Sulakshana Pandit

• Birth Date: 31 Dec 1969
• Birth Place:

Artist Information

Sulakshana Pandit today stays in a flat in Mumbai with her elder sister, Maya, and her 20-year-old nephew Varun .She still wishes to sing and earn for her own being, "How I wish I'd won some prestigious awards so that film-makers and music directors would know that I'm still around," she sighs. "Somehow, I stopped getting work quite some time ago. But people still tell me that I have a good voice and that I should return to playback singing.

In her days, Sulakshana acted in over 50 films with the top heroes and banners of the time. She sang most of her own songs and, apart from the solos, had the opportunity to sing with Lata Mangeshkar, Mohammed Rafi, Mukesh and Manna Dey. She longs to sing again. "I'd feel highly obliged if my brothers (composers Jatin-Lalit), Anu Malik or A R Rahman gave me a chance," she says softly. "My brothers feel I'm not big enough a name today. I agree that they needed to work with well- established singers like Kavita Krishnamoorthy and Alka Yagnik when they were just starting out and needed to find a foothold in showbiz. But once they'd done that, they could have given me some songs to sing. Lataji is still going strong at 70-plus. I'm only 40-plus. If they'd helped me out, I wouldn't be in the situation I'm in today. But I'm glad that the singers my brothers have worked with have brought them popularity."

Sulakshana loved her mother very much and was very upset ever since she passed away three years ago. Her mother was a very spiritual lady and always encouraged her, "It was from my mother that I learnt never to give up. Even after my father left us, she single-handedly brought up the seven of us-- three brothers and four sisters. I looked after my brothers and sisters, I did whatever my mother asked me to do for them, no questions asked. But I'm not God, I'm just a human being. I've learnt that helping your family is fine but that you have to think of yourself and your last days too."

For now, She says her colleagues were always nice to her and respected her.Sulakshana veers off into a memory and confides: "I loved Sanjeev Kumar so much. He was so nice. He'd given me a set made with yellow sapphires. One day, after his bypass operation, we had gone to a Hanuman mandir in Delhi. I told him that I loved him and asked him to put sindoor in my parting. I told him to marry me so that I could look after him. But he refused, saying that he could never forget his first love, Hema Malini. His death shattered me." "Whenever I'm alone, I go to my shack on the beach and sing with my harmonium or tanpura. I know I can no longer return to lead roles in Hindi films but my voice is still good."

Whenever reality gets too much to bear, she sings herself a song from Hum Dono; she calls it the song of her life:

Mein zindagi ka saath nibhata chala gaya Har fikra ko dhuen mein udata chala gaya Barbadiyon ka sog manana fizul tha Barbadiyon ka jashna manata chala gaya Jo mil gaya ussiko muqaddar samajh liya Jo kho gaya main usko bhula ta chala gaya Gham aur khushi mein farqa na mehsus ho jahan Mein dil ko us maqaam pe laata chala gaya...