My 80-year-old grandpa geeks out on old Bollywood movies like it’s nobody’s business and thus, my introduction to Rafi and Dev Anand was at the mere age of 7 or 8. Out of the roster of actresses he’d witter about continuously, Sadhana particularly stood out. Reason: the fun backstory behind her then haircut, Audrey Hepburn and the hairstyle we now refer to as bangs, or fringes.
Sadhana Shivdasani, now mononymously known as Sadhana, single-handedly championed a beauty revolution she wasn’t aware she was a part of. Thus ensued the barrage of young girls and women vying to imitate that hairstyle, which to this day, is known as the Sadhana cut.
A History Lesson
At first, Sadhana remained iffy about getting an Audrey Hepburn-inspired fringe since she didn’t think an Indian girl could pull it off. A cursory examination of the background and tidbits regarding the iconic hairdo reveals that her husband, RK Nayyar, an acclaimed director at the time, really proposed it.
He had once said in an interview that he had first met Sadhana when filming Love in Simla and that he thought she was the ideal choice for the part, but that he wanted to change her hairstyle to cover up her forehead. Sadhana’s forehead would have made her a beautiful Jane, according to him. This gave rise to the fringe that was modelled after Audrey Hepburn, which the actress rocked with style and gained widespread recognition for.
They tried several wigs and haircuts, but nothing seemed to fit. At last, he decided to attempt a fringe like the Breakfast At Tiffany’s actress. Girls would visit salons decades later requesting to have their hair cut and groomed in the famous ‘Sadhana cut,’ (a moniker given to it, here) demonstrating how deeply ingrained this hairstyle had become in Indian pop culture.
Helming A Sartorial Revolution
When Sadhana’s peers paid little attention to their hair, the ‘Sadhana Cut’ became a benchmark for style. For the first time, Indian women chose to maintain their long hair, which was considered a traditional sign of beauty, whilst allowing room for a noticeable shift in their appearance with the fringe. Funnily, her haircut was not the sole reason behind her recognition as a style icon.
She was also the first to don figure-hugging kurtas and churidars, which ultimately made it possible for relatively tighter silhouettes to be worn and considered traditional Indian attires. She was indeed ‘that girl’ of old Bollywood.
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