Rehana Sultan

This came at a time in the 1970s when new-wave directors defied social norms to exhibit pictures that celebrated sexual liberation. The main driver of it all was this one low-budget movie that turned one person into a star while destroying another.

It’s a triumphant home-coming for the National award winning actress of Dastak. Rehana Sultan, the trailblazer who ushered in a sexual revolution with her boldly-defined portrayal of the assertive woman in many films directed by her late husband B R Ishaara, is back in the limelight. She plays Chitrangda Singh’s feisty mother in Sudhir Mishra’s <em>Inkaar</em>. So impressed is the director by the actress’ command of the medium after so many years that that he has decided to cast her in a much meatier role in his next.

In another set back to the film industry, the news of the passing away of writer-director BR Ishara has brought everyone and everything to a standstill. He was recently diagnosed with Tuberculosis and was undergoing treatment at Criticare hospital in Juhu. Ishara, known to be the first director to have started the tradition of shooting in bungalows, shot into prominence with his first film <em>Chetna</em> that starred Rehana Sultan – whom he later married – and Anil Dhawan. The film was completed in just twenty five days.