Mumbai, June 18 By Our Bollywood Reporter   Ms Divya Chawla
The sizzling serenades of the Shetty sisters -Shilpa and Shamita - have been making waves for sometime now. Whether it is Shilpa’s incandescent ‘Aaila re...’ from Jung or Shamita’s sizzling ‘Sharara sharara...’ from Mere Yaar Ki Shaadi Hai, they have been inextricably linked with sensuous numbers 
 
They are as unlike as peas and a pod. Gregarious, extrovert and prone to bouts of laughter, Shilpa Shetty, is lucky to be considered one of the elite three (along with Kajol and Urmila) heroines of the ’90s who have seemingly drunk the elixir of youth. Sober, guarded and decidedly reserved, younger sister Shamita Shetty, professionally junior by seven years, was almost written off till one film,Zeher, brought about a paradigm change in the industry’s perspective.  
Click here to see Shamita Shetty and Shilpa Shetty hot Stills   In fact, the last twelve months have seen their completely divergent career-graphs meet at a kind of confluence. With Phir Milenge in late 2004, the ultra-glam Shilpa Shetty proved that given the chance, she could etch out a performance that could be a frontrunner for the National awards. And Zeher showed that Shamita, who had just four featured roles before it, was a powerhouse performer given the right environs.   But even in their earlier dissimilar track-records, there were some similarities. Shilpa’s first leading man was Shahrukh Khan (Baazigar), while Shamita’s first film, Mohabbatein, featured SRK too, though not as her hero. Also, both the Shettys failed to make significant progress despite the hit debut films and decent performances.   Click here to see Fareb Movie Stills   The sizzling serenades of the Shetty sisters are a byword in film circles. Shilpa is as much considered an ’item song’ (sic) girl as is Shamita, but there lies a gray area: most of Shilpa’s songs that fall in this category have been a part of her films as leading lady, with the exception of one film, while Shamita has appeared in two films only to enact such songs.
 
Says Shilpa, “I have only done one film in which I actually made an appearance for an item song - Shool. Shamita has done two.” Giggles Shamita, “Yes. Good to know that I am her senior in something!”   Dancing is something that obviously comes not only easy but seems to be inborn for the Shetty sisters, as they really enjoy the choreographic outings in their films. So when Shilpa is around, a song is usually tailored to her and fitted into the script. “What the heck! Hit songs give you popularity, and I have lasted on such songs even when my films failed!” exults Shilpa. “I did not get as many big banner films or filmmakers as most of my contemporaries. But I was luckier in my songs. And the Shool song `Main aayi hoon U.P. Bihar lootne...’ (Sapna Awasthi) became a rage.”   Shilpa’s association with hit music began with Baazigar itself in which ‘Ae mere humsafar...’ (Alka Yagnik with Vinod Rathod) and ‘Kitaben bahut si padhi...’ (Asha Bhosle with Vinod Rathod) made waves on the charts. But the first real humdinger was ‘Churake dil mera goriya chali...’ (Alka with Kumar Sanu) from her second release Main Khiladi Tu Anari. Few songs that were a part of a film’s narrative have so much attitude as this chartbuster which fulfilled the requisite of what an ‘item song’ has come to mean by definition - a self-sufficient audio-visual item.
Click here to see Fareb Movie Stills   But perhaps it was Shool itself that made the industry look at Shilpa as an item babe. Within a year the brand was consolidated in the market with two more hits ‘Dupatte ka pallu...’ (Richa Sharma) , written in naughty folk idiom by Nida Fazli for Tarkieb, and the more direct ‘Aai la re ladki mast mast tu aai la re...’ (Alka Yagnik-Anu Malik) from Jung.   There were other attempts that misfired, maybe because the parent films did (like ‘Thamba re thamba...’ from Hathiyar) but Shilpa has not closed her doors to item songs. Her bar-dancer act in Garv (‘Saiyyan more saiyyan...’ by Sunidhi Chauhan) and her recent turn as a call-girl in Khamossh in which she enacted ‘Mera man bhanwaraa...’ (Sunidhi Chauhan) may have demanded such songs, but she also enacted ‘Dil ishqan ishqan ho gaya...’(Sunidhi Chauhan with Adnan Sami) in the David Dhawan masala entertainer Chor Machaaye Shor.   Shilpa Shetty’s fetish for healthy living and general fitness thus made her not only an ideal candidate for such hi-energy numbers but helped bridge the gap between her lean phase and the more satisfying era that we see her in today. Shamita Shetty, right from her debut as Uday Chopra’s sweetheart in Mohabbatein, showed her dancing skills and Shetty-esque figure to advantage in dance numbers like ‘Aankhen khuli ho ya ho band...’ and the other tangos in the film. The complete edge she had over the other young heroines in this department earned her two quick assignments in ‘item’ cameos - Mere Yaar Ki Shaadi Hai and Saathiya.   “Shamita could not have turned these assignments down despite the delicate stage of her career then,” notes badi bahen Shilpa. “Adi (Aditya Chopra) was responsible for her career. How could she refuse him?”   Echoes Shamita, “I did not even think of turning Adi down.I knew that he would never want me to harm my career.”   The repercussions did come for a while though, all the more because both these songs as well as the latter film worked. “I did get more offers that I turned down. But every interview did have an ‘item song’ question, and everyone seemed to be thinking that I was not getting normal, full-fledged roles,” recalls Shamita.  
Click here to see Fareb Movie Stills On the brighter side though,‘Sharara sharara...’ (Mere Yaar Ki Shaadi Hai) achieved cult status and reinforced Asha Bhosle’s ever-young tenor. The song became a hot favourite even in European clubs wherein it was played as a world music song, and Shamita’s act earned her accolades.Saathiya was bolder, more uninhibited, and Shamita carried off the highly potent erotica of ‘Chori pe chori...’ (Asha Bhosle again) superbly. Matters were not exactly helped by the disastrous faring of two small films that came along,Agnipankh and Wajahh, but as Shamita stresses,”I do not think that my two songs sent out wrong signals. I would not have been offered Zeher if I was perceived only as an `item’ girl!” And to complete the Asha trilogy came ‘Kehta hai kabutar...’ (with Shaan), a crazy if situational dance number in Bewafaa, just weeks before Zeher hit the screen.   To sum up therefore, hot music seems to have helped rather than hindered the sisters’ careers. About the role of such songs in their future careers, Shamita says, “ I have no idea whether I will do them! I did get some offers that I have turned down. After Zeher routine work does not interest me.” And while Shilpa too stresses that she cannot do mediocre work after Phir Milenge, she is very clear that all her future experimentations and risks will remain within audience-friendly parameters. ”I am here to entertain the audience and not to please a few critics!” she asserts.   And perhaps that is why even as she plays a doctor-cum-social worker in Fareb, the film that will see the sisters synergize in a single film, she is slated to enact an Anu Malik-composed item song in this Deepak Tijori thriller along with Shamita, who plays a corporate woman! Obviously a commercial concession because the two sisters are not playing sisters but dramatic antagonists in the story, the song will in all likelihood set the screen afire. As Shamita puts in, “We had decided to be professional on the sets. Shilpa would annoy me by pretending to be overprotective, but the only time I was nervous was not in my dramatic scenes with her but while enacting the song we did together. Because she scored over me in three aspects - her body, her body-language and her dancing skills!” But big sister too has a point:” Shamita’s very patient, very clear about what she wants, and a very good actress who has the capacity to surprise you.”   Click Here To See Fareb Movie Romantic Stills Divya Chawla
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