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Kishore Kumar had drastic mood swings, recalled his 4th wife Leena Chandavarkar. (Photo: Express Archives)
Kishore Kumar is known for his memorable work as a singer and actor, but he is also remembered for his various eccentricities. In an old interaction, Kishore’s fourth wife and actor Leena Chandavarkar recalled his eccentricities and how she once almost left him because of her insecurity. Speaking to Lehren Retro about Kishore Kumar’s sudden mood changes, she said, “He didn’t like if someone called him pagal (mad). His behaviour would fluctuate, he would sometimes get very serious and sometimes he would get childish, and you would not expect him to react in such a way at a point of time.”
Recalling how Kishore’s mood changes scared her once, she said, “He asked me once if I have heard any rumours about him, but I refused because I didn’t want to say it to his face. I was alone in the room. I was doing my make up during the filming of Pyaar Ajnabi Hai. When I refused to tell him… I can’t even make the face he made… but he made a face like an animal, like a very scary face. It was like he has gone mad. I had heard these things about him, so I got scared and I started looking for my hair dresser. Then I had to agree that I have heard rumours about him. I said, ‘Yes, I agree, I have heard rumours about you’. Then he started laughing. He scared me. He told me, ‘Why didn’t you say before?’ ” She added, “He would even watch horror films with the kids. It was his nature. He was like that.”
Leena said that Kishore Kumar “changed a lot after” his marriage to her. However, the fact that she was his fourth wife always made her insecure and almost made her leave him once. “Husband and wife fight usually. You complain about, ‘why did you come late? Which women called you?’ These things happen and I was very insecure because I was his fourth wife. I was like ‘he shouldn’t get a 5th one’. I was in a lot of tension. Once, I told him that I am leaving the house. He got scared a little, but then he asked me to leave. He told me, ‘Don’t ever come back and never talk to me again.’”
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However, Leena recalled that it was Kishore Kumar’s friends who made her stay. She recalled, “As I was said to get in the taxi, his whole group came and they stopped me. They told me ‘how are you leaving? It is because of you that this 8th wonder of the world has changed.'”
Kishore Kumar had four marriages — to Ruma Guha Thakurta, Madhubala, Yogeeta Bali, and Leena Chandavarkar. His first wife was Bengali singer and actress Ruma Guha Thakurta, also known as Ruma Ghosh. Their marriage lasted for eight years. He then married Madhubala, but the actress soon fell sick and their marriage ended with Madhubala’s death in 1969. He then married actor Yogeeta Bali, but this marriage too was short-lived and lasted only two years. His last marriage was to Leena Chandavarkar, which continued until his death in 1987.
English (US) ·