Kimi Katkar

- Vikram Chandiramani

Daughter of a divorced junior artiste, Kimi earned herself an image of sexy siren with her first film - 'Tarzan' (1985). It was a B-grade film of B Subhash, which had Hemant Birje in the lead. There were some steamy scenes which, Kimi later said, she was conned into doing.But 'Tarzan' was a hit and it counted.

Her willingness to bare and her bold interviews in the glossies had salivating producers eagerly signing her.

Her heroes now were Mithun Chakraborty ('Meri Zabaan', 'Roti ki Keemat'), Rishi Kapoor ('Khoj', 'Dosti Dushmani'), Anil Kapoor ('Kala Bazaar'), Jackie Shroff ('Mard ki Zubaan'), Sanjay Dutt ('Tejaa'), Govinda ('Mera Lahoo', 'Darya Dil',) Rajnikant ('Tamacha'), Vinod Khanna ('Karnama'), Raj Babbar ('Aaj Ke Shahenshah') and Sunny Deol ('Vardi'). But behind the bold exterior was an insecure girl desperately wanting to settle down.

But the kind of roles she was getting were not going to bring respectability to her. The producers were reluctant to cast her in sober roles. "Who will accept Kimi clad in a conservative sari?"

But before she married Shantanu Sheorey, a fashion photographer and disappeared from the limelight, Kimi touched the pinnacle by doing 'Hum' (1991), a film with Amitabh. "This was my dream. Where else can I go after doing a film with him? I am quitting at the right time." Kimi also proved her detractors wrong as in the later half of the film, Juma of Chumma fame was clad in a sari and Kimi was ultimately accepted. She disappeared from the limelight even as husband Shantanu Sheorey tried his hand at direction with Chachi 420. Kamal Hasan was not happy with what he saw and Shantanu was dropped from the project.

These days Kimi and Shantanu live in the United States.