‘Ramesh Dev was the first Marathi star to settle in Juhu’
When Ramesh Dev moved to Juhu to live in Meghdoot Bhavan, it became a big deal in the Marathi film industry. The reason this became big news is that Marathi actors preferred to settle in Dadar and ville parle Suburb. But Ramesh Dev shifted to Juhu, where all the big Hindi film stars lived. Dev lived in Girgaum and then directly shifted to Juhu.
The 50th wedding anniversary of Ramesh Dev and Seema Dev was attended by the entire film industry, including Amitabh Bachchan and many other stars from both Hindi and Marathi film industries.
‘Ramesh and Seema Dev’s film was a real-life love story’
When Seema and Ramesh were still young actors, they traveled by train to studios in the northern suburbs of Mumbai. One such day, Seema and her mother boarded a train on Charni Road as they had to go for the shooting of Filmistan studio. Ramesh Deo boarded the same train at Grant Road. In those days, there used to be only 6 coaches in local trains in Mumbai and Ramesh used to go and sit in front of Seema and her mother.
Seema’s mother did not like her, as Ramesh used to play negative roles in films at that time. Seema’s mother often looked at her angrily.
Both Seema and Ramesh were going to Filmistan. Seema was going to Filmistan for the first time and she didn’t really know the way. Ramesh Dev too got off the train at Goregaon like Seema and her mother. Both the women assumed that Ramesh was also going to the same studio, so they started following him.
The next film in which they worked together was Alia Bhogsi from 1957. They played siblings in that film and after working in about four-five films together, Ramesh Dev realized that Seema took good care of him, so he proposed to her. Both got married in Kolhapur.
The wedding photographers didn’t come on the wedding day, so they don’t have a single photo from their wedding. The pictures that are often circulated in the media are of a film in which the two worked together.
‘Ramesh’s first break in cinema was eventful’
Ramesh lived in Kolhapur and his brother Umesh Dev knew director Dinkar Patil. Umesh asked Patil to give Ramesh a job in one of his films. Ramesh was given a scene in the film Ram Ram reached, which he shot but the role got edited out due to the length of the film. Although Ramesh was credited in the film, the scene was missing from the theatrical cut, so his first film eventually became Raja Paranjpe’s ‘Patalachi Por’.
He had an old association with ‘Amitabh Bachchan and Rajesh Khanna,
He worked with Amitabh Bachchan in Kasautii and Anand and with Rajesh Khanna in Jai Jai Shiv Shankar and Anand. Many years ago, Ramesh Dev told me that the makers wanted to drop Amitabh Bachchan from Kasautii as most of his films had flopped during that time. Ramesh Dev and Hema Malini requested the makers not to throw him out of the film. after release chain At the same time, during the Zanjeer party, Kasautii director Arvind Sen was praising Amitabh Bachchan. Ramesh told me, “I was surprised to see the same man who didn’t want Amitabh to be singing a song in the film.” And this is the reason why Amitabh Bachchan did not work with Arvind Sen after Kasautii.
He had a lot of friendship with Rajesh Khanna. Both were residents of Girgaon and used to talk to each other in Marathi. Ramesh Dev used to tell me that Seema Dev was afraid to meet Rajesh Khanna because he was a huge superstar. Rajesh Khanna started talking to him in Marathi during the production of Anand, so that Seema would get comfortable with him. Ramesh Dev and Seema Dev were part of the cast of Jai Jai Shiv Shankar.
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