Hema Malini slipped her feet out of her gold sandals and wriggled her toes. Two hours of interviews and photographs after a three-hour flight from Mumbai were taking their toll and the woman once nicknamed "Bollywood's dream girl" was clearly keen to escape to the sanctuary of her hotel suite to make final preparations for her performance the following evening. The crazy scrum of photographers and camera crews that surrounded her almost from the moment she landed in Dubai bore witness to the fact that more than 30 years on she had lost none of the star quality that saw her reign supreme over the Indian movie world for more than a decade. Those quicksilver feet that danced down a rocky hillside and over broken china until they bled in the Bollywood epic Sholay captivated a nation. They have lost none of their dexterity. In fact, they have brought Malini full circle back to where she started, as a dancer rather than an actress. Her rich, throaty laugh rang out when the words "dream girl" were mentioned. "That was a long time ago. I wouldn't call myself a dream girl any more, maybe a dream mother," she said. With her 60th birthday two months away, Malini is just thankful that she can still dance. She was in Dubai for the 61st anniversary of Indian independence at the invitation of the Indian Business & Professional Council (IBPC), to give a performance of classical dance with her two daughters, Esha and Ahana Deol at the Al Bustan Rotana hotel. In front of more than 1,000 guests, including ambassadors and dignitaries from the UAE government and the Indian business community, she gave an exquisite rendering of her classical ballet Parampara, displaying all the grace and technical brilliance of a much younger woman. It was a stunning display from all three women and a troupe of dancers that Malini has been training back home in Mumbai, where she lives with another Bollywood legend, her husband, the actor Dharmendra. Malini fell in love with Dharmendra on the set of Sholay, which also starred the legendary actor Amitabh Bachchan. Their union might have been the scandal of the century, as Dharmendra was married with four children, but it is a testament to the affection and respect in which Malini is held that it was not. In fact, Dharmendra and Malini's subsequent marriage was welcomed. The pair became the glittering celebrity couple of their day and went on to star in many movies together. In Dubai last week, Malini paid tribute to her husband for allowing her to grow and develop her own interests outside their marriage, including a burgeoning career in politics. Four years ago she and Dharmendra joined the right-wing Bhartiya Janata Party and she now represents the party in the Rajya Sabha, the upper house of the Parliament of India. "Sholay and I have grown since then. It's a nice film. I was young and at that age you only think about who you are going to marry and who you are going to live with the rest of your life and settle down. I found him and I am thankful God sent this person. It has been nice but not like you dream about. "You are the dream girl but even for a dream girl, all the dreams don't come true. There are many things that I can't even say, but life has been nice and I'm very thankful because maybe this is the way my life is defined. If I was tied up with one person and lived like a wife to that person all the time then I wouldn't have continued my art form. The man to whom I am married is there with me but he has allowed me to grow further so I am very thankful to him for not letting me stop. A lot of men like to grab you and keep you under their thumb. My husband never does it. I am very thankful to Mr Dharmendra," she said. For such a successful star, Malini shows surprising modesty and lack of self-awareness. After her performance she was happy to mingle and talk to guests at the banquet where special dishes from all over India were created in honour of the national day. While she knows her own value in India, Malini never expects to be recognised abroad. "The influence of Bollywood has been great. There are Indians all over the world. "I am always surprised when people recognise me when I travel outside India. I was on holiday in Switzerland once and somebody came up to me having recognised me. The power of the Bollywood movies has spread all over the world. For Indians living outside India it's what keeps people connected,"she says.
Malini was born in Ammankudi, Tamil Nadu, the daughter of VSR Chakravarthy, a film producer. She trained in the art of Bharatanatyan classical dancing before crossing into mainstream films. In her first foray into acting, the director CV Shridhar dropped her from a Tamil film because he thought she had no star quality. Determined to make a name for herself, Malini persisted and auditioned for various Bollywood roles, finally gaining a part in a film called Sapnon ka Saudagar (1968) starring Raj Kapoor. The title means "the dreamseller", which provoked some imaginative copywriter to splash the sobriquet "dream girl" across publicity posters and although the film flopped, Malini was on her way. She starred in a string of successful Bollywood films such as Johnny Mera Naam (1970), Seeta aur Geeta (1972), Raja Jani (1972), Jugnu (1973) and Sholay (1975). In the latter she played the courageous chatterbox Basanti, who falls for the small-time thief turned heroic gunfighter Veeru, played by Dharmendra. Over the years at least two of her co-stars fell in love with her. The actors Jeetendra and Sanjeev Kumar both proposed marriage but Dharmendra won her heart. During the Eighties, she cut down on filmmaking to raise her two daughters, but she made a comeback in 2003 in Ravi Chopra's Baghban opposite her old friend Amitabh Bachchan. Along the way, she has tried her hand at directing, with television serials such as Noopur (1990) and Women of India (1996), but she finally returned to her first love, classical ballet, and now hopes to open a dance school in Mumbai. "I'm hoping to build a school with boarding facilities on land given by the government. I want to find talented children of every background. I don't care if people are rich or poor. It doesn't matter who they are as long as they are talented. Recently we did some dancing and I needed a small baby. Normally you would carry a toy. I saw this maidservant with a sleeping baby and I asked her if I could take the baby on the stage to dance with her. "At present, I am teaching in my own house in Bombay (sic). About 30 or 40 people come to learn the techniques. We have such beautiful traditions in India and we should not forget them. I would like people to teach their children the arts and especially dance. "I want to create a beautiful institute and produce classical ballets. It's not just dance, it's creating a whole stagecraft school teaching lighting and sets and costume making. It's a total art form. It has to be in Bombay. I want to teach children there in the city, not far away in the country." She also hopes to start her own production company and one idea is to produce a reality television show about classical ballet. "There are so many reality shows on television. I would like to see a show on classical dance competition with dancers doing different styles. We have so many talented children from all over India. I want to bring them on. "We have spread a message to the world through yoga and it could be the same with dance. Dance is a spiritual experience. You are at one with the dance. The ballet for the Indian Independence Day celebrations is all about a mother passing on these traditions to her daughters. To dance with your two daughters is a wonderful experience. What else could a mother ask for? I'm glad my daughters have a lot of interest in this art. The tradition is something you have to pass on to them and they are supposed to pass it on to their children. "Maybe one day I will open a school here in Dubai, once I open my school in Bombay then I will start spreading my wings." Although Malini has starred in two movies in the past year and is considering a number of new scripts, she is preoccupied with plans for her school. She is also building her reputation as a politician and often speaks out on issues that concern her, like female foeticide, domestic violence, cruelty to animals and damage to the environment. Sometimes she feels the best way to express herself is by creating a new ballet. She understands the power of fame and is determined to put it to good use. As she speaks, she becomes impassioned about the subject that troubles her most, the deliberate killing of female babies, both before and after they are born. She has already produced a 15-minute dance video on the subject. "People come to see my dance and if I start lecturing them about female foeticide they might not listen to me. So I thought why not convey the message through dance? "I have become popular. People love me so because of that I want to give them something in return. That is why I take up all these issues. Animal welfare - there's a lot of things happening in the environment. I try to put all these efforts in my dance. As a member of parliament it is important for me to be able to speak out on issues that need to be spoken about like female foeticide. "In India it is one of the most important issues today along with domestic violence and dowry. Most of the women and their families don't want female children. They abort the children before they are born especially in northern India and the Punjab. I don't know how many thousands of children are killed this way but it is many. Even if they are born, somehow they try to destroy the babies. I have already talked on this matter and the minister is working very hard to find a solution. "I worry about how to solve this problem. That's why I have created a dance ballet on this subject. I am going to dance to show the glory of women. I am trying to send a message to the people that women can do a lot of things and contribute so many things to the country. "Another important issue is the environment and I have devised a ballet about the great river Ganges. I want to bring the Ganges on the stage. How do I do it? It's a beautiful concept to turn the spotlight on today's river, what condition it's in. It will be an environmental message." Malini has become adept at juggling her various lives as an actress, classical dancer and teacher, politician and mother, although it wasn't always easy. "Getting the balance right in your life is tough. It's all about time management. I am a mother first and I have to take care of my house. If you were asking me 20 years ago what it was like to juggle your career and your home I would have said it was very difficult, but today I am not so busy with films so I am able to do justice to them all, to keep watch over my children and to concentrate on dance. When politics came along, that interested me so I said 'Yes'," she said.
Malini became interested in politics when she was persuaded by another actor friend, Vinod Khanna, to help him win a seat for the BJP Party in the 1999 elections. She and Dharmendra both campaigned for him in Gurdaspur Lok Sabha in Punjab. She says she is serious about politics even though she is still an actress and dancer. "I started with my dancing and then I became an actress. They have become inseparable. It's difficult not to interlink them. I wouldn't really call myself a politician. Politics is new to me but you should never say 'No' to anything. I am just an MP. I like to serve the country through my dance and most of my shows are for charities. I can serve my country as a politician and as a dancer. I feel God has sent me to do a good job as both." As she dances with her daughters, her pride in their achievements is obvious. Esha, 26, is a successful Bollywood actress, but she had to fight to persuade her father to allow her to pursue such a career. Malini says, "I was very much worried in the beginning but then I thought the next generation is changing. The time is changing. Girls are able to do more what they want to do. My husband thought that girls shouldn't go into film. But I persuaded him that our daughters should learn classical dance as a beautiful performing art and he should let them learn, so he allowed them. Then the girls started to work in film also." Asked if she might ever make a film with her husband and daughter, Malini laughed again. "It might look too real. It would look very funny to have all three of us in one movie." Malini's younger daughter, Ahana, is studying film production and has no wish to appear in front of the cameras, saying simply: "I think I have had enough of it in my house. I grew up in that environment. I don't think every doctor's son has to be a doctor." The way both girls talk about their mother, it is clear that they are close. "Sharing a stage with my mother and sister is a very overwhelming feeling," Esha said. "It's completely different from the sort of dance I do in Bollywood films. It's something that is very traditional and very spiritual. It's more graceful than Bollywood dancing. It's a very comforting feeling to share the stage with your mother." Malini will be surrounded by her family when she celebrates her 60th birthday on October 16. With her unlined face, perfect skin and neat figure, she looks nowhere near her actual age and is clearly unbothered by it. And no, she hasn't and wouldn't resort to the surgeon's knife to keep her looks. "I would never try plastic surgery. Because of my dancing and yoga I try to maintain myself and it's a gift from God. I have to present myself on stage so you have a duty to maintain yourself. You have to eat the right things and constant dancing keeps you fit. "If I had any advice to other women it would be that at any age you can be an artist, even if you are married. You have to be dedicated to be a dancer. It disciplines your body, mind and soul." The milestone birthday is, however, a time for reflection, Malini feels. Looking back, she says, she probably wouldn't change a thing about her life. "At the time you ask yourself why does this thing happen or that thing happen, but when I think about it everything has happened for the right reason. I don't think you achieve everything ever. Once you reach one horizon you have to see the next peak. It has been a very happy and fulfilling life and if I had to be born again I would like to be born as Hema Malini."