Helen

Helen Biography

Helen is the queen to all item girls of India cinema. It is from Helen, the vigorous dance steps and cabaret begins for Indians. She has a huge crowd following her from her early movies and till now, if someone compares the dance sequence or item number of a leading lady or model, she will be compared with Helen. Helen has reined the industry for more than 2 decades and numerous cabaret songs have been added in her account. When we hear the remixes of those golden tunes and see new girls trying to imitate her steps, we could easily feel the grace and easiness with which Helen has appeared on screen. She has acted as heroine, supporting actress and vamp in a few movies. Yet once she was successful with her item songs, she didn’t look back till she reached her 40’s.   

She was born in Myanmar and she is a half Indian. She lost her father during Second World War and whole family moved to India, to escape. Her first big break was in 1957 through Howrah Bridge, a successful movie of Ashok Kumar – Madhubala pair where Helen did a negative role. Dance number ‘Mera naam chim chim’ pictured on her was a big hit. Before she got the big break, she has also performed as a chorus girl for a few movies like Awara. Once her career reached a pace and momentum, her cabaret songs were sung by none other than Asha Bhosle. Lata Mangeshkar has sung one and only one item song in her life. It was for Helen’s cabaret performance in Intequam (1968). After that, Lata decided not to sing for cabaret. Her sister was most benefitted by this decision and the best and great songs of Asha’s life were born out of Helen-Asha cabarets.

Yeh mera dil of Don, Monica of Caravan, O Hassena zulfonwali of Teesri Manzil, Mehbooba Mehbooba of Sholay, Munda mein mungda of Inkaar and Is duniya mein of Gumnaam. For the role she played in Gumnaam, she was nominated in Filmfare for best actress supporting role. She won it once for Lahu ke do rang.

She married dialogue writer Salim Javed – The father of Salman Khan. In a few movies, she worked with Salman Khan too. They include Khamoshi, Hum dil de chuke sanam and Marigold.

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Updated: July 05, 2018