Pakistani actress who once lived with co-star Dev Anand, reveals her bond with him was like brother, father...
Anita Ayoob, a Pakistani actress, entered Bollywood with Dev Anand's film. Their bond sparked public interest. An old interview revealed their close relationship. Anita acted in Pyaar Ka Tarana and Gangster. She later married and moved to New York. A controversy impacted her career. Read on!
This Pakistani actress made her debut with 1993 film Pyaar Ka Tarana alongside Dev Anand. (Credit: Instagram) Pakistani actress Anita Ayoob once made a brief but unforgettable mark on Bollywood during the 1990s. Her career in Indian cinema was launched by none other than Dev Anand, the legendary actor and filmmaker, who spotted her talent and cast her in his film. While her time in the industry was short-lived, it was filled with dramatic highs, from a unique personal bond with Dev Anand to public curiosity surrounding their relationship. Recently, an old interview has resurfaced, which talked about their time together, their films, and the twist that ended Anita's promising career.
According to Anita, her big break came when veteran actor and filmmaker Dev Anand spotted her in a television commercial. Impressed by her charisma, he cast her in his 1993 film Pyaar Ka Tarana . This marked Anita's debut in Hindi cinema, and although the film didn't find immediate commercial success, it introduced her to the Indian audience and the film industry. What followed was a bond between Anita and Dev Anand that, according to the actress, went far beyond the usual actor-director relationship. In a resurfaced interview with Lehren, Anita shared that she had shared 'every kind of relationship' with Dev Anand, describing him at different times as a brother, father, boyfriend, and even a maternal figure. Her words added fuel to long-standing rumours about their closeness. The actress also revealed that during the shoot of one of their films in Denmark, she and Dev Anand had stayed in the same building for four weeks. She lived on the second floor, while Dev resided on the third. 'Living together like that, you get to know everything about a person,' she said in the interview. However, she made it clear that the relationship, while deeply emotional and personal, wasn't bound by traditional romantic labels.
Anita and Dev Anand reunited for another film, Gangster , in 1995. The film performed well at the box office.
Born in Karachi, Anita was well-educated, having completed a master's degree in English literature from Karachi University. She moved to Mumbai to pursue acting more seriously, enrolling at the Roshan Taneja School of Acting, where she was mentored by the renowned acting coach himself. In 1995, Anita married Indian businessman Saumil Patel and later moved to New York, where the couple had a son. After her divorce, she later remarried a Pakistani businessman, Subak Majeed. Despite her promising start, Anita's acting career in both India and Pakistan was short-lived. Though she never publicly detailed the reasons, it is widely believed that a controversy derailed her acting ambitions. As for Dev Anand, he remains an icon of Indian cinema. With a career spanning over six decades and more than 100 films to his credit, he received the Padma Bhushan in 2001 and the Dadasaheb Phalke Award in 2002.
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