadowed all other news of the Prince’s visit to India.
“If I remember right, he’d met Mother Teresa too on that trip,” recalled Padmini. Prince Charles had indeed flown to Calcutta and visited Mother House, where he met Mother Teresa for the first time.
“But the kiss made it seem like that was the only highlight of his visit to India,” laughed Padmini.
Right now, the video is relevant for other reasons too. If you look closely, there’s Kiran Shantaram (son of veteran filmmaker V. Shantaram), who took over his father’s Rajkamal Studio, beaming next to the visiting royalty. Pertinent today would be a mention of the gentleman who’s just behind Padmini in the video. That’s director Esmayeel Shroff, director of Ahista Ahista, who passed away in Mumbai last Wednesday. It was this news that made Padmini wistful when she saw the video again.
There is another aspect of the video that’s been intriguing Padmini. “The video doesn’t show what Prince Charles said after I kissed him. He said something to which I laughed and turned away. I can lipread and I could’ve gathered what he said except that none of the videos have been shot from the front. So, to this day, I don’t know what Prince Charles said to me that day.”
What she does know is that even today when there’s any story on famous public kisses featuring Hindi film actresses, there will be one of Shabana Azmi’s with Nelson Mandela (1993) and another of Shilpa Shetty’s with Richard Gere (2007). “But mine is always the first to pop up,” Padmini observed.
All three had sparked much controversy in their time, with Shabana facing the wrath of her incensed community and Shilpa battling a court case for “obscenity”.
But Padmini had courted another controversy that same year, when her film Gehrayee was released. A film on exorcism that revolved around a young girl possessed by a spirit, there was a nude backless shot that featured Padmini with a tantric played by Amrish Puri.
Director Aruna Raje (one half of the erstwhile Aruna-Vikas team that made Gehrayee) remembers that they first got an okay from her parents since Padmini was still a minor. Aruna-Vikas then explained the scene in explicit detail to her before she came on board. “I put a long orangish shawl on her that completely covered her front. We thought that even if some part of it was seen, it would pass off as a reflection of the fire in front of her.
“Luckily, Padmini had long hair which covered much of her bare back and only just before the shoot, I pulled down her panty. Everything was so beautifully handled that not for a moment was anybody embarrassed.” It was a “cheat shot” that gave the effect of total nudity but was an unbeatable drum roll for the young artiste’s entry into Hindi cinema.
However controversial the start in 1980, Padmini had one of the most dignified innings as a powerhouse talent after Raj Kapoor cast her in Prem Rog two years later. It was during RK’s shooting that Padmini had a crush not on hero Rishi Kapoor but on his unattached younger brother. Ah, a story for another day.
Bharathi S. Pradhan is a senior journalist and author