Born in the Dharwar/Karwar region in the State of Karnataka (formerly
known as Mysore), in the Marathi-speaking Chandavarkar family, this
beautiful actress, with an oval cherubic face and innocent smile, has
acted in many films like
Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi (1970),
Humjoli (1970),
Rakhwala (1971),
Jaane-Anjaane (1971),
Manchali (1973),
Bairaag (1976),
Aafat (1977) just to name a few.
A former student of Bassel Mission High School, she won a talent
competition, gained enough confidence to consider acting in Bombay's
Bollywood, but faced challenges including being written off as
'too
young'. She refused to play 'sister' and other character roles and
instead committed herself to print advertisements.
She was finally given a break by Sunil Dutt,
who noticed her ads, and cast her in his 1968 film
Man Ka Meet (1969), opposite his
brother, Som Dutt. This movie also
launched Vinod Khanna as a villain.
She was assisted by none other than
Nargis, who helped her improve her Hindi,
non-classical dancing, and driving vehicles.
Petite, conservative and traditional, she refused do any bikini-clad
character on or even off-screen photo shoots, and did not learn to
swim, despite of facing stiff competition from taller actresses such as
Zeenat Aman and
Parveen Babi.
She has acted opposite well-known Bollywood heroes such as
Sanjeev Kumar,
Dharmendra,
Rajesh Khanna, &
Dilip Kumar.
Following the accidental death of her husband, Siddharth Bandodkar, the
son of Dayanand, the first Chief Minister of Goa, Leena married noted
actor-singer, Kishore Kumar during
1980, and sired a son, Sumeet Kumar.
After Kishore's death in 1987, she continues to live with her
singer-actor step-son, Amit Kumar,
and has even written lyrics for his music album.
She has made TV appearances in Sony's 'K For Kishore' during 2007, as
well as reality shows.
