The controversy
Circa 1993, the popular gossip magazine stardust splashed a young starlet posing topless on its cover. Whispers turned into loud catcalls, everyone within and outside the Bollywood industry was talking about the bold and upcoming Mamta Kulkarni who dared to cover her bare assets with her delicate arms. She became an overnight star and flooded with film offers from A list producers.
Kulkarni belonged to a middle class maharashtrian Brahmin family and had indulged in small time modelling assignments in early 90s. She even acted in a B grade movie called Mera Dil Tere Liye(1992) which bombed badly and went unnoticed. So the sensational cover on stardust did wonders for Mamta that her debut movie couldn’t.
The rise and stardom
She had a string of box office hits like Tiranga(1993), Aashiq Awara(1993), Waqt Hamara Hai(1993), Bhookamp(1993), Betaaj Badshah(1994), Sabse Bada Khiladi(1995) and the blockbuster Karan Arjun(1995) which was the second highest grossing movie that year. Even an item song (which were termed sensational appearances those days) in Ghatak(1996) became an overnight chartbuster thereby catapulting sexy Mamta to the A list of female stars of those days.
She also performed at overseas concerts considering she had several dance numbers turning popular those days. She had won the Filmfare lux face of the year award in 1994 and was among the top ten leading ladies in the period 1993-1996.
The eventual Fall
Unfortunately for Mamta, her success ride was short lived. In spite of a spate of box office spinners from 1993-96 she was soon accused of unprofessional Behaviour. It was the infamous China gate controversy in 1996-97 that put an abrupt end to her flourishing career. After Manisha Koirala couldn’t adjust her dates, Raj Santoshi signed Mamta for his ambitious China Gate(1998), Mamta who was desperate to break from her sex symbol tag was more than happy to provide bulk dates.
It was during the shoot that Mamta and Santoshi had a very public showdown. While Santoshi alleged Mamta of unprofessional conduct, she claimed Santoshi made sexual overtures at her. She was also accused of having had a secret wedding with fight master Tinu Verma who was a much married man at the time. When the movie finally released it bombed. And Mamta found her lead role chopped off unceremoniously reducing it to four scenes.
Underworld connection
Mamta was accused of using underworld connect to get even with Santoshi and Verma. It was alleged that her recurrent visits to Dubai on the pretext of stage concerts were actually meet-ups with mafia dons of the 90s era. This allegation kept most producers away from Mamta. During the sunset of her career she appeared in the six year delayed Chhupa Rustom(2001) which turned out to be a surprise box office superhit.
And then she did the unexpected, she vanished like a brazen lightening in 2002 and moved to Kenya never to return back to motherland India. As per the gossip mills she had eloped with her boyfriend Vicky Goswami, a notorious drug mafia who was involved in an internationally managed drug syndicate network. From almost two decades Mamta had been living in anonymity.
The spiritual connection
Mamta suddenly resurfaced in 2015 when she gave a lengthy interview to an Indian news channel wherein she claimed she had no connection with drug mafia or the underworld and had found solace and peace in spirituality. She claimed she was living a celibate life for nearly two decades and had shunned all Bollywood connections. She referred to herself as a “Yogini”.
She may have found the purpose of her existence finally but she surely makes an interesting case study of a former star who rose to meteoric stardom only to have a thunderous downfall.
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