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Today is the 17th death anniversary of Anita Guha, the lead actress of the 70s blockbuster movie 'Jai Santoshi Maa'. Anita became so popular by playing the role of Santoshi Mata in the film that people started considering her as God. People used to worship her by putting up her posters in their homes.
Anita became a big star with 'Jai Santoshi Maa' which was released in 1975. The film made a record of earning five crores in that era.
Anita, who had achieved success in her professional life, had a difficult personal life in the end. After a few years of marriage, her husband passed away and Anita was left alone.
Anita was also afflicted with leucoderma disease due to which she had white spots all over her body. Anita started hating herself because of this.
Anita was so troubled by these white spots that she had said that when her funeral takes place, her makeup should be done first so that no one can see her spots.
Know some interesting facts related to the life of Anita Guha…
She had gone to Bombay to participate in a talent competition
Anita Guha was born on 17 January 1939 in a village near Burma. Her father was a forest officer, so Anita's childhood was spent in northeastern states like Darjeeling and Sundarban. After partition, Anita's family settled in Kolkata where Anita studied in school. After completing her studies, Anita tried her hand at modeling and became Miss Kolkata.
After this, Anita came to Bombay (now Mumbai) to participate in a talent competition when she was only 15 years old. This competition was organized by Bollywood's famous Kardar Studio. Anita stood first in all the rounds of this competition. Kardar Studio signed a contract with her for a salary of Rs 300 per month, but there was a problem that Anita did not know Hindi.
His first Hindi film was 'Tanga Wali' released in 1955.
She promised the studio that she would learn Hindi in six months and then start working. Anita came back to Kolkata from Mumbai and started working on improving her Hindi. Meanwhile, her father passed away. Anita's mother was not ready to send her back to Mumbai, so she had to break her contract with Kardar Studio.
On the other hand, due to winning the talent competition, Anita came to the notice of Bengali filmmakers and she got an offer to do a Bengali movie. Anita did not miss this opportunity and signed the film. Its name was 'Bansher Kella'. This film of Anita was released in 1953, but she wanted to come to Mumbai and work in Hindi films. Actor Om Prakash helped her in this, who had gone to Kolkata for some work.
Anita became upset after getting B-grade films
Anita somehow planned to meet Om Prakash and was successful in it. She met Om Prakash and told him about her interest in films. Om Prakash signed her in a film and thus Anita came to Mumbai. The film 'Tanga Wali' released in 1955 was her first Hindi film. After this she appeared in films like 'Duniya Gol Hai', 'Jhanjhar'. Anita did not get much success in films in the beginning.
She played side characters in B-grade films like 'Bhala Aadmi', 'Kal Kya Hoga', 'Maya Bazaar', 'Ek Jhalak', 'Dekh Kabira Roye', 'Taxi Stand'. Anita became very disappointed that she was not being offered heroine roles in A-grade films.
Anita with Mahipal in the film 'Sampoorna Ramayan' released in 1961.
Mythological film changed Anita's fortune
In 1957, time took a turn and filmmaker Homi Wadia offered Anita the role of Sita in the film Pavanputra Hanuman. Anita was in a dilemma about doing a mythological film, but the success of this film changed her mind.
Anita started accepting offers for mythological films and was seen in films like Sampoorna Ramayan, Shri Ram Bharat Milap as Sita. Encouraged by the success in mythological films, Anita then turned to historical films and played lead roles in films like Tipu Sultan, Maharani Padmini, Sant Tukaram.
Shocked by her husband's death, she took a break from films
In 1961, Anita married actor Manik Dutt. After marriage, Anita stayed away from films for four years. In fact, her husband Manik died just a few years after marriage.
After her husband's death, Anita started living alone in her flat located on Linking Road in Bandra, Mumbai. The shock of her husband's death made her depressed. Apart from this, she was sad that she could not become a mother.
Anita had turned down the offer of 'Jai Santoshi Maa'
The second phase of Anita's career started in 1969 with the film Aradhana in which she played a side character. After this, she also appeared in films like Sharmilee, Anurag, Jhoom Utha Akash, Nagin, but the 1975 film Jai Santoshi Maa changed her life. She played the role of Santoshi Mata in the film.
When Anitha was offered this film, she did not want to do it because she had already done many mythological films in her career and due to being typecast, she was not getting films of other genres.
The second reason was that Anita did not know anything about Santoshi Mata. So she was afraid that she would not be able to play this character well, but after the persuasion of director Vijay Sharma, Anita agreed to work in the film.
Kept a fast during the shooting of 'Jai Santoshi Maa'
Anita had to shoot for just 10 to 12 days for this film as her role in the film was not very big. When Anita reached the shoot on the first day, there was a rush on the set. The budget of the film was low so the makers wanted to complete the shooting as soon as possible.
Due to this, Anita could not have breakfast and started shooting. Due to heavy workload, Anita could not even have lunch in the afternoon. When director Vijay Sharma came to know about this in the evening, he immediately arranged for food for Anita, but Anita refused to eat anything.
She observed the first day of shooting as a fast and did not eat anything from then on. According to reports, Anita fasted for the entire duration of the film's shooting. The film was released on 15 August 1975. Initially, the film was in a bad shape.
In a career spanning 40 years, Anita has worked in over 100 films in Hindi, Bengali, Rajasthani and Bhojpuri languages.
Women used to go to the theatre after decorating the aarti thali
The film earned only 56 rupees in one show, 64 rupees in the second show and only 100 rupees in the third show. Everyone thought that the film would flop because it was competing with the film 'Sholay', but suddenly the situation at the ticket window changed.
Crowds of audience started gathering in theatres to watch 'Jai Santoshi Maa'. The film became quite popular among women and special shows were arranged for them on Saturdays.
Women would go to theatres with decorated Aarti plates and, after watching the song “Main to Aarti utaroon” on the screen, they would perform Aarti, throw coins and offer flowers.
After the success of this film, Anita Guha became a star. Wherever she went, people would touch her feet to seek blessings and call her Santoshi Mata. They would put her photo in their homes and worship her.
After this film, Anita Guha got so attached to the image of Santoshi Mata that the audience did not like her in any other role after this.
This was the reason that after a few films, Anita left the film world and started living alone. Anita Guha's last film was 'Lakhpati' which was released in 1991.
Anita used to use a lot of make-up to hide the blemishes on her face.
Stopped leaving the house due to illness
The last days were very difficult for Anita Guha. She was suffering from leucoderma. In this disease, white spots appear on the entire body. Anita also had spots on her face due to which she went into depression.
She reduced going out of the house and meeting people to a great extent. Anita used to wear a lot of makeup to hide the blemishes on her face. She even told her relatives to do her makeup before her funeral so that no one could see her blemishes.
On 20 June 2007, Anita died of cardiac arrest in Mumbai at the age of 68. As per her last wish, her face was made up before the funeral.