However, she finally made it with Lisa Ray, Seema Biswas, John Abraham and Sarala Kariyawasam.

Mehta said her daughter was very fond of the late actress.

"She was so lovely. My daughter Devyani really bonded well with her. Devyani was totally fascinated by Manorama's history, her half-Irish parentage and her beginnings in Bollywood as Baby Iris, then being a heroine in Lahore and then a vamp in Mumbai. It was fascinating!"

Mehta recalls a heart-warming incident with Manorama.

"After 'Water' got truncated in Varanasi, I had gone to Mumbai. Manorama told me, 'You'd be happy to know I've got money to buy myself a second-hand Maruti car. And I've also got a driver. So rather than run around in three-wheelers I want you to have my car and driver whenever you're in Mumbai.' Can you believe this!

"During all this time no one in Mumbai has offered me a car and driver. She loved the chance of working in 'Water'. That got her accolades. International audiences were shaken by her performance. They felt she was very organic. Very real."

Beginning as a child artiste in 1926, Manorama did nearly 150 films. She had slowed down considerably and was very much out of the groove, emerging once in a while as she did in Mahesh Bhatt's "Junoon" in 1992.

Bhatt told a poignant story of Manorama's impoverished state. "When Manorama was paid for her work, she sighed and said, 'Today I'll be able to take a bath'."