When Shammi Kapoor married Geeta Bali, he was still a newcomer struggling to overcome his initial spate of flops and find his niche, while she was an established star. The love between this outgoing couple was beyond mundane considerations.

Gutsy Geeta even played a man for an entire film, Rangeen Raatein, all because she wanted to be near the film's hero, Shammi Kapoor. When the couple decided to get married in the mid-1950s, it was in as unconventional a manner. They waited outside Mumbai's Banganga temple all night and got married in the morning.

In the 1960, Shammi became a huge superstar and Geeta, who had put her career on the backburner after the birth of her two children, decided to make a comeback with an author-backed role in a film called Rano.

Tragically, she contacted smallpox on the film's outdoor shoot and passed away in Mumbai in 1965 aged 34, her devastated husband by her side.

Back

|

Next