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Top 10 Remarkable facts about Geeta Bali

Actress Geeta Bali was born in the holy city of Amritsar in 1930, she was one of the all-time great acting professionals in the film industry of India. Her life story was a spectrum of all colors and hues that life can consist of.

She had in her life a lot of parental love, affection, understanding, and patronage, but her life was also full of tyranny, miseries, and persecution at the hands of the conservative society of Punjab. Her pleasant moments and miseries went side by side in just thirty-five years. 

Here are 10 remarkable facts about Bali that we would jump into.

1. Geeta Bali was a martial artist

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Bali learned Gatka, a traditional form of martial arts associated primarily with the Sikhs of Punjab. It is a style of fighting that is associated with sticks (gatka).  Gatka now is a sport of sword dancing performance often shown during Sikh festivals.

Bali as a martial artist practising Gatka, incorporated dancing, is also classically trained during gatka. She likes singing as well as horse riding.

2. Bali ahead of time 

As a woman in the 1930s, she was ahead of the times. She performed regularly in shows as a classical dancer. At the age of 12, She started a career as a child actress in the Cobbler. Not only did she dance but also was committed to staging plays and singing for All India Radio.

  Even on the day of her marriage, instead of putting Sindoor, her husband put her red lipstick in her maang.

3. Bali prospered from a child actor to a pacesetter

Geeta Bali made her debut as a heroine in Badnaami at the age of 16 years old. Her love and life revolved around acting, and one could say that she wasn’t meant to be a career girl.

In the 1950s four years after her first screen appearance, she appeared in 19 more films,  1951 she featured in three movies, Baavi with Dev Anand, Ghayai with Sheikh Mukhtar, and Albela with Bhagwan Dada which made her more renowned. She acted in an average of three movies every year up to 1957.

4. Geeta working  family business

When Bali became a superstar in the 1950s, she had also worked with her future brother-in-law Raj Kapoor in Bawre Nain (1950), father-in-law Prithviraj Kapoor in Anand Math as well husband Shammi Kapoor in Coffee House in 1957.

Her son Aditya Raj Kapoor is an Indian film actor and assistant producer and producer of Hindi films. 

5. Geeta’s proposal on the set

While many office romances are frowned upon,  Shammi at 23 years of age, and Geeta aged 24, fell in love while on set filming Rangeen Rating. Shammi struck in love and proposed to Geeta who refused to give her answer while shooting. it was not until they were done that she said yes. 

On various occasions when Shammi asked her to get married, her response was always “let’s wait and see” until later in August out of nowhere she told him that she was ready to get married.

They went to search for a priest at the temple complex near Banganga to wed them but finding it closed, the priest told them to come the following morning. At 4 am on August 24th of 1955, they went to the temple to tie the knot!

6. Bali is not your heroin(e) damsel

Geeta was born out of her time. While most of the characters of women in the film were stock characters, she chose unconventional roles, For instance, in her role in Albela, her naughtiness, graciousness, and vibrancy oozed naturally.

She was not the heroine in damsel watching for the prince charming to charge in and rescue her, she too was her savior and liberator.

In real life when she was the age of 16, she traveled from her village to Mumbai changing her name to Geeta, a character she had played earlier.

7. Geeta’s grit never stopped 

While many people leave the stage when they get old or after married, Geeta Bali’s zeal and passion for acting continued well into her untimely death.  In a span of a 10-year career period, she acted in 70 films!

She continued to grow in the industry by enhancing her producing skills and working on many projects as a producer. Many of the people that she acted with believed that in real life just like her character in Albela, she was a gracious lady, fun, happy, and ready to help. 

8. Bali’s attitude was larger than life 

Shammi Kapoor, Geeta’s husband confesses that while they worked together in they shared the same taste in music, folk tunes, and the songs that roll along with a hill station. Their mutual admiration for nature and work ethics made him fall in love with her on set.  He also confesses that Bali financially sustained her family.

Yasser Usman professes that he was tongue-tied when he met Bali for the first time in his autobiography of the late superstar Rajesh Khanna. He says that when Bali learned of his passion and dreams of acting in Bollywood, she attempted to land him in a project she was working on, the “Punjabi film”.

When Dharmendra took the role instead of Yasser, she invited her to her Bombay house and told him that his time will come too, and just like the sky-filled stars, he will shine.

9. Geeta Bali’s sudden death

Bali’s life and prolific career came to an end on 21st January 1965. She knew that her time in this realm was limited and it is evident through the numerous lives she touched. She had contracted smallpox while shooting Rano, a movie about a widow’s marriage to her brother-in-law in rural Punjab.

When she returned to Mumbai with a high fever, she was ill for two weeks, and one day died. It is said that filmmaker Bedi was shaken up by the news of Bali’s untimely death that he called quits on the film project 

10. Geeta the Filmfare Awardee

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The Filmfare Awards is part of the annual Awards to recognize the female actor’s roles and outstanding performances in the film industry.  The first Filmfare Awards were in 1954 and 1955, Bali was nominated for Best Actress for her role in Kavi. 

In 1956 she was nominated for, Filmfare Best Actress Award for her role In Vachan.