Achala Sachdev

Some Lesser Known Facts About Achala Sachdev

• Achala Sachdev was an Indian actress who mainly worked in Bollywood.

• She grew up in a middle-class family in Peshawar, North-West Frontier Province, British India (now in Pakistan).

• In childhood, Achala appeared in a few films as a child actress.

• She began her career as a radio jockey at All India Radio, Lahore (before the partition of India). Thereafter, she joined All India Radio, Delhi.

• She appeared in Bollywood films like “Rahi” (1952), “Sabse Bada Rupaiya” (1955), “Sampoorna Ramayana” (1961), “Dil Ek Mandir” (1963), and “Sangam” (1964).

• Achala shot to fame after playing the role of Balraj Sahni’s wife in the Bollywood film “Waqt.” In the film, the super-hit song ‘Aye Meri Zohra Jabeen’ was picturised on her.

• Some of her popular films include “Mera Naam Joker” (1970), “Daag: A Poem of Love” (1973), “Chandni” (1989), and “Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge” (1995).

• In addition to Hindi films, she has appeared also appeared in films like “Nine Hours to Rama” (1963) and “The Householder” (1963).
  

• On the sets of a film in Mumbai, Achala was introduced to Clifford Douglas Peters (a mechanical engineer who had a factory in Bhosari named Morris Electronics, producing small electronics parts such as diodes) by Yash Chopra. At that time, Peters wife had passed away, and Sachdev was also a divorcee. The duo fell in love and tied the knot with each other.

• Post her marriage, Achala shifted to Pune with her husband. Initially, the couple lived in a bungalow in Bhosari and later shifted to Hadapsar.

• Achala’s husband passed away in 2002. After her husband’s death, Achala lived alone in Pune.

• On 8 September 2011, when Achala went into her kitchen to get herself water, she slipped and broke her leg. She was taken to Poona Hospital and Research Centre by her attendant after the incident, but she was discharged soon.

• On 21 October 2011, she was diagnosed with multiple emboli in her brain and was admitted to the Poona Hospital and Research Centre. Later, she suffered quadriplegia – total paralysis of all four limbs and torso. She even lost her vision. She took her last breath on 30 April 2012.

  

• Apparently, no one from the film industry reached to meet her when she was admitted and undergoing treatment in a hospital in Pune before her death.

• A few years before her death, she gave up her flat in Pune to the Janseva Foundation, a charitable organization, as a gift in return for the promise that the founder and chairman of the organisation, Dr Vinod Shah, will take up the responsibility of taking care of her as long as she lived.

• She used to meditate in her free time. After her husband’s death in 2002, Achala spent most of her time meditating and listening to meditation music and discourses.

• She had worked in more than 250 films in her career of around 74 years.