Destined to shine: How a young Tabu landed up with her first full-fledged role

The talent caught the eye at a young age

Recently, our eyes caught upon an old interview of Tabu where she had opened up on how actually she was cast in late filmmaker Dev Anand’s ‘Hum Naujawan’, her first full-fledged role. While talking about it to host Karan Thapar on his show ‘Face to Face’, the actress said, “Well, yeah the stories that actually its like childhood, I went to kid’s birthday party that’s how it happened and my mum who’s a Sushma aunty’s friend, (Sushma was) Dev saab’s sister-in-law she spotted me in the kid’s party. She knew that Dev saab was on the lookout for a girl who could play his daughter. So, that’s how the whole thing happened.”

Family motivated Tabu go ahead, but school?

“I was called from school. And Shabana aunty (Shabana Azmi) called and said that you must do this film. Though I couldn’t make out much about films or anything I mean.” The host asked that was she keen herself to do it. The actress replied, “Not at all, I was extremely nervous, but I mean I was just 11 and I had to bunk school. There in my school it was very very upset because I was a good student and I remember the principal had called my mum to the school and she had a serious talk that you have to decide whether you want your daughter to study or to join films. It was a convent school so that’s why it was a serious issue because they are really really strict.”

Tabu’s first screen test

“Screen test, I was very nervous I just remember being very very nervous and my sister (Farah Naaz) was along. And my sister was with me and Dev saab spotted her and he thought, he was wondering why she has not come for a screen test yet. If she was not interested which my sister was.”

The lucky fate of her sister Farah Naaz

“He (Dev Anand) wanted me for his film and he took my sister’s screen test just you know just like that and he happened to show it to Yash ji (Yash Chopra) who was looking for a new girl. So that’s how it just happened.”

Tabu and Farah Naaz’s acting debut

Tabu landed up with the role of Dev Anand’s daughter in ‘Hum Naujawan’ (1985), while her sister Farah Naaz made her acting debut in Yash Chopra’s ‘Faasle’ (1985) along with Sunil Dutt, Rekha and Rohan Kapoor. It was sheer coincidence that both sisters made their acting debut in the same year.