Bollywood celebrities who wrote their autobiographies

Be it juicy gossip, surprising scandals, and controversies straight from the stars' mouths, they all find a place in memoirs by our favourite Bollywood celebs. Many stars have taken to the pen after their tryst with stardom. Some turned out extremely shocking with their content, while a few others provided a never-before-seen side to their lives. Here’s a list of Bollywood celebs who penned their memoirs.

Thespian Dilip Kumar penned his autobiography ‘Dilip Kumar: The Substance and The Shadow’ and traced his journey right from his birth to the present day. The book candidly recounts his interactions and relationships with a wide variety of people not only from his family and the film fraternity but also from other walks of life, including politicians. The ‘Naya Daur’ actor sets the record straight, on many aspects of his life as he felt that a lot of what has been written about him so far is ‘full of distortions and misinformation’.

Naseeruddin Shah’s autobiography titled ‘And Then One Day: A Memoir’ showcase accounts of his struggle to earn a living through acting, his experiments with the craft, his love affairs, his early marriage, his successes and failures, with remarkable frankness and objective self-assessment. Brimming with delightful anecdotes as well as poignant, often painful revelations, this book is an insightful voyage into the minds of Bollywood’s most acclaimed actors.

Touted to be as the first-ever full-fledged memoir by a leading Bollywood star, ‘Romancing With Life’ set the stage for Dev Anand to tell his remarkable life story in his inimitable fashion. The actor-filmmaker recounted tales from his youth in 1930s Gurdaspur and Lahore to his years of struggle in 1940s Bombay; his friendship with Guru Dutt and his marriage to co-star Kalpana Kartik; his relationships with his brothers Chetan and Vijay Anand, with his fellow superstars Dilip Kumar and Raj Kapoor; and with his heroines from Geeta Bali, Madhubala, Meena Kumari, Nutan, Vyjayanthimala, Mumtaz and Hema Malini to Waheeda Rehman, Zeenat Aman and Tina Munim.

The first South Indian actress to become a national star and often credited for paving a way for other actresses from the region into Bollywood, Vyjayanthimala’s autobiography ‘Bonding... A Memoir’ highlights her journey from becoming the first Indian artiste to dance at the International Opera House at Sydney to an extremely successful career in Bollywood. Dancing, acting, golf, marriage, motherhood and entering the portals of Parliament, the book perfectly captures the various remarkable phases of her life.

Actor, filmmaker, chat show host and reality show judge Karan Johar rattled quite a few feathers when he came out with his autobiography titled as ‘An Unsuitable Boy’. KJo spoke about his pampered childhood to threats of extortion, to mending and broken friendships and even touched upon the topic of his sexuality. Most notably, Karan expressed his desire to become a father, and later followed it up in real life by opting for surrogacy.

Outrageously contrarian and politically incorrect, Ram Gopal Varma’s autobiography ‘Guns & Thighs: The Story of My Life’ discloses a perspective as colourful and larger than life as Indian films. Even when it comes to discussing his own films, he embraces his failures as much his successes and dissects them with rare honesty and humility. The book faced quite strong reactions in some sections.

From entering the world of movies as a child artiste to making her debut opposite Shammi Kapoor in the smash-hit ‘Dil Deke Dekho’, Asha Parekh had a string of silver and golden jubilee hits, which established her as the quintessential “hit girl”. Asha ruled the roost through the ‘60s and ‘70s, and later made her way to the small screen by producing and directing shows like ‘Kora Kagaz’ and ‘Palash ke Phool’. The memoir called ‘The Hit Girl’ perfectly exemplifies Asha Parekh’s eventful career trajectory.