Meena Kumari would nudge a blushing Suraiya on the sets of Sanam and whisper 'Aa rahe hai... aapke' when Dev Anand sauntered onto the sets.
Key Points
- Dev Anand first worked with Suraiya in the 1948 film, Vidya.
- They fell in love but could not get married.
- After 1951's Sanam, they never worked together again.
While we have seen many love stories bloom in Bollywood, many have remained unfulfilled.
This Valentine's Day week, Dinesh Raheja looks at the many love stories that just didn't work out.
Dev Anand and Suraiya fell in love, but the romance was not to be.
- Part 1 in this series: Why Rajesh Khanna, Anju Mahendru Broke Up
- Part 2: Why Shatrughan Sinha Didn't Marry Reena Roy
- Why Mumtaz Said No To Shammi Kapoor's Marriage Proposal
Why Suraiya fell in love with Dev Anand
Even our legends were once young and swept up by the heady euphoria of passion.
In the early 1950s, the Hindi film industry was abuzz with tales of the well-established singer-actress Suraiya being ardently wooed by the rapidly rising star, Dev Anand, who resembled her favourite Hollywood actor, Gregory Peck.
The lovebirds did films like Vidya (1948), Jeet (1949), Shair (1949), Afsar (1950), Nili (1950), Do Sitare (1951), and Sanam (1951) in quick succession.
A young Meena Kumari would nudge a blushing Suraiya on the sets of Sanam and whisper 'Aa rahe hai... aapke' when Dev sauntered onto the sets.
It was an open secret.
The Dev Anand-Suraiya romance didn't work out
News of this liaison reached Suraiya's stern grandmother. She objected to the cultural differences and was convinced that the songstress, in her early 20s then, was too young to marry.
She put the brakes on Suraiya signing any more films with Dev.
The story goes that the grandmother insisted Suraiya throw Dev Anand's ring into the sea outside their Marine Drive residence in south Mumbai.
Dev Anand quickly moved on from this heartbreak and got married to Kalpana Kartik within three years.
Suraiya remained unmarried.
Photographs curated by Satish Bodas/Rediff
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