There was a time when a handful of faces dominated Indian cinema: they arrived like a storm, altered the landscape and left echoes that refused to fade. Some stayed. Some disappeared. And then there were those who, even after walking away, somehow remained. Kalpana Iyer belongs to that rare latter category.
Decades after she set the screens on fire with songs like “Hari Om Hari”, “Rambha Ho” and “Jab Chhaye Tera Jadoo”, she is still alive in the collective memory. And recently, when a spontaneous reenactment of “Rambha Ho” at a family wedding went viral, it felt less like nostalgia and more like a throwback: Some stars never really fade away. They just wait.
However, just when the world believed that Kalpana Iyer was at the peak of her career, she felt invisible and decided to walk away. Not only from the industry, but from the country itself.
A love story before the cinema.
Kalpana Iyer’s story begins even before she was born. His parents—Tamil Iyers Tamilnadu—he eloped to get married. Film lovers at heart, they named their firstborn after Dev Anand’s film Kalpana. What they couldn’t have known is that cinema would one day give their daughter a life far larger than imagination, bringing her face to face with legends like Dilip Kumar, Vinod Khanna and Dev Anand himself.
A boy who became a provider
At just 12 years old, Kalpana Iyer became the breadwinner of a family of six. Money was scarce and survival required courage. Without any formal training, she began to dance instinctively, guided not by technique, but by necessity.
“I started out as an untrained dancer,” she once said in a podcast with Simply Pankaj. “We didn’t have enough money to eat; forget about dance classes. My dancing was instinctive, singing came about by chance, and acting was all trial and error.”
Kalpana Iyer. (Photo: Express Archive)
Your first payment? A packet of glucose. Then 50 rupees. Then 75 rupees.
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During an annual function of the school, a chief guest, showman Mukesh Sharma, noticed her spark and offered her a place in his shows. Soon, a teenage Kalpana found herself flying abroad, on the same flight as newlyweds Amitabh Bachchan and Jaya Bachchan.
“My life changed,” he simply remembers.
Those international shows gave him more than money. They gave him faith. Trust. A sense of possibility.
Borrowed clothes, unborrowed destiny
Someone soon suggested that Kalpana participate in a beauty pageant. Wearing borrowed clothes, borrowed shoes, and nothing truly hers except light skin and long hair, she entered and placed second to Navy Queen in 1975.
The next day, Femina’s editor, who would become a mother figure, called her. Her modeling career took off instantly. Fashion shows followed. So did the movies.
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The first was Manokamana with Rajshri Films. Then came a dance number in Dev Anand’s Lootmaar, a decision many questioned.
Kalpana Iyer. (Photo archive)
“There was a heroine in the movie and I was just a dancer. People were horrified,” she laughs, adding, “But I never planned any of this.”
That one song opened the floodgates. On the same set, the next day, he signed four films: Kudrat, Pyara Dushman, Bombay Ka Maharaja.
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He even worked in Dilip Kumar’s ambitious Kalinga, which sadly never released. But the experience, he says, taught him grace, dignity and respect, lessons that remained long after the cameras stopped rolling.
Reinvention, exhaustion and a quiet exit
When film offers dwindled, Kalpana Iyer did something unexpected: she moved into television. Shows like Kashish and Junoon became cult classics.
Then came Hum Saath Saath Hain. In 1999, he moved to Dubai, believing it would be a five-year hiatus. They became 25 years.
Kalpana Iyer. (Photo: Express Archive)
“I felt disappointed. Something felt wrong,” she later admitted in an interview with Times of India. “I had to remind people to pay me. I stopped enjoying my job. I dragged myself to the sets.”
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Dubai gave something that India no longer had at that time: peace, dignity and stability.
“This country gave me respect, security and love. For the first time I owned a house,” Pankaj told Simply. Her family joined her. His mother died there. There he worked for a friend in a catering unit.
A life lived differently
Kalpana Iyer never married. Instead, he found a family in his nephew, whom he raised as his own son.
“I didn’t follow the normal course of life,” he said calmly. “But this boy came into my life and took care of me.”
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About love, she jokes: “I liked a lot of men. Apparently they liked me too. Now they confess it, years later. Fortunately, we are all friends. They are all married to beautiful people.”
Kalpana Iyer. (Photo: Express Archive)
The only regret
If he regrets anything, it is this: “While I was concentrating on making money, I lost time with my brothers. Today it hurts.”
And yet, here she is, back in the spotlight, thanks to “Rambha Ho” finding a new generation through Dhurandhar. Now, Kalpana Iyer is waiting again. Not for fame, but for possibilities.
“I’m open to work,” she said on the Know Time podcast. “I’ve never said no. Just give me age-appropriate roles. Even a one-minute role; if it fits, why wouldn’t I do it?”
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He paused and then added quietly, “Ever since Hum Saath Saath Hain, I’ve been waiting. A piece of paper. An elusive phone call.”
His journey with cinema began with Rajshri Films and fittingly came to an end with the same production house. Reflecting on it years later, he told Know Time: “Life has come full circle.”