Leela\n:A Patchwork Life

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Leela Naidu was listed as one of the five most beautiful women in the world by Vogue magazine. But she was much more. She was the fine- boned, haunting face in Hrishikesh Mukherjee’s Anuradha; she was the woman who refused to sign Raj Kapoor’s films four times; she was Dom Moraes’s muse, his unpaid secretary, his best friend. Jean Renoir taught her acting and Salvador Dali used her as a model for a Madonna. Leela is a memoir that is charming, idiosyncratic and a window to Leela’s intriguing life. Everyone who met her has a Leela Naidu story. This is her version.

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As the daughter of the India scientist Dr Ramaiah Naidu and a French journalist mother, Leela Naidu grew up in a world full of interesting people and events. Hrishikesh Mukherjee’s Anuradha (screened at the Berlin Film Festival) launched her film career that included Merchant–Ivory’s The Householder, Pradip Krishen’s Electric Moon and Shyam Benegal’s Trikaal. Leela also made her own shorts and documentaries, including. Jerry Pinto is a poet and journalist based in Mumbai. His published works include Surviving Women (2000); Helen: The Life and Times of a Bollywood H-Bomb (2006), for which he won the National Award for the Best Book on Cinema; a collection of poetry, Asylum (2004); and a novel for young people, A Bear for Felicia (2008).