Madhubala is the most beautiful actress ever to grace the Indian silver screen. Even today, decades after her death she is considered the eternal beauty of Indian cinema and still remains in the hearts of millions of Indians. While Indian cinema is slowly gaining worldwide recognition as well as overwhelming response, awards, and appreciation, Madhubala had already achieved the same during the 50s with her beauty and quintessential charm.
Her poise, smile, and expressions had won the hearts of millions of connoisseurs of beauty. What’s more, she was considered a legend in Greece at that time and even a song was dedicated to her.
Fans around the world called her “Venus of India.” Venus is considered to be a goddess of beauty and love in Rome. On the other hand, in Greece, they called Madhubala, “Aphrodite” equivalent to Venus.
What made Madhubala so popular in Greece?
During the 50s and 60s, Indian cinema had a mass influence on the working class of Greece as the societal situations were almost parallel between the two countries around that time. That is why Bollywood movies that mirrored the happenings in society in those times gained a following among this class in Greece.
Another reason was that Bollywood movies had a low budget and hence were sold at a cheaper rate as compared to their other international counterparts. That encouraged the Greek film importers to invest in Bollywood films. Although Hindi was not much known then and the movies were poorly subtitled at that time, the middle-class themes of movies such as Shree 420 and Mother India found a chord with the working class of Greece.
Madhubala ’s movies like Kala Pani, Fagun, Beqasoor, and others impressed the Greek audience and they identified her as their Aphrodite.
Mandubala was one of the biggest hits of Indo-Greek culmination
The song 'Mandoubala' which has been dedicated to Madhubala was originally sung in 1959 by Stelios Kazantzidis. Known as the father of laiko music in Greece, the singer in this song wants his lost love Mandoubala to come back. Reportedly, Greek composer Theodoros Derveniotis who composed this song seemed to be influenced by the Bollywood track “Aa Jao Tadapte Hain Arman” from Raj Kapoor’s Awara. Interestingly, the movie had Madhubala’s contemporary Nargis enacting the song, but the composer dedicated it to Madhu.
The song was such an overwhelming success with more than 100,000 copies sold that Kazantzidis was inspired to come out with “The Return of Mandoubala.” The hype around this song reached epic levels when it was sung during the closing ceremony of the Olympics 2004 in Athens.