Waheeda Rehman opens up on resistance she met after signing Dev Anand starrer Guide

Veteran actress Waheeda Rehman was recently conferred with the prestigious Dadasaheb Phalke Award at the 69th National Film Awards ceremony. The event was organised at New Delhi’s Vigyan Bhawan on Tuesday. The actress was one of the most promising actresses of her time. There was a time when her choice to perform a particular role met with a lot of resistance from the directors. In a recent interview, Waheeda Rehman opened up about when the directors expressed resentment over the actress signing the film Guide.

Director Ram Maheshwari expressed resentment

When Waheeda Rehman signed Dev Anand-starrer Guide, she was asked to play the role of a woman who pursues her passion as a dancer and leaves her husband for the same. In a recent interview with Doordarshan, the veteran actor recalled that Neel Kamal director Ram Maheshwari once told her that she was ‘destroying’ him by accepting the role of a woman who leaves her husband. “I was shooting for both Guide and Neel Kamal around the same time. When the director got to know that I was doing Guide, he said ‘Waheeda ji you are killing me, you have destroyed me’. I said ‘I don’t get it’. He said, ‘In my film, you are called Sita, who is fully in love with her husband and in Guide you are playing Rosy, a dancer who leaves her husband. So I am destroyed.”

Waheeda Rehman was told to leave for Hollywood

She further revealed that the director even told her that if she wanted to play such roles, she should leave for Hollywood. “He said ‘you should not do these kinds of films because these films don’t work in India. This works in Hollywood. If you are fond of these kinds of movies, then go work in Hollywood,” she added.

Such was the resistance that Waheeda was forced to give him the option of firing her. Rehman told the director that she would be working in both the movies and if he wanted, he was allowed to fire her. Guide is one of the best works of Vijay Anand and starred Dev Anand and Waheeda Rehman in lead roles.