Golden Era of Bollywood: Leena Chandavarkar- Yeh Jo Chilman Hai

Today we know her the 4th wife of Kishore Kumar, once a successful actress of the 70s. She made her debut in Man Ka Meet for Sunil Dutt, and it was his wife Nargis who groomed her to be an actress. Between 1969 and 1979, Leena acted in many films. She was cast opposite many of popular heroes of that era. She gave one of her best performances in Mehboob Ki Mehndi with Rajesh Khanna in 1971.
She was one of the two heroines of Dilip Kumar in Bairag,she was a heroine for Raj Kumar in Dil Ka Raja,she was heroine of Shammi Kapoor in Jaan Pehchaan, she was heroine of Dharmendra and Jetendra.
In an interview she said Kishoreji wanted to do a film with me. He had written three scripts for me and he kept meeting me on the pretext of narrating the script and chat with me for hours. One fine day, he proposed to me.

I refused immediately but he didn’t say a word and said he wanted to narrate a script. I refused to meet him. But finally, I signed his film Pyaar Ajnabee and my friendship with Kishoreji deepened.

When I told my parents about my decision to marry him, they were very angry. They had heard stories about him and were concerned. When I called up Kishoreji, the first thing he asked me was whether my parents had consented. I said they hadn’t and had instead left for Dharwad. He was delighted and said, “Well, now I am free to marry you.” Then he said, “Let’s go to Dharwad and take your parents’ permission.”

I was sure my parents would never agree. But when we reached Dharwad, my mother and brother greeted him with so much warmth. He later asked for a mat and a harmonium. He sat down to sing songs to please my father but my father did not relent. His last song was Nafrat karne walon ke seene mein pyaar bhar do. My father came around and hugged him and said, “Your voice has touched my heart and I am sure you will keep my daughter happy.”

After Kishore's death in 1987, she continues to live with her singer-actor step-son, Amit Kumar, and has even written lyrics for his music album.

Songs of Leena Chandavarkar