One of the biggest challenges for a star is staying relevant. Longevity is not enough. Love is.
Perhaps no one understands this better than 71-year-old Tabassum, the former child actor and television anchor who has taken to the internet as though she were a millennial kid.
Doordarshan’s first-ever talk show host anchored Phool Khile Hain Gulshan Gulshan for 21 years. For her new show on YouTube, Tabassum Talkies, she has retained much of the spunk and all of her cheeriness. Tabassum still coordinates the flowers in her hair with her saris.
Her diction, poise, elegance, experience and the empathy with which she speaks of the legends of Hindi cinema to introduce the series is a sweet rap on the knuckles of vacuous star-struck anchors on TV today.
Tabassum smiles just as readily and giggles exactly as she did decades ago. She responds to questions on the secret of her youthfulness with, “The whole world knows that when a baby is born, it cries. But I was born laughing. That’s why my parents named me Tabassum.”
Peals of laughter follow, before she suddenly changes the tone.
“I learnt to laugh at myself. I was fat. I weighed 12.5 pounds at birth. Today I am 90 kilos and it is too much. My weight has always been my minus point. Before people could make fun of me, I made fun of myself,” she says, adding an anecdote about how she was once mistaken for cinema’s favourite “fat lady” TunTun by an autograph seeker.
“Similarly, I talked too much,” Tabassum told Scroll.in. “Before people could criticise me for it, I decided to turn it into an asset, but I vowed not to talk rubbish. But only say things that would resonate with people, enrich their lives, make them think.”
The phenomenal success of Phool Khile Hain Gulshan Gulshan, which ran on Doordarshan between 1972 and 1993, was largely because of the chemistry Tabassum shared with her guests, which included stalwarts and popular film icons of the day such as Sunil Dutt, Khayyam, RD Burman, and the Kapoors. “I knew them all,” she said. “For the generation of Dilip Kumar saab, I grew up in their laps. For Randhir Kapoor’s generation, I grew up with them. For the likes of Kareena and Karisma, you could say they grew up in my lap,” she said. The guests, who often felt comfortable enough with her easy, friendly and warm approach, shared some of their most tender and vulnerable moments. Sunil Dutt for instance, let the tears flow when talking about his wife Nargis’s death.
“That is because I always believe that you should never talk down to your guests, or show them in a bad light,” Tabassum said. “It is important to gain their trust, confidence. If I wished I could have given them a tough time, I knew enough about them…But I never wanted to do that.”
Tabassum, who made her debut as a child actor, gives us some numbers to crunch: “I am 71, been in the film industry for 68 years, been with radio for 68 years, been associated with the stage for 60 years, as a journalist, editor, writer, I had an experience of 10 years, and on television for 45 years,” she said, crediting her son and granddaughter for helping her get a better grip over the internet medium. “So that’s 315 years of work experience for you! I am not proud, but this makes me immensely happy. And had I not tried the internet, my life would have been incomplete.”
Active on social media, Tabassum says her decades of experience with Phool Khile Hain Gulshan Gulshan and other media have left her with enough material to mine for the YouTube channel. “I intend to combine my experience and wisdom while reaching out to younger stars as well,” she said. “I particularly like Alia Bhatt. We have a lot in common. Every time someone criticises her, she takes it well and bounces back with a smile.”
Hope Alia Bhatt is reading this.
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