Sharmila Tagore on Backlash to Her Bikini Photos in an Evening in Paris: 'I Was Upset, Tiger Said...'

Sharmila Tagore had everyone talking when she slipped into a bikini for a scene in An Evening in Paris. Emerging as one of the first A-list stars to take the bold step, Sharmila’s bikini shoot had everyone’s attention, including of those seated in the Parliament. Speaking about the infamous scene on Koffee With Karan 8, Sharmila said she was ‘upset’ with the way it was interpreted. She also revealed she got an earful from director Shakti Samanta, who helmed Aradhana.

“The photographer was slightly worried. I just thought I looked very nice. What really hurt me later because everybody interpreted it in such a way that I was upwardly mobile, I was trying to catch eyeballs. I didn’t feel like that,” Sharmila told Karan Johar.

“When it came out in Filmfare, I was in London so I was unaware until Shakti Samanth called me and said, ‘Will you come back quickly? There are terrible things happening here.’ He gave me a dressing down and said, ‘If you want to be in the public eye, this is not the way to go.’ I used to live alone and I was very upset with all this completely opposite of what I thought would happen. So I sent a Telegram to Tiger and Tiger said, ‘I’m sure you are looking very nice’ and that was my support,” she added.

“Questions were asked in Parliament. It was not pleasant for me. But learning I did. After that I chose Aaradhna. It was RRR of our time,” Sharmila said, referring to the 1969 film with Rajesh Khanna. Saif hinted he was proud that his mother broke barriers and pulled off the scene in the movie. “People in boarding school used to tell me, ‘Is that your mum?'” he said, adding that he was ‘very proud’ of his mother to have done the scene.

Earlier this year, Sharmila spoke about the scene during AIMA’s 8th National Leadership Conclave and said she asked her driver to pull down the posters of the film from the road close to her house because her mother-in-law was visiting. “I remember there was a poster of the film on the road (near her home), and my mother-in-law was coming to town, so I got my driver to take down that poster in the middle of the night – not realising that there might be other posters on the way from the airport,” she said.