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Birth name Ratan Salgaokar
Birth 1 january 1923 (101 years)
Hansa Wadkar (1923–1971) was a Marathi and Hindi film and stage actress of Indian cinema. She started her acting career at the age of thirteen years, as a heroine in the bilingual film Vijaychi Lagne (1936). Wadkar went on to make a name for herself working in the reputable film companies like Bombay Talkies, Prabhat Film Company and National Studios. Her career defining role was in Vishnupant Damle's Sant Sakhu (1941) where she enacted the role of the female saint Sakhu. Her other memorable roles were in the Tamasha genre films like Lokshahir Ram Joshi (1947), termed as the "Classic Marathi Tamasha musical". Sangtye Aika (1959) was another of Marathi cinema's "best known Tamasha film" along with Ram Joshi. She thus acted in two of Marathi cinema's biggest hits Lokshahir Ramjoshi and Sangtye Aika. The title "Sangtye Aika" (You Ask, I Tell) was used by Wadkar for her autobiography compiled in 1971. The autobiography was initially serialised in the Marathi magazine Manoos helped by journalist Arun Sadhu.
She has been referred to as "one of the most sought after and bohemian actresses of her time". Wadkar underwent personal difficulties in her life, which included marital problems, addiction to alcohol, humiliation at several levels and rape at the hands of a magistrate, when seeking to get out of a troubled relationship. Her marriage ended in a separation and her daughter was kept away from her.
Bhumika (The Role) (1977) directed by Shyam Benegal, was based on Hansa Wadkar's autobiography and had actress Smita Patil playing Wadkar in the film. The film won two National Awards, Best Actress for Smita Patil and Best Screenplay for Satyadev Dubey, Shyam Benegal and Girish Karnad. The film also won the Best Film at the 25th Filmfare Awards. Biography
Jagannath Bandarkar was one of the sons of the neighbour at Sawantwadi. His family was deemed of a "lower caste" than the Wadkars. Being ten years older than Wadkar, her brother and other family members did not approve of her closeness to him. However, her mother would ask her to call him over for lunch or odd jobs. When the Wadkar's shifted to Bombay, Bandarkar followed. Having failed at setting up a printing press, he started a theatre company called Dominic Union and got Wadkar to join it. When her mother accused her of having an affair with Bandarkar, it made her do what she was thought was an unfair accusation. She writes of assuming this defiant and oppositional attitude later on too, when wrongly accused. Soon she was three months pregnant at age fifteen and Bandarkar and Wadkar were married on 6 September 1937, at Kittebhandari Marriage Hall in Bombay. Though she had "dreamed of a family life", she had to resume work as Bandarkar's company was financially unstable. She also had a miscarriage at this time.
Rekha, their daughter was born following the completion of Wadkar's film Mera Gaon (1942). Over time when her husband physically abused her over some imagined wrong-doing, she would go out and do it. She started drinking and describes one drinking session in her autobiography where she was unconscious of what took place. She found herself in a village where Joshi, one of the men she had been drinking with brought her as his third wife. She stayed virtually imprisoned there for three years, till she was able to smuggle a letter out to her husband. He arrived with the police, and took her to the magistrate's office in the neighbouring town, where she had to testify. The magistrate sent Bandarkar to get a signature on a paper and then proceeded to rape Wadkar. Since she did not speak out about the incident, no action was taken.
She went on to perform several plays, where she met Rajan Jawale, an actor, with whom she formed a bond that lasted till her death. She maintained a good relationship with all the female workers. Some of them became good friends like Lalita Devulkar.
Hansa Wadkar died on 23 Aug 1971 in Bombay Maharashtra, India.
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