Vijay Arora

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o try luck in Bollywood. But after visiting many film studious he realized that just good looks are not essential for an actor. Hence he decided to groom himself in acting and on an advice of a filmmaker he joined FTII (Film and Television Institute of India). He was a student of 1971 batch which had some really talented actors like, Jaya Bachchan, Shatrughan Sinha, Danny and Subhash Ghai, who wanted to become actor but later became filmmaker. Readers would be surprised to know that Vijay Arora was the Gold medalist at FTII and was given a red carpet welcome in Bollywood.

Vijay Arora became an instant star with his hit film Yaadon Ki Baaraat Vijay Arora was discovered by B.R. Ishara, the early 70’s low budget filmmaker who made careers of many new comers including Amitabh Bachchan and Shatrughan Sinha. In his film Zaroorat (1972) Vijay Arora was paired with another new comer Reena Roy. The story of a helpless girl who seeks job in Mumbai and in return is exploited sexually was appreciated for its simplicity and bitter truth of women exploitation in society. The success of Zaroorat landed him good roles opposite top actresses like Asha Parekh in Rakhi Aur Hathkadi, Jaya Bhadhuri and Waheda Rehman in Phagun, Yogeeta Bali in Ek Mutthi Aasmaan. He was also signed by top filmmakers like Hrishikesh Mukherjee (Sabse Bada Sukh), Satyen Bose (Mere Bhaiya) and last but not the least Nasir Hussain’s Yaadon Ki Baaraat in which he was paired opposite the inimitable Zeenat Aman! Yaadon Ki Baaraat was super hit. The movie’s hit songs Chura Liya Hai Tumne Jo Dil Ko….; O Meri Soni Meri Tamanna….; Lekar Hum Deewana Dil ……; Aap Ke Kamre Mein Koi Rehta Hain and of course the title track Yaadon Ki Baaraat Nikli Hai …….made Vijay Arora a star overnight! Vijay Arora took a beating in the mid 70’s After doing few heroine centric film like Zaroorat, Rakhi Aur Hathkadi, Phagun etc Vijay Arora’s career got a beating in the mid-70’s as he became a puppet in many more women centric roles like Shabana Azmi in Kadambari; Tanuja in Insaaf ; Moushumi Chatterjee in Natak. Even in the super hit B.R. Films 36 Ghante starring top stars like Sunil Dutt, Raaj Kumar and Asha Parekh, Vijay Arora was used a showpiece to sing song around trees with Praveen Babi. This frustrated Vijay Arora and he dared to change tracks and accepted small but powerful character roles like in Manmohan Desai’s Roti and Subhash Ghai’s Gautam Govinda. The song Ik ritu aaye, ik ritu jaaye …. in Gautam Govinda became big hit and Vijay Arora was applauded as a good actor. Vijay Arora became famous character actor in the 80’s After much appreciation in Subhash Ghai’s Gautam Govinda, Vijay Arora did many hit films in the 80’s with big banners and top stars like K. Viswanath’s Sargam (With Rishi Kapoor), Krishna’s Meri Aawaz Suno (With Jeetendra), T. Ramarao’s Yeh To Kamal Ho Gaya (With Kamal Hasaan), Anil Ganguly’s Saaheb (With Anil Kapoor), Partho Ghosh’s 100 Days starring Jackie Shroff and Madhuri Dixit, Rajiv Rai's Vishwatma (With Naseeruddin Shah and Sunny Deol), B R Chopra's Awam with Rajesh Khanna, Saawan Kumar Tak's Souten with Rajesh Khanna etc.