Geeta Tandon | Amey Mansabdar
RIDING A BIKE THROUGH fire or jumping off the roof is all in a day’s work for this feisty lady. Geeta Tandon, 34, has made a name for herself as a stunt woman in Bollywood, having done stunts for almost all the leading ladies in tinsel town. The bravado that she displays in her movie stunts, however, pales in comparison with the immense courage that she had shown to survive a child marriage and escape from an abusive husband, to build a better life for herself.
Geeta lost her mother when she was ten. She and her three siblings stayed with relatives because her father travelled to perform at jagrans to make a living. Her elder sister was married off at 15. And the next was Geeta’s turn.
In fact, Geeta was happy that she was getting married. “I thought, wow, I will live in my own house. I will not be at the mercy of relatives,” she said. She was happy that her would-be husband, who ran a transport business, earned well and lived in a joint family. The marriage was finalised in two days, and Geeta, at just 15, got married to a 24-year-old man.
The marriage turned out to be a nightmare. “I was just a kid. I had no knowledge of sex. So, it was quite a shock when he forced himself on me,” said Geeta. She began to dread sunsets because they signalled that the torture would soon begin. “He would get drunk and throw objects around. He would slap me and pull my hair. Nobody came to my rescue,” she said.
The violence would progress into sexual abuse, and if she resisted, she would be beaten up. “I hoped that after my first child was born, he would not torture me. But then one night, he banged my head against the wall five or six times. I took an auto and went to the police,” said Geeta. The police, however, asked her to sort it out with him.
Geeta said she was reduced to a maid servant during the day and a punching bag at night. “I knew that if I stayed on, I would soon die a really bad death.”
So one night, with her enraged husband chasing her with a sword, Geeta ran for her life with her two children. She lived with her sister for a few days, but was turned out by her sister’s in-laws. She took refuge in a gurdwara and began doing odd jobs. There were occasions when people, trying to take advantage of her situation, almost pulled her into prostitution.
Things began to look up as she joined a bhangra group. With one thing leading to another, she got a chance to do a stunt in a movie.
“The first stunt I did was a fire sequence. I ended up with burns on my face. But I decided I would not leave this job,” said Geeta. She now owns a house in Mumbai, and her son and daughter go to a good school.
“Life is beautiful now,” she said.
