Roshmila Bhattacharya is a senior is journalist who, in a career spanning over three decades, has worked with Filmfare, The Asian Age, Screen, Zee Premiere, HT Café and Mumbai Mirror. She has contributed to The Times of India, Hindustan Times, The Telegraph, National Herald, Deccan Herald, Deccan Chronicle, Free Press Journal and Rediff.com, breaking several stories on the national platform. She was a columnist for over 15 years and continues to find enjoyment in the field of journalism.
In July 2019, she released her first book, Bad Man, a biography of Gulshan Grover. Her second book, Matinee Men: A Journey through Bollywood, was published by Rupa Publications in December 2020. It is listed amongst the '20 Best Bollywood Movies Books of All Time' by Book Authority, and The Times of India recommended it as one of the eight books every Bollywood lover should read. She is also the author of Spooked! Bollywood's Encounters with the Paranormal, published in December 2023. In July 2022, Tera Chhalaava, a crime anthology series for which she had written four stories, was released on Hungama Play and MX Player.
A text no less than the Ramayana underscores the sheer undeniability of the villain-where there is a Rama, there is a Ravana too. It's a given that in any dramatic conflict, be it on stage or on screen, good is always pitted against evil. 'In Hindi films, this becomes a fight between the nayak [hero] and the khalnayak [villain]; Subhash Ghai points out to me. The producer-director, down the years, has given us many unforgettable khalnayaks, from Lion in Kalicharan (1976) and the chillingly mute Sir Judah in Karz (1980) to Dr Dang in Karma (1986), Ram Lakhan's (1989) 'Bad Man, and Sanjay Dutt in and as Khal Nayak (1993).
Whether they come out of real life or a writer's imagination, the black deeds and blacker souls of these blackguards have made it difficult to banish them from memory. The dark-skinned rakshasas (demons) of our mythology, who battled the devas (gods), mutated into the tyrannical goras (white-skinned, a moniker for British officers), who made life hell for our fiery nationalists in pre-Independence India. Even after India attained Independence, these despots continued to rule on screen.
One actor who portrayed such despots is Robert John 'Bob' Christo. A civil engineer, Bob was on his way to Muscat when he turned up at a shoot near Bombay's (now Mumbai) Churchgate station to meet Parveen Babi, whose picture he had seen on the cover of a magazine back home in Australia. Reportedly, he was disappointed because without make-up, the Indian actress looked nothing like his glamorous dream girl; but Parveen and he quickly became buddies, and Bob stayed back in India to make a name for himself as a Bollywood villain. Debuting as a magician in Sanjay Khan's Abdullah (1980), Bob Christo worked in almost 200 films, including Qurbani (1980), Kaalia (1981), Namak Halaal (1982), Mard (1985) and Mr. India (1987). As Michael in Kaalia, he tells a crippled prisoner in jail, 'Hum jahan khade hote hain line vahin se shuru hoti hai [The line starts from where I stand)! Even as the other prisoners scurry to queue up behind him, Amitabh Bachchan's Kaalia challenges the big man, mouthing the same line and turning it into a cult dialogue.
Another name that comes to mind is Brian Glover.
The Yorkshireman, a professional wrestler, appeared on stage, in commercials, on television, and in films like The First Great Train Robbery (1978), An American Werewolf in London (1981) and Alien 3 (1992). India remembers him as the much-hated General Douglas in Vidhu Vinod Chopra's 1942: A Love Story (1994).
Then, of course, there is Paul Blackthorne's Captain Andrew Russell who leads the English cricket team in Ashutosh Gowariker's Lagaan: Once Upon a Time in India (2001), eventually losing to Aamir Khan's bedraggled band. The British actor spent three months learning Hindi, along with cricket and horse riding.
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