Laxmi Chhaya was nine when she appeared in her first film Talaq (1958). Three years later , she had appeared in Bada Aadmi (1961) which established her as dancing star. Although she was a versatile actress, she was never able to make it big as a leading lady. One of the few films where she was cast as a heroine was shelved which further ruined her chances as the leading lady.
Sometime it is true that charming and beautiful woman never made it big as a heroine. They are
Aruna Irani
,
Padma Khanna
, Lakshmi Chaaya or Bindu. Whenever these actresses had an actual role, it could always be secondary- the heroine’s best friend, vamp, hero’s sister or a spy girl. These actresses were not given an opportunity to grow in cinema as a leading actress.
Laxmi Chhaya appeared in more than 50 films in between 1960s and 1970s. She bagged a good role in Mere Gaon Mera Desh (1971), where she acted as Vinod Khanna’s spy girl who falls in love with Dharmendra. Laxmi Chhaya was very much impressive in her role as a dancer spying for the dacoits. She was more impressive in this film than even Asha Parekh.
She very competently played Asha Parekh’s best friend in
Teesri Manzil
(1966), but in all her films (sadly few in number) she was relegated to secondary roles and bit parts very often.
Actually like her contemporary Helen, she was able to dance to any kind of song; night club, village entertainment etc . Her most captivating feature in our opinion was her smile—it could light up the screen with joy. She was more popular for her golden dress in “Jaan Pehchaan Ho”, a popular Indian rock & roll song from Gumnaam (1965). This song was like a James Bond theme song with amazing Hindi vocals.
After retiring from cinema, she taught dancing to children. She died of cancer in Mumbai in 2004 when she was 56.