Beginning your career with Satyajit Ray is no mean feat, and Tagore was just fourteen when she acted in Apur Sansar, the third in Ray's revered Apu Trilogy.
Disarmingly raw and refreshingly unschooled, the actress was spellbinding, and went on to act in several Ray films, mostly alongside her first co-star Soumitra Chatterjee, the director's favourite leading man.
Her first Hindi feature came about with director Shakti Samanta's Kashmir Ki Kali, a film where she had to portray Shammi Kapoor's plucky, stunning love interest. Needless to say Sharmila did this with such elan that more people noticed her than the irrepressible leading man, and as they say in hackneyed biographies, a star was born.
Also Read: Sharmila Tagore: Sex Symbol, acclaimed actress
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