Veteran actor Saira Banu recently took to social media to share a deeply personal and nostalgic note for fellow legendary star Hema Malini, celebrating a friendship that has gracefully stood the test of time.
In her post, Saira Banu reminisced about a recent visit from Hema Malini, drawing a poignant parallel between the present moment and their earliest meeting decades ago. “ It does not feel so long ago that Hema had come to see me at my home, accompanied by her cousin Prabha… and yet, when I heard that she’s coming again…my heart was happy.
When she entered, she looked just as graceful, and in that instant, I was taken back to the very first time I met her in 1966, on the sets of Deewana with Raj Kapoor. Even then, I remember, I was quite simply mesmerised by her beauty there is no other word that feels as true.
After that, we met a few times again, and I find my thoughts returning most fondly to our days at the Krishna Raj Sagar Dam. Our rooms were next to each other, which meant our days, quite naturally, became shared. We would sit for hours in the verandah, speaking of everything that came to mind, beauty, skin care, little routines, matters that felt so important then, and perhaps were, in their own gentle way. Our mothers were with us too, and would often join, adding something wiser, something steadier, to our easy, unguarded conversations.
And yet, what moves me most is not merely the memory of those moments, but how little, in essence, has changed. Some friendships do not ask to be maintained, they simply endure. With her, there is no effort, no need to explain or revisit. There is only understanding, a familiarity that time, in all its passing, has not diminished.
And somewhere in those thoughts, I found myself thinking of Dharmendra ji, of his warmth, of the sincerity with which he held his affections. The love and regard he had for Dilip sahib was never something he needed to declare; it was understood, in the way he spoke of him, with a respect that came from somewhere very deep.
Some bonds, I feel, are like that. They do not announce themselves. They are simply lived, over years, in ways both seen and unseen.
And in moments like these, one realises not everything that is precious belongs to the past. Some of it remains with us still."
Saira Banu remains one of the most respected actors in Indian cinema, recognised for her significant body of work in films such as Junglee, Padosan, Victoria No. 203 and many more.