Vijay Arora – R.I.P.
Hi Folks,
Just got the news that Bollywood actor of the 70-80’s Vijay Arora, passed away yesterday, aged 62. Vijay, an FTII Gold Medallist was more a case of “what if?” as opposed to “what became?”
His punjabi good looks coupled withe the FTII power packed training (the same group which gave us folks like Subhash Ghai, Jaya Bachchan, Shatrughan Sinha, Danny, Rajat,etc) made the media proclaim him as the “next big thing,” on his arrival to Bombay.
His biggest film of that era was the musical blockbuster, Yadoon Ki Baraat, where paired opposite to Zeenat Aman and playing the younger brother to Dharmendra, the song “Churaliya Hain…” is still etched in memory.
The years and months thereafter were more a downslide slope. Perhaps it was a case of Bollywood not being ready for him, but he slowly dissapered into oblivion and although he did 50 films in total, never quite rose to the heights one had expected of him and what the media had made out of him.
Then came television and like many folks whom Bollywood ignored, it was the idiot box that gave a second chance. The mega serial Ramayana had Vijay playing the role of Meghnath, the son of Ravana. Although mythologically the bad guy, Indian audiences loved his valor and conviction to the cause of his father and he left the serial as one of the more remembered characters in it. More television work followed therafter.
The FTII training did not go waste and Vijay reemerged in films, this time as a Cinematorgrapher. He did some quality films like Dus, Hathiyar, Astitva, Tum Bin, Vastav, etc and along the way also set up a software house doing ad films for corporates.
In true Bollywood style when someone /something is down, people take pot shots to make the situation even worse. It (thankfully) never seemed to get to Vijay, who would always be sporting that popular slided smile, whenever spotted in parties, etc.
Vijay, actually was one of the reasons why I started SAAFA. I never met him directly, but growing up in Bombay and visiting the filmi parties in Hotel Sun n Sand and running into him, I would think to myself that if I had my way with a film or an organization, it would be the underdog, the one that the world had forgotten, yet the talented one, that I would support. This was reinforced when I would run into him, when he was courting his wife and he would visit our building in Bombay and we, then as kids, would discuss and wonder where he had gone wrong as far as superstardom is concerned.
May his soul rest in peace
Sincerely,
Vivek “it is the talented one’s, the one’s who did not get their dues that are remebered most” Kumar
Anurag Kashyap
Abhay Deol
Dibakar Banerjee
Hansal Mehta
Khalid Mohamed
Kundan Shah
Anish Kuruvilla
Jaideep Verma
Manish Gupta
Navdeep Singh
Bhavani Iyer
D. Santosh
Onir
Ashvin Kumar
Ramu Ramanathan
Sudhir Mishra
Pankaj Advani
Revathy
Saurabh Shukla
Shilpa Shukla
Sujoy Ghosh
Suparn Verma
Santosh Sivan
Shashank Ghosh
Shivajee
Pavan Kaul
Partho Sen-Gupta
Prroshant Naryannan
Sam Langoria
Satish Kasetty
= Amen… thanks for passing on this news. Distinctly remember Vijay Arora in “Sab se bada sukh” and of course “Yaadon ki Baraat”… I heard that he was a Gold Medalist from FTII.
May his soul rest in peace.
For those who don’t know him, this was Vijay Arora in his career best hit…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IdurUvPumIs
thanks for the new vivek.. i somewhat remember him from “Chura Liya hai” …may his soul rest in peace.
Folks – ERROR ON MY PART, CORRECTED BY RAJEEV JAIN, DP , FROM MUMBAI—
Thanks for pointing it out Rajeev. Apologies to the cinematographer Vijay Arora, just goes to show that despite doing the best research (as in all of the following sites proclaimed him to be a cinematographer), you cannot trust what you read in the desi media.
My sincere apologies and just as a FYI, all of the following sites proclaimed them to be the same person:
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0037026/
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Yaadon_ki_Baraat_star_no_more/articleshow/1556188.cms
http://www.dnaindia.com/report.asp?NewsID=1077614
http://www.hinduonnet.com/holnus/484200702021521.htm
http://www.realbollywood.com/blog/2007/02/actor-vijay-arora-passes-away.html
But as Rajeev pointed out, all the above pieces of info are incorrect. Thanks Rajeev
Vivek —————-> Read on
Please correct it. Vijay Arora aged 62 actor is not same Vijay Arora Cinematographer aged 48—Rajeev
Since we wanted to extend our condolences to the family, and were well aware that the two were distinctly separate individuals, it became a dilemma. The strange part is that Vijay was a almost like a fitness instructor. In recent times had been devoted to practising a healthy regimen of exercise. He was in touch with us and therefore shocking news. May his soul rest in peace.
The irresponsible reporting by the media leaves a lot to be desired. It must have been agonising for the Cinematographers family, as much as Vijay ji’s.
i’ll always remember him for the chars. he played in in Dada Dadi Ki Kahaniyan and Vikram aur Betal.He invariably used to be a part of the stories of Vetal and Dada-Dadi….
Those who cant recall who was Vijay Arora. please remember Ramanand Sagar’s tele serial, Ramayana” he played Meghnad aka Indrajit, son Of Ravana there.
He rather made famous this word “Pita Shri” at that time.
He was there with Jaya Bachchan in a film Phagun, a nice social drama. He was there in small but significant role in Manmohan Desai’s Roti(starring Rajesh Khanna). You can recall one Kishor Kumar song” har kisi ko chahiye ek muthi asman, it was from Vijay Arora’s film ek muthi asman. he was in Yadon ke barat, gautam govinda, 36 ghante etc.
GOD bless his soul.
Vivek, good job re. None of the national tv channels bothered to put any bit of news about him. May be he wasnt that big for the small screen. Still remember him from YKB,Ramayan and Vikram aur Betaal.
HI PEOPLE IM GLAD TO READ ALL THE WONDERFULL THINGS MY FATHER DID AND HOW THERE ARE STILL A FEW PEOPOLE WHO ARNT BAUGHT WITH MONEY, AND HAVE TRUELY APRECIATE HIS DESERVING WORK. FEELS GOOD.
Thanks Farhad!! The fact we can make you feel good about your dad is mission accomplished!! Carry on that legacy of “achievement over materialism” to keep your dad’s name alive and for you to look in the mirror and say- “I don’t care what the world says/thinks, I feel good about who I am and would not change a thing.”
When Yaadon ki baarat showed in my country Guyana I was 15yrs. old and Vijay was the one that I had the biggest crush on. After coming to USA I often tried to find information about him but was not very sucessful.I have been able to purchase Rakhi aur Hadtkadi and Yaado ki Baarat.R.I.P Vijay and to Farhad and Dilbar my deepest condolences.
Please i whant sent me somebody adress or email adress from Vijay Arora or son Farhad Arora.Thanck you verry much.I am so sorry about Vijay;him was my favorit actor
bye Madalina
hi my email id is ferrarimaserati.india@gmail.com
by they way abt my dads demise it was flashed on all the news channels.
also i dont knw why over time people are thinking my dad dint make it big. well the fact is that he dint quite support paid publicity so over times his image was manipulated by some unsatisfied film journos.
Although i m fm malaysia but i had seen his movie play in Yaadon Ki Barat and i m tell you he was so handsome and romantic in this film. I got cd this movie for my collection. His death was shock on me and may God bless him.
I am still missing him!
The Lost Actor he is. A talent which never got recognized.
One of my favourite Actors. His potrayal of characters was very earnest, sensitive and real. Seeing him on the song Ek Ritu Aaaye from Gautam GOvinda’ I could clearly feel the drought like situation shown in the film. Besides seeing him one is reminded of the heady seventies era that reflectd in his style, mannerisms and dress sense. His song “Har Koi Chahata Hai Ek Muththi Aasman” as well as the Gautam Govinda song are my all time favourites.
He was one of the most famous and really class actors of the film industry.
A Dashing onscreen presence in songs of 70s..
Some of my fav songs of 70s were picturised on him
1. Mauzon ki doli chali re – Jeevan Jyoti
2. Meri Soni meri tamanna – YKB
3. Har koi chahta hai ik mutthi aasmaan – EMA
4. Chura liya hai tumne – YKB
5. Ik ritu aaye ik ritu jaaye – autam Govinda
6. Acchi nahin sanam dillagi dil.e.beqaraar se – Rakhi ar Hathkadi
7. Aapke kamare me koi rehta hai – YKB
Dear Farhad,
I just wanted to say that your father was a wonderful actor, as evident by his intense on-screen portrayals as well as his distinguished gold medal. I especially liked the charisma he exuded in Yaadon Ki Baarat, and he has forever made his mark in Chura Liye Hai for people world over to remember him by. In Ramayan he was immensely wonderful playing “Meghnad-Indrajit” and that was some of the best bit of acting I have seen in a very long time.
God bless you and your family,
Best regards,
Prashant Parikh
I never saw any of his films.I only saw one or two episodes of Ramayan with my indian friend and i just became one of his craziest fans.He really was an awe-some actor.I just wish i could see any of his films.
May his soul rest in peace.
I just watched Yado ki barsaat, its so sad that he died, what a handsome actor!
I must admit that I am Vijay Arora’s CRAZIEST fan! I watched Yaadon Ki Baarat when I was 10 and at that time, I didnt know much about him except to admire how good looking he was. But recently I watched back Yaadon Ki Baarat after 25 years and I suddenly remembered how I used to have a crush on him. I searched the website to know more about him and was really devastated to learn that he has passed away. Now I have a collection of his movie CDs which I even ordered from India (I am a Singaporean) and collects his photographs which I treasure in my scrapbook collections. I truly love him. He is such a nice guy. May his soul rest in peace.
hello everybody my email address is changed to farhadvijayarora@gmail.com
Its great loss to mankind!!. he played role of meghnath which was my fav. all the way though was bad guy in serial but he looked like real hero in that role also.may god bless his soul.