Interview: Receiving Dadasaheb Phalke Award is like a dream come true: Waheeda Rehman

Waheeda Rehman is the best actress of yesteryear. Even today her energy is such that she can defeat even the new heroines. Waheeda ji has seen cinema that stopped and ran fast. In view of his unmatched contribution to cinema, the Government of India has given him the ‘Dada Saheb Phalke’ award, which he truly deserves. Recently, he was given the award by Information and Broadcasting Minister Anurag Singh Thakur in Delhi. Journalist Dr. Ramesh Thakur had a detailed conversation with him about the changing Hindi cinema and the struggle behind the award. Here are the highlights.

Question: From your perspective, what is the importance of this honour?

Answer: If I speak from my perspective, the word importance would be too small for this honour. See, every artist dreams of getting the biggest honor in films, ‘Dada Saheb Phalke’. I got it, so I consider myself lucky. But, I must say this, there are better and better artists in the industry than me, they too are worthy of ‘Dada Saheb Phalke Award’. Well, who will get respect and who will not? This is decided by the government’s jury. Therefore, I will not comment on this topic.

Question: Describe the moment when you first got the news of receiving the award?

Answer: To be honest, I had no idea that the government would consider me worthy of this honour. It would be around 6 o’clock in the evening, I got a call from one of my acquaintances and said congratulations, I asked what about, then he said the Minister of Information and Broadcasting has announced to give you ‘Dada Saheb Phalke’ award on his ‘X’. Then I thought it must be some rumour, but after that the news started running on all the news channels. People’s calls started coming. To tell the truth, I did not realize anything for an hour or so, I felt as if I was dreaming.

Question: Did you remember Dev Anand Saheb after receiving the award?

Answer: Absolutely. The first thought that came to my mind was him. I had also said in the media that day that the announcement of the award is not just a pleasure but a double pleasure for me. Because that day was the birthday of ‘Dev Saheb’. Perhaps God had decided to give me this gift on his birthday. For a few moments it seemed that this honor was being given to him only. The cinema world will never forget Dev Saheb’s contribution. Till the 60-70s, our country lived in simplicity. It was he who brought Indian style abroad.

Question: How do you see today’s changing cinema?

Answer- Everything has changed. There can be no comparison between the two. The color and appearance of both are different. How the old era of cinema was, can be gauged from the fact that when remakes of old films are made, the audience watches them with great interest. Village culture, old clothes, old Indianness are nowhere seen in today’s films. Unless the films made now have foreign locations, the audience does not enjoy them. Therefore, modern society has played a greater role in this change than cinema.

Question: …..But even the audience does not like forced nudity and vulgarity in films?

Answer: I am also not in favor of this. This tarnishes our culture. This is the western civilization which we are copying, to tell the truth we should not, we too have a lot to tell and show. Because of these dirty scenes, a section of the audience has become cut off from cinema today. The films should be clean, family-friendly and should be watched by everyone together. Now no one can even imagine films like ‘Nadiya Paar’, ‘Nagina’ and Ram Lakhan.

-As Waheeda ji said to Dr. Ramesh Thakur in conversation