The life of a Bollywood Golden era actress, Mala Sinha’s career went up in flames after she was admitted prostitution in court during an IT raid at her house.
Known for films like Pyaasa, Dhool Ka Phool, Gumrah, and Ankhen, among many others, Mala gained fame in the 1950s and remained one of the most popular actors across the 1960s and 1970s.
She worked alongside Guru Dutt, Dharmendra, Shashi Kapoor, Manoj Kumar, among many others, and was the star of Yash Chopra’s first directorial. She was known for her expressive eyes and luckily got to feature in some of the most popular songs of that era, but everything came crashing down in 1978 after Mala had to admit in the court of law that she was making money from prostitution, even though that was far from the truth.
In a recent YouTube video, Tabassum recounted a conversation she had with her close friend Mala, in which Mala revealed the “most difficult phase of her life.”She recalled Mala saying that she was one of the most popular actors of her era and had made lots of money during her time in the movies. She recalled Mala’s words and said, “I made all kinds of money – white and black.” This meant that Mala was not declaring a sum of her income to the tax department.
Tabassum further recalled Mala’s words, “Out of the black money I made, my father hid Rs 12 lakh in the bathroom. But the Income tax officials got to know about it and conducted a raid at my house, dismantled the bathroom and took away the Rs 12 lakh back in 1978. I was completely broken.”
Afterwards, Mala’s father, Albert Sinha, filed a case demanding their money back as it was “my hard-earned money.” “But the lawyers said that you won’t get this money back because this is black money. My father got worried and asked if there was another way.
The lawyers said there was only one way: ‘If Mala shows up in court and admits that films are not the only way to make money, there are other means to make money as well. And this is my personal income,” she recalled, suggesting that Mala had to admit to something that she never did. Tabassum recalled, “Mala Sinha said, ‘I said this in court and I got my Rs 12 lakh back but I will always regret that I admitted to something that I never did’.” Mala Sinha did not appear in many films after this scandal.