SWAPNIL SANSAR,LUCKNOW.Achala Sachdev was an film actress who started her career as a child actor. She later became known for mother and grandmother roles in Hindi films. Her most memorable roles were as Balraj Sahni’s wife in 1965 film Waqt and Kajol’s grandmother in Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge (1995).Achala Sachdev was born in Peshawar in 3 May 1920 .
Achala Sachdev worked for All India Radio, Lahore before Indian partition and then at Delhi All India Radio. Achala made her film debut with Fashionable Wife (1938), and acted in over 130 Hindi films. She has acted in many Yash Raj Films, starting with Yash Chopra’s first production Daag: A Poem of Love (1973) and films like Chandni (1989) and Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge (1995). Her other noted films were Prem Pujari, Mera Naam Joker, Hare Rama Hare Krishna and Andaz, apart from acting in English films like the Mark Robson’s Nine Hours to Rama (1963) and Merchant Ivory’s The Householder (1963).However her most noted role remained of as Balraj Sahani’s wife in the Waqt (1965), where in the hit song Ae Meri Zohra Jabeen was picturized with her.
Achala became a resident of Pune after marrying to Clifford Douglas Peters who had a factory in Pune’s Bhosari industrial estate named Morris Electronics, producing small electronics parts like diodes. The factory was later sold to Piramal Group. Achala has one child, son Jyotin from her first marriage who lives in the US, two grandchildren and one great grandson.
In September 2011, Achala slipped and fell in her kitchen. She sustained a fracture in her leg. After, she was diagnosed with multiple emboli in her brain. This resulted in total paralysis and the loss of her vision. She was survived by son Jytoin, who is in US.