Jasmin

It can be the kiss of death when an actor stars in a horror movie. That is what actually happened to Bollywood actress Jasmin, who is well known for her role in the horror movie ‘Veerana.' Actually before appearing for Veerana, she was auditioned to appear in a Vinod Khanna’s film, As the producers of the movie ended up going with a relatively unknown actor called Jasmin in her first film ‘Sarkari Mehmaan’(1979), she fit the bill for the role with her pretty face. She did a pretty decent job with the role in the film opposite Vinod Khanna. Jasmin was a discovery of director N D Kothari, who used to make dacoit films then in Bollywood. In N D Kothari’s film, she played lady love of Vinod Khanna. The film did average business in box office. After a poor run in the box office, she disappeared never to be seen again. But in her case, it was not definitely so. Later in 1984, she came back and acted as a lady love to Vijayendra Ghatge, in the film ‘Divorce’ which had Sharmila Tagore, Girish Karnad, Abhi Bhattacharya in the lead role. This film had a good storyline but did not fare well in box office.

Later, she acted in another film ‘’Veerana’’ in 1988. In this film, she took a bold step to appear in bathing suits and wore only black dress to scare all. Her character was lost in a dark world of revenge and lust. It is said that after seeing ‘Veerana,' even Mallika Sherawat wanted to become an actress. Jasmin was declared as Ramsay filmmaker’s brand face in this horror movie. But the film landed up in trouble with censor board and was delayed almost for 3 years. The movie had to be revised and finally the censor board gave a nod to showcase the movie in theaters with an ‘A’ certificate. In the film ‘Divorce’, she was a girl in love with Vijayendra Ghatge, but in ‘Veerana’, she was a girl who wanted to take revenge with the same actor Vijayendra. Although Jasmin was a fresh face in Bollywood then, she did justify to the character of a possessed girl who lures men and kills them in the horror movie. She looked scary in every shot and looked damn sexy when she is seducing and being playful with men. After a great debut alongside Vinod Khanna in ‘Sarkari Mehmaan’, where she played a simple Indian village girl we all still remember Jasmin as the demure Bindiya. After that, we were definitely expecting to see more of Jasmin! But apart from a few commercial movies, she seems to have vanished from the Bollywood scene. We wonder where she has gone missing.