Leena Chandavarkar

Some Lesser Known Facts About Leena Chandavarkar

• Leena Chandavarkar is a former Indian actress. She is the fourth wife of the famous Indian singer Kishore Kumar.

• She came in the limelight in 1965, when she finished as a runner-up in the Fresh Face competition organized by Filmfare across India. She was 15 at that time. The winners of the competition were Rajesh Khanna and Farida Jalal.

  

• Her first film, Man Ka Meet, was with Sunil Dutt. He cast her opposite his brother Som Dutt. Interestingly, it was also Vinod Khanna’s debut film.

  

• As Leena was from Karnataka, her Hindi was not too good. During her first film, Nargis used to teach her Hindi. Nargis was a mentor for Leena, she taught her Hindi, non-classical dancing, and driving.

• She was very conservative and traditional and refused to do bikini shots.

• Her famous song “Dhal Gaya Din Ho Gayi Shaam” from the movie Humjoli in 1970, was an instant hit. It helped her get established as a household name. She was in the lead opposite Jeetendra in the movie.

• She has acted as a lead actress in films with Sanjeev Kumar, Dharmendra, Rajesh Khanna, and Dilip Kumar.

• She met Kishore Kumar for the first time on the sets of the 1973 movie Manchali.

  

• Her first husband, Siddharth Bandodkar, was the son of the Goa Chief Minister Dayanand (the first Chief Minister of Goa). They had an arranged marriage.

  

• A few days after her engagement Siddharth and she were in Lonavala and they ran into Kishore Kumar and Yogita Bali. Siddharth jokingly asked Leena whether she would marry Kishore Kumar if he proposed to her, and she said never.

• Her first husband passed away on 7 November 1976, due to a gunfire injury. He shot himself while cleaning his revolver, before leaving for their honeymoon. He died just 3 days after their marriage reception on 15 December 1975. She was a widow at the age of 25.

• She got married to Kishore Kumar in the year 1980.

  

• Kishore Kumar died on 13 October 1987. Leena and Kishore Kumar had a son together, Sumeet Kumar.

  

• She often writes lyrics for his son, Sumeet Kumar’s music albums.

  

• Leena never remarried after Kishore Kumar’s death.

• She now stays with her son, Sumeet, her stepson Amit Kumar, his wife, children, and his mother Ruma Guha Thakurta (Kishore Kumar‘s first wife).