Top 100 HINDI FILM Actors of all time
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Aamir Khan was born on March 14, 1965 in Mumbai. He is one of the most successful Indian Bollywood actors who is also known as "Mr. Perfectionist of Bollywood". With his recent successes in both the Indian and Chinese film markets, he has shouldered his way into becoming one of the world's biggest superstars. Undergoing rapid transformations in his body structure to better embody the variegated characters in his energetic films, Aamir has garnered praise from all parts of the globe. His most visible transformations can be seen in such movies as Lagaan (2001), Fanaa (2006), Taare Zameen Par (2007), Ghajini (2008), 3 idiots (2009), Talaash (2012), Dhoom 3 (2013), PK (2014), Dangal (2016) and Secret Superstar (2017). His recent successes with movies like Dangal, PK , Talaash and TV serial Satyamev Jayate have attracted attention from more serious moviegoing crowds. However, he is perhaps better known for his fabulous comedic roles, as exemplified by his iconic performances in cult comedies such as Andaz Apna Apna, Passion, and Dil Chahta Hai, to name a few. Aamir is also no slouch at TV commercial work.
2001's Lagaan released in China nationwide, beginning what would be a series of Aamir Khan films that would firmly plant Indian filmmaking into the minds of Chinese audiences. 3 Idiots became a cult hit in China farther along in the 2000's, followed by Like Stars on Earth and Ghajini, both of which went on to gain huge followings. Aamir Khan's streak of Chinese box office hits continued into and throughout the 2010's with the rapid-fire release of Dhoom 3 (2013), PK (2014), Dangal (2016) and Secret Superstar (2017).
Aamir was first introduced as a child artist in the 1970's hit Procession of Memories (1973) - he was the youngest child in the trio.
His performance in Earth (1998) as the Ice-Candy man has received rave reviews from Indian and international critics. Using classic "method acting" and an adopted technique inspired by his seniors Sanjeev Kumar, Rajesh Khanna, Dev Anand and Shammi Kapoor, Aamir acts in all genres of Indian films - comedy, action, drama and romance. He is regarded as a complete Indian actor of the post 1990 generation of actors for his diverse choice of roles and films. In 2007 he turned director with the film Like Stars on Earth (2007), which not only brought him immense critical acclaim but was also a huge box office success. Many of his films are considered as cult classics like Lagaan: Once Upon a Time in India (2001), Dil Chahta Hai (2001), Rang De Basanti (2006), Jo Jeeta Wohi Sikandar (1992) and Andaz Apna Apna (1994). He divorced his first wife Reena Dutta on December 09, 2001 and married Kiran Rao in December 28, 2005 and divorced her on July 03, 2021.
In 2008 his first all out commercial action film Ghajini (2008) went on to become the highest grossing film of its time in Indian Cinema and 4th highest inflation adjusted, grossing a total of Rs.226 on the worldwide box office and the first film to cross 100 crores on the domestic Indian box office, making a total of Rs.115 crores. This record didn't last long, though, since his next release 3 Idiots (2009) went on to shatter not only the highest grosser record but many more. It not only made the highest opening first day, first weekend and first week records but subsequently continued to shatter many records on the following weekends and weeks, making many circuits on the way. It made a total of Rs.202 crores domestically and Rs.400 crores on the worldwide box office, becoming the highest overseas grosser to date, a staggering feat given that no other film had even come close to making Rs.100 crores on the domestic box office until then, except for his own Ghajini (2008) the previous year.
Aamir is said to be the actor who first started the trend of actors working in one film at a time, when the others worked in four or five at the same time. He is also known to shun popular film trade magazine awards like Filmfare, Star Screen, etc. as he doesn't have trust in their credibility and transparency. Recently he was awarded the third highest civilian honor Padama Bhushan by the government of India.
Aamir's expansive range of characterizations remains unparalleled amongst his contemporaries. Because of this diversity and his formidable ability to portray different characters believably on screen, he is today regarded not only as one of the biggest stars in Bollywood but also as one of the finest actors in all of Indian Cinema.- Actor
- Producer
- Writer
Abhay is an actor who has never shied away from speaking his mind; a producer who doesn't believe in the 'formula', a film curator with a keen eye for detail and good stories, a painter who's not scared to experiment with colours and a philanthropist who wishes to leverage his position to bring a positive change in society. Well, that's in short Abhay Deol, if only the versatile actor could fit in boxes.
Despite coming from the most-filmy family of Bollywood- the Deols, Abhay is a man of few words who lets his work and films do the talking bit. You may call him non-conformist but Abhay's panache of portraying complex characters is matched by very few in the cinema world as evident from his filmography that includes films like Dev D, Raanjhana, Manorama six feet under, Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara, Shanghai and Oye Lucky Lucky Oye.
Whether it was acquainting Sunny Deol to Imtiaz Ali for his debut Socha Na Tha, raising funds for Manorama Six Feet Under or giving Anurag Kashyap the idea to give Devdas a contemporary twist in Dev.D, Abhay always went beyond the traditional responsibilities of an actor even in the early days of his career.
Despite his success with films that have been termed "art-house" and "off beat", Abhay - right from his first shot has continually balanced and found success both with artistic/indie cinema as well as hugely successful Bollywood blockbusters.
He has consistently taken chances with debutante directors from the start of his career. Be it Imtiaz Ali, Reema Kakdi or Navdeep Singh, just to name a few. He's also carried the freedom, and his penchant for going against the grain, into his work as a producer - backing newcomers and new storylines. With a huge fan-following across the globe, Abhay has always stood for the cause of parallel cinema, which is one of the reasons he became a film curator. He also ventured into the digital medium with Chopsticks and Line of Descent, apart from stepping into Tamil cinema with Hero and Idhu Vedhalam Sollum Kadhai. With a strong social media presence, Abhay is known to take a stand divergent to the rest of tinsel town's herd opinions, which is what makes him 'thinking women sex symbol.'- Actor
- Music Department
- Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Abhishek Bachchan, is an actor, producer, singer, voice-over artiste and an entrepreneur. He has done over 70 films. He won critical acclaim for his portrayal of an angsty young goon in 'Yuva' (2004). He received the Filmfare 'Best Supporting Actor' Award for this role and continued this winning streak with 'Sarkar' (2005), 'Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna' (2006), 'Dostana' (2008), 'Paa' (2009) and 'Bol Bachchan' (2012).
Born in Mumbai, India on February 5th 1976 to Bollywood legends Amitabh Bachchan and Jaya Bachchan (née Bhaduri). After schooling in the Bombay Scottish school, then Jamnabai Narsee school and then Modern school (Vasant Vihar, New Delhi), he was sent to Aiglon College an international boarding school in Switzerland. After which he enrolled in Boston University to study Arts. He dropped out of college and moved back to Mumbai to pursue his acting career. Making his debut in JP Dutta's Refugee (2000).
Abhishek lives in Mumbai, India with his wife, actor Aishwarya Rai Bachchan and their daughter Aaradhya Bachchan. Time Magazine (2007) listed them on its list of most influential Indians. And they made quite a splash when they appeared on the Oprah Winfrey Show (2009).
Over the years he has become famous for his versatility and the variety of films that he has been a part of; ranging from 'Yuva' (2004), The 'Dhoom' series (2004, 2006, 2013), Sarkar (2005), 'Bluffmaster' (2005), the highly acclaimed 'Guru' (2007), 'Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna' (2006), 'Paa' (2009, which he produced and won a National Award for Best Film - Hindi), to the blockbusters 'Bol Bachchan' (2012) and 'Happy New Year' (2014).
In 2016 he took a sabbatical from acting to re-evaluate himself and concentrate on his other passion, sports. He owns teams in the Pro Kabaddi League (Jaipur Pink Panthers) and in the Indian Super League (Chennaiyin Football Club). He has always maintained, "Entrepreneurship and acting can't be taught. They have to be done with passion."
He returned to films in 2018 with the critically acclaimed 'Manmarziyaan' (2018). As audiences for streaming platforms began growing, he did the Hindi voice of Bagheera for Mowgli on Netflix (voiced by Christian Bale in English); and plays the lead in season two of Breathe, one of the biggest shows on Amazon Prime Video.
He turned film producer with R. Balki's National-Award Winning comedy-drama, 'Paa', in which he played father to Amitabh Bachchan (his real-life father). Since then, he has produced several films through his production company, 'Saraswati Entertainment'.
Trying his hand at rapping, Abhishek hit all the right notes with the song 'Right Here Right Now' from 'Bluffmaster'.
Continuing to essay strong roles in his quest of great characters and films, Bachchan continues to be one of the most sought after and dependable actors in the industry.- Actor
- Producer
- Director
Vishal Veeru "Ajay" Devgn was born on April 02, 1969, in New Delhi, Delhi to action director Veeru Devgan and his wife Veena Devgan. He is an Indian actor, film director and producer who works in the Bollywood industry and is one of the highest-paid celebrities in India. Devgn started his film career with Phool Aur Kaante (1991). He is known for films like All The Best: Fun Begins (2009), Hindustan Ki Kasam (1999), Ishq (1997), The Legend of Bhagat Singh (2002), Singham (2011), Total Dhamaal (2019) etc. He is married to actress Kajol with whom he has two children (i.e son Yug and daughter Nysa). He is also the founder and owner of the production banner Ajay Devgn Ffilms.- Actor
- Music Department
- Soundtrack
Akshaye Khanna was born in Mumbai in 1975. He is the middle son of Bollywood actor and politician Vinod Khanna, and the younger brother of actor Rahul Khanna.
After studying in Kishore Namit Kapoor Acting Institute in Mumbai, Khanna made his acting debut in Bollywood in 1997 with the movie Himalay Putra, which went without much success at box office. His performance in his next release, J. P. Dutta-directed Border (1997), earned him the Filmfare Best Debut Award and a nomination for Filmfare Award for Best Supporting Actor in 1998. After that a string of unsuccessful films followed such as Mohabbat (1997), Kudrat (1998), Laawaris (1999), Love You Hamesha (1999) and Dahek: A Burning Passion (1999). In 1999, he starred in Rishi Kapoor's Aa Ab Laut Chalen; though the film did average business, he was praised for his acting in this film. He next starred in the 1999 release of Subhash Ghai's Taal opposite Aishwarya Rai. The film became a critical and commercial success. In 2001, Khanna appeared in Farhan Akhtar's cult classic Dil Chahta Hai which turned out to be a turning point in his career; the film was a commercial and critical success and Khanna's performance was particularly applauded, later validated by first Filmfare Award for Best Supporting Actor in 2002. Also, the film launched both Akshaye Khanna and Saif Ali Khan's careers. In 2002, Khanna appeared in a Abbas-Mustan thriller Humraaz; his role as a convincing con-artist in this film earned him much critical acclaim, and a nomination for a Filmfare Award for Best Performance in a Negative Role. Khanna then plunged into the comedy genre with Priyadarshan's Hungama (2002) and Hulchul (2004) that became box office hits. After acting in a string of unsuccessful and lukewarm box-office films like Shaadi Se Pehle (2006), Aap Ki Khatir (2006), Salaam-e-Ishq: A Tribute to Love (2007), Mere Baap Pehle Aap (2008), Gandhi, My Father (2007), and Naqaab (2007), Khanna appeared in the 2008 release Race. The Abbas-Mustan's thriller was the fourth highest-grossing Bollywood film in 2008 and Khanna's performance in a negative role brought him couple of awards in the Best Villain category. However, Khanna's portrayal of Harilal Gandhi, Mahatma Gandhi's eldest son, in the critically acclaimed 2007 film Gandhi, My Father that is unanimously acknowledged his best performance yet as an actor. In 2010, he starred in Anees Bazmee's No Problem, co-starring with Sanjay Dutt, Anil Kapoor and Kangna Ranaut.[12] His later releases did not fare well at the box office but his performances in Aakrosh (2010) and Tees Maar Khan (2010) were well-received by critics and audiences alike.- Producer
- Writer
- Actor
Rajiv Hari "Akshay Kumar" Om Bhatia was born on September 09, 1967, in Amritsar, Punjab to Aruna Bhatia and Hari Om Bhatia. He is an Indian actor, film producer, former model, and television personality. He went to Bangkok to learn how to use a sword and also worked as a waiter in a restaurant. He studied martial arts in Hong Kong. It was a student who suggested that he should try modeling. Because of his success as model, he was offered films. Along with his good looks and excellent martial art skills, he was always the first choice to do adventurous movies. He does his own stunts in his films. His breakthrough performance was in Saugandh (1991). He was well known for his Khiladi series, an Indian version of James Bond, such as Mr. Bond (1992), Khiladi (1992), Main Khiladi Tu Anari (1994), Mr. & Mrs. Khiladi (1997) and Khiladi 420 (2000). He dated strings of his co-stars including Raveena Tandon, Shilpa Shetty Kundra, Pooja Batra and Rekha. His recent critically acclaimed performances include Airlift (2016), Baby (2015) and Rustom (2016). He is married to former actress and now author Twinkle Khanna with whom he has two children.- Actor
- Producer
- Writer
Amitabh Bachchan was born on October 11, 1942 in Allahabad, British India (present-day Prayagraj, Uttar Pradesh, India) to legendary poet Harivansh Rai Bachchan & Teji Bachchan. He also has a brother named Ajitabh. He completed his education from Uttar Pradesh and moved to Bombay to find work as a film star, in vain though, as film-makers preferred someone with a fairer skin, and he was not quite fair enough. But they did use one of his other assets, his deep baritone voice, which was used for narration and background commentary. He was successful in being cast in Saat Hindustani. He got his break in Bollywood after a letter of introduction from the then Prime Minister Mrs. Indira Gandhi, as he was a friend of her son, Rajiv Gandhi. This is how Bachchan made an entry in Bollywood, starting with Zanjeer, co-starred with his future wife Jaya Bhaduri, and since then there has been no looking back.
He married Jaya Bhaduri, an accomplished actress in her own right, and they had two children, Shweta and Abhishek. Shweta is married, lives a non-filmy life and has two children.
Being friends with Rajiv Gandhi, got him to decide to run for seat in the Indian National Congress (political party) from his home town but had to leave mid-term because of controversies, particularly after Rajiv and he were implicated in the now infamous "Bofors" case along with the U. K. based Hinduja Brothers.
After a four year break, he was back in the unsuccessful Mrityudaata (1997), a comeback which the actor wanted to forget. Critics written him off but his career was saved with Bade Miyan Chote Miyan (1998). But four flops in 1999 and incurring debt of over 90 crore rupees of his sinking company ABCL saw him at an all-time low. To make matters worse, after the defeat of the Congress party, Bachchan lost considerable political support, the opposition made him a target, and his credit rating deteriorated to such an extent that a leading nationalized bank, Canara Bank, sued him for outstanding loans. He did bounce back, presenting the Indian version of Who Wants To Be A Millionaire called Kaun Banega Crorepati? (2000). After a series of hits with Mohabbatein (2000), Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham... (2001) and Baghban (2003) and Khakee (2004), Bachchan is showing no signs of slowing down and proving the critics wrong once again.
Amitabh and Jaya were interested in getting their son Abhishek married to Karisma Kapoor, the daughter of Babita and Randhir Kapoor, they went through a formal engagement, but later broke it off.
The former Miss World and Bollywood actress, Aishwarya Rai and Abhishek, were formally engaged on Sunday January 14, 2007, at the Bachchan residence in Juhu, Bombay, with the marriage taking place at the Bachchan residence on April 20, 2007.
On November 16, 2011, he became a Dada (paternal grandfather) when Aishwarya gave birth to a daughter in a Mumbai Hospital. He is already a Nana (maternal grandfather) to Navya and Agastye - Shweta's children.
He continues to be one of the busiest actors and singers in Bollywood as well as on TV, as can be seen from the commercials that he appears on, especially on Sahara One. Looks like there are no limits for this super-star and once the "Angry Young Man" of Bollywood.- Actor
- Director
- Writer
Amol Palekar is a well-known theatre personality and an acclaimed Indian actor and filmmaker who mainly works in Hindi and Marathi cinema. He has acted in about 50 films in five languages and has directed several feature films and TV shows.
Palekar was born in a lower-middle-class family. His father was employed with the General Post Office, while his mother worked in a private company.
He completed his schooling at Bal Mohan Vidya Mandir in Mumbai. After clearing his SSC exams, he studied fine arts at Sir J. J. School of Art in Mumbai and graduated in 1965. He had to do several "odd jobs" to sustain himself during this period.
After graduation, he worked as a clerk with the Bank of India by day and pursued his passion for painting at night. In 1967, he held his first solo painting exhibition at the Taj Art Gallery. Around this time, he ventured into theatre and started doing stage shows. An opportunity to work in the movies soon followed, and Palekar switched to acting.
Palekar made his acting debut in Bajiraocha Beta (1971), a Marathi film directed by Raja Thakur.
His first Hindi film was Rajnigandha (1974), helmed by Basu Chatterjee. The film went on to become a sleeper hit.
In 1976, he acted in Basu Chatterjee's romantic comedy Chhoti Si Baat (1976). This low-budget coming-of-age film turned out to be a box office hit.
In the same year, he acted in the romantic musical film Chitchor (1976), once again directed by Basu Chatterjee. It marked Palekar's third association with the director. With this film, Palekar scored a hat-trick of hits at the box office, which helped him to carve out a space for himself in the Hindi film industry.
In Gharaonda (1977), helmed by Bhimsain, Palekar played the role of a middle-class man looking for a house in Mumbai.
He essayed a negative role in Shyam Benegal's Bhumika (1977), starring Smita Patil, Naseeruddin Shah, and Anant Nag. The film revolves around an individual's quest for identity and self-fulfilment.
In 1979, Palekar acted in Hrishikesh Mukherjee's comedy film Gol Maal (1979). The story was about a middle-class man's quest to get a job. In this movie, he essayed the roles of Ram Prasad Sharma and Lakshman Prasad Sharma (Lucky), which became a big hit. He won the Filmfare Award for Best Actor in 1980 for Gol Maal.
He played the lead role in Baton Baton Mein (1979), directed by Basu Chatterjee, which was also released in 1979. The film revolves around the protagonist's struggle to get a girlfriend or wife, and it became a commercial and critical success.
In 1986, Palekar appeared in a leading role in the thriller Khamosh (1986), directed by Vidhu Vinod Chopra. Palekar portrayed a fictional version of himself in this movie.
He acted in the supernatural action thriller Aks (2001), helmed by Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra, which starred Amitabh Bachchan, Raveena Tandon, and Manoj Bajpayee. The same year, Palekar married Chitra Palekar in 1969, and the couple divorced in 2001. Later that year, he married Sandhya Gokhale in 2001.
Palekar appeared in Gulmohar (2023), directed by Rahul V. Chittella.
One of his directorial ventures Paheli (2005), starring Shah Rukh Khan and Rani Mukerji, was the official entry of India for the 78th Academy Awards for Best Foreign Language Film.- Actor
- Music Department
- Soundtrack
For Amrish Puri, it was virtually the 'Summer of 42'. The actor's long simmering affair with acting found culmination when he reached his early 40s. And while his dream of playing the hero may have been thwarted, he went on to become the most loved villains of all time. He was also an artiste who redefined the dynamics for character actors. If he wowed the critics with his rough-edged portrayals in the art films of Shyam Benegal and Govind Nihalani, he won over the masala movie buffs with his louder-than-life histrionics. Puri with his reverberating baritone, piercing glance and dramatized dialogue delivery was a formidable figure against the hero. His costumes were all about prolific imagination and his one-liners ranging from, 'Mogambo khush hua' to 'Dong kabhi wrong nahin hota' are now part of cinema glossary. Puri even went ahead and worked in Steven Spielberg's Indiana Jones And The Temple Of Doom and Richard Attenborough's Gandhi, only to return and endorse the diversity that is Bollywood.
But behind the tough facade was a genteel person. "Upright and a true karma-yogi," as son and marine navigator Rajeev Puri describes him. "People from all walks of life loved him - even the police and the politicians." Rajeev adds, "A decade after his demise, some film or the other of his is constantly playing on channels - out of the 350 he did, 200 were hits!" And when people till date come up to him requesting for a photograph because he's the famed Mogambo's (Puri's character in Mr India) son, Rajeev realizes that Mogambo truly is larger than life, in fact beyond it.
Puri graduated from the BM College in Shimla, Himachal Pradesh. Puri was a leader of the RSS youth wing there and that explains why he remained a stickler for discipline and punctuality. In the '50s, he moved to Mumbai and found a job with the Employees' State Insurance Corporation (ESIC). There he met my mother Urmila, a Konkani, and married her. His elder brothers Chaman Puri and Madan Puri were also actors. In fact, we lived with Madanji at Kings Circle for a few years before we shifted to our Santacruz home. Puri passion was acting. He worked during the day and in the evening did amateur theatre with Ebrahim Alkazi, Satyadev Dubey, Vijay Tendulkar and Girish Karnad among others. In fact, Satyadev Dubey and he began Hindi theatre in Mumbai with plays like Hayavadana and Yugati winning him much applause. He became well known as a stage character actor, which led to him doing ads and finally films in the early '70s.
Believe it or not, Amrish Puri wanted to become a Bollywood movie star, but failed a screen test in 1953. And what a failure it was! Mr. Puri, went on to become one of the most renowned and credible villains in the history of Indian cinema. His most memorable and often quoted role is the character of 'Mogambo' (with the catchphrase "Mogambo Khush Hua"). It is still remembered fondly from Mr. India (1987).
On the silver screen, the very first time we felt that times were changing was when dad went to Jaisalmer to shoot Reshma Aur Shera (1971). It was an Ajanta Arts film directed by Sunil Dutt. A lot of new actors were being featured - Raakhee, Amitabh Bachchan, Ranjeet. Puri brought home pictures of the shoot. Puri's son must have been around 12 then and was excited watching them.
Another film, which was to change his life was Girish Karnad's Kannada film Kaadu (1973) where he played the villainous village headman. Girish Karnad handed his Filmfare Best Director trophy to Amrish as a gesture of appreciation. He was then noticed by Shyam Benegal, who featured him in his films Manthan, Nishant and Bhumika through the '70s. He also became part of Govind Nihalani's critically acclaimed films Party, Vijeta, Aakrosh and Ardh Satya. Dad had a flair for roles that betrayed authority and rode the crest of new wave cinema with his earthiness.
In 1980, director Bapu roped in dad to play Duryodhana in Boney Kapoor's Hum Paanch. Soon other filmmakers started offering him villainous roles in commercial films too. After Feroz Khan's Qurbani (1980) there was no looking back.
One film that took him to the acme of his career was Mr India (1987). As the part menacing part comical Mogambo, he won fans across audiences. Mogambo was a favorite with kids because he was a comic-strip like character. At every function he attended, dad was asked to say the Mogambo dialogue. First Amjad Khan as Gabbar Singh in Sholay (1975) and later dad as Mogambo gave villainy a new status. He went on to become the highest paid villain. Earlier character actors were paid paltry sums as compared to the hero.
Puri's career spanned three decades and around 300 films. Among these his favorites remained Koyla, Vidhaata, Pardes, Chachi 420, Ghatak, Ghayal, Damini, Meri Jung and Saza-E-Kala Pani.
Off camera, his children remember their father as someone who was larger than life, someone who was strict but never unreasonable. Someone who urged us to speak the truth. He urged us to follow the three Ps - patience, perseverance and persistence.
Puri was realistic and that's why he insisted that his children seek a secure profession. He once told his son, "See, acting is my first love. I've been polishing my act for years. It took me long to establish myself. There's no need for you to be awed by the profession. You needn't risk your future. You must complete your education." That's why, I joined the Merchant Navy in 1978. I sailed for 11 years. It used to be fun watching his films on the ship.
As an actor he had a great ability to switch on and off. He was not fond of smoking, drinking or parties. His idols were Dilip Kumar, Motilal, Balraj Sahni and Amitabh Bachchan. He worked with Raj Kumar, Dilip saab, Amitji... he was like a student in front of them and had absolutely no ego. Also, a lot of youngsters began their careers with him like Ajay Devgan in Phool Aur Kaante and Shah Rukh Khan in Deewana. He was easy to work with except that he had no patience with people who didn't respect time.
Puri was particular about having nutritious food. He was largely vegetarian but enjoyed fish. He practiced yoga and was an early riser. He was one of the first members of Talwalkars gym in Mumbai. Also, he preserved his vocal chords. He stayed away from fried stuff. He'd just have a piece of sev puri when we insisted. Once he happened to shave off his hair for a Rakesh Kumar film. He was told his personality looked better that way. The bald look appealed to Steven Spielberg, who then offered him Indiana Jones And The Temple Of Doom, where he played Mola Ram. Puri realized that with a shaved head, he could try different get ups. He was well-versed with the art of make-up and wigs. He knew the concentration of hair that a hairpiece for a 50-year-old character or a 60-year-old character would require. He also spent time with the tailors - in fact, directors often asked him to work on his costumes. He'd pick his own ties, bows, shirts for a role. He enjoyed observing people as he drove in his car. He'd keenly watch the hawaldar, the fit of his shirt, how worn out his shoes were which helped him play one in Gardish.
Puri loved watches. He owned all the possible brands. He was intrigued by its technology and the way each piece was assembled. Each time he'd go abroad, he'd visit a showroom and call me up excitedly, "Tikoo (my pet name) I've bought such a handsome looking watch!" Another fascination he had was for Mercedez Benz cars. He'd keep buying the latest editions. His family maintained his 1983 model in showroom condition.
Known for frequently portraying menacing, sadistic villains, Puri received a huge fan mail of around 50 to 60 letters a day. Some fans would constantly sit on the footpath outside our home to catch a glimpse of him. Women also wrote to him. Many were crazy about him. But he was not a young actor. By the time he got recognition he was 45. My mom did feel possessive with all the attention being showered on him. But she understood. He was at an age where he knew what to absorb and what to keep away from. He was cautious. He did have shades of romance in his role opposite Farida Jalal in Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge. That subtle equation suited his age. His female co-stars liked him because he was protective about them. He'd check with the production guys whether they were comfortable or not. While he was being pampered, he wanted them to enjoy those facilities too. He was like a father figure to junior artistes too. He'd call up the producers who defaulted on their payments.
Once they were shooting at Amritsar railway station for Gadar - Ek Prem Katha. Huge crowds had gathered and there was so much noise that the shooting couldn't proceed. Sunny Deol wanted to leave. Dad took over and in his baritone said, "Allow us to do our work. I want pin drop silence!" There was a hush and the shooting resumed.
Shyam Benegal cast him in movies such as Nishant (1975), Bhumika (1977), and Manthan (1976). Yash Chopra cast him in Mashaal (1984), the same year that Steven Spielberg cast him in his best-known role outside of India, as Mola Ram in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984). His elder brother is none other than Bollywood actor Madan Puri.
Guddu Dhanoa's Jaal The Trap for (2003) was shot in Himachal Pradesh. Unfortunately, Puri met with an accident there. He suffered serious injuries on his face and eye. He lost a lot of blood and consequently had to undergo blood transfusion. Something went wrong there because in the coming years, he developed a blood disorder (myelodysplastic syndrome). It began with weakness and reduced appetite. When he came to know about the fatality of his illness he was shaken. But he had an iron will. He wanted to project a strong side to the world. Puri knew that at age 72 there was little that he could repair and that he was ailing. Jo hona hai woh hoga - that was his stance.
Puri was keen to complete the projects on hand, even though he was in pain. His terminal illness was detected in September 2003 and by December 15, 2004, he had finished all his films - Kachchi Sadak, Mujhse Shaadi Kaoroge, Hulchul, Ksna and Aitraaz despite looking emaciated, pale, frail . He was at home for a brief period. But he didn't want to remain bedridden. When asked how he was feeling he'd just say, "Kal se behtar hoon." Then one day he had a fall at home and suffered a massive brain hemorrhage. He passed away in Mumbai on January 12, 2005 due to a brain hemorrhage
Puri had served as the President of Cine and TV Artistes Association for six years before his demise. As a mark of respect the industry remained shut for two days. The whole road from our house in Juhu to the electric crematorium at Shivaji Park was full with people. There were onlookers perched on trees and buildings.
As a tribute to him the Times Of India carried a piece, which was titled, "No guns only roses." People recall his famous dialogue in Pardes, "What's the bottom line?" Well, for me it would be never doing anything that would disappoint him.- Actor
- Director
- Composer
Amjad Khan was a renowned Bollywood actor and film director, widely popular for his performance as Gabbar Singh in Sholay (1975). He went to both R. D. National College and St. Andrew's High School in Bandra.
Khan was the president of the Actors Guild Association and took a keen interest in the matters of the film industry. As a youngster, Khan acted with his father, Jayant, in movies like Nazneen (1951) and Ab Dilli Dur Nahin (1957).
With the film Hindustan Ki Kasam (1973), he first appeared as a professional silver-screen performer. When he played Gabbar Singh in Sholay (1975), he transformed the stereotypical Bollywood bad guy into a new genre icon. Gabbar transformed into him preparing for the role- this has been his most famous role of all time.
In Prakash Mehra's Muqaddar Ka Sikandar (1978), he portrayed the part of Dilawar, a gangster. He was also cast in several other movies, including Shatranj Ke Khilari (1977), Hum Kisise Kum Naheen (1977), Ganga Ki Saugand (1978), Des Pardes (1978), Dada (1979), Chambal Ki Kassam (1980), Naseeb (1981), Satte Pe Satta (1982), and Nastik (1983).
In films like Yaarana (1981) and Laawaris (1981), he portrayed likeable protagonists. In addition to his dramatic roles, he branched out and performed comedic roles in the films Qurbani (1980), Love Story (1981), Chameli Ki Shaadi (1986).
In the Hindi parody film Ramgarh Ke Sholay (1991), helmed by Ajit Dewani, he once again played the part of Gabbar Singh, and the film became an unexpected blockbuster.
He debuted as a director with Chor Police (1983), in which he also co-starred with Parveen Babi, Shatrughan Sinha, Kader Khan, and Shakti Kapoor. His film Ameer Aadmi Ghareeb Aadmi (1985) was released in 1985- it was a great commercial success. He also appeared in a small role in [link= tt0154591 in 1973.
He won the best supporting actor in the BFJA Awards for Sholay in 1976. Apart from that, he won best supporting actor at the Filmfare awards for Dada (1980) and Yaarana (1982). Khan also won best performance in a comedic role at the Filmfare awards for Maa Kasam (1986).- Actor
- Producer
- Music Department
Living in a Chawl in Tilak Nagar, Punjabi-speaking Anil was born in 1959 to Surinder and Nirmal aka Suchitra Kapoor. He has an elder brother, Boney, a sister, Reena, and a younger brother, Sanjay. His dad used to be Shammi Kapoor's Secretary.
A loner, without many friends, he studied in the nearby O.L.P.S. (Our Lady of Perpetual Succor) School, and was an ardent fan of Bollywood flicks that were telecast during the Ganesh Maha Utsav every year. He was a fan of Raj Kapoor, and it was this that influenced his acting, and people saw him as a mimic of the legendary showman. He landed a role as a child artiste with Shashi Kapoor in the lead, but the movie (Tu Payal Main Geet) was never released.
After school, he went to study in St. Xaviers College. He commuted by bus and train from Chembur to Bombay V.T., and the walked the rest of the way. It was here that he met Mazhar Khan. A distracted Anil was kicked out of College in the second year due to his lack of presence. His attempts to join the Pune Film Institute were in vain, as he failed in the written examination. He then decided to join Roshan Taneja's Acting school.
He first appeared on the silver screen in Hamhare Tumhare in a character role. His first lead role was in 'Woh 7 Din' and from thence on there has been no looking back. He has acted in close to a 100 movies, and has 5 in production. He has produced two movies (Gandhi My Father & Badhaai Ho Badhaai), as well as been a Casting Director/Outdoor In charge for 'Hum Paanch'.
Kapoor's first role in an international film was in Danny Boyle's 2008 Academy Award-winning film Slumdog Millionaire, for which he shared the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture. His performance in the eighth season of the action series 24 generated rave reviews from the American press Globally, Anil Kapoor is one of the most recognized Indian actors.
Anil met wealthy and chic model, Sindhi-speaking Sunita Bhambhani, and married her in 1984. Since then they have given birth to 3 children, kapoor has two daughters and a son Harshwardhan Kapoor.Kapoor's elder daughter is actress Sonam Kapoor. Rhea Kapoor attended school in New York and is now a producer in Mumbai.- Actor
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- Director
Annu Kapoor made his debut in the film Mandi directed by Shyam Benegal in 1983.His career has spanned nearly 30 years including a distinctive presence in Bollywood cinema, television serials, and reality game shows. He is best remembered for hosting the singing show Antakshari, produced by ZEE TV. His performance as an obsessive-compulsive Sperm Clinic Doctor in the recently released Vicky Donor has met with a lot of praise from the critics as well as the audience.- Actor
- Producer
- Music Department
Anupam Kher is a renowned Indian actor who has worked extensively in the Indian film industry, as well as in international films and television shows. He is known for his versatile acting skills and has portrayed a wide range of characters throughout his career.
Kher studied at Simla in D.A.V. School and graduated with a degree in Economics from Simla's Himachal Pradesh University. He studied at the Government College, Sanjauli. He left the university mid-way and instead studied the Indian theatre in Chandigarh at Panjab University.
Kher was a part of several plays at Himachal Pradesh University. He took drama classes in Lucknow at Raj Bisaria's Bharatendu Natya Akadem for a small role in Sheeshay Ka Ghar (1984), his debut film.
In 1984, he landed his first role in Bollywood with the film Saaransh (1984). He played the role of a 65-year-old teacher in this film. He went on to work in projects like Tezaab (1988) and Vijay (1988), for which he was awarded the Filmfare Award for Best Supporting Actor.
Kher received public recognition for his performances in movies like Ram Lakhan (1989) and his first Filmfare Award under the Best Performer in a Comic Role category. He also won a Filmfare Critics Award and a National Film Award - Special Mention for his role in Daddy (1989).
In 1990, Kher starred in Dil (1990) and received another Filmfare Best Supporting Actor nomination. He was critically acclaimed for his performance in Lamhe (1991). He won a Filmfare Award as the Best Comedian for his role in the movie.
Kher later appeared in Beta (1992) alongside Madhuri Dixit and Anil Kapoor. In the same year, his role in Khel (1992) earned him another Filmfare Award as the Best Comedian.
Kher went on to star in massive hits like Darr (1993), which got him a Filmfare award as the Best Comedian. In 1994, he appeared in another blockbuster, Laadla (1994).
One of Kher's most successful movies Hum Aapke Hain Koun..! (1994), earned him another nomination as the Best Supporting Actor at Filmfare and was the second movie for which he won the National Film Award, this time under the category Best Popular Film.
Kher's performance in Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge (1995) got him his fifth Filmfare Best Comedian Award and was highly applauded and loved by the audience.
After a gap of almost three years, he made his comeback in yet another blockbuster Kuch Kuch Hota Hai (1998), for which he received the Best Comedian nomination at Filmfare.
Kher also tried his skills in directing with Om Jai Jagadish (2002) and was also the producer. In 2007, Kher collaborated with Satish Kaushik and started Karol Bagh Productions, a film production company. They produced their first movie Teree Sang: A Kidult Love Story (2009), in 2009.
He hosted TV shows like Say Na Something to Anupam Uncle (2000) and The Anupam Kher Show (2014).
Kher has also appeared in international films like Bend It Like Beckham (2002) and Bride & Prejudice (2004).
Kher received the Best Actor Award at the Karachi International Film Festival for his performance in I Did Not Kill Gandhi (2005), which was also produced by him.
His other foreign films were The Mistress of Spices (2005), Lust, Lust, Caution (2007), the TV show ER (1994), Oscar-winning Silver Linings Playbook (2012), and Hotel Mumbai (2018).
He also received a nomination for BAFTA for his supporting role in the British sitcom The Boy with the Topknot (2017).
In 2019, Kher took the role of Manmohan Singh, India's former Indian Prime minister in The Accidental Prime Minister (2019). In 2022, he appeared in the controversial film The Kashmir Files (2022), which was a blockbuster.
Kher was awarded the best actor for his role in a short film titled Happy Birthday (2021) at the New York City International Film Festival. He is a recipient of two National Film Awards, eight Filmfare Awards, two International Indian Film Academy Awards, two Screen Awards India, and five other state/viewer awards.
His handprint was preserved for posterity at Bandra Bandstand in Mumbai as he was honoured by 'Walk of the Stars'. The US state of Texas presented him with the "Honoured Guest" award for his contribution to cinema and art.
He has also been honoured with Civilian Awards like the Padma Shri in 2004 and the Padma Bhushan in 2016 by the Indian Government for his contribution to Indian cinema and arts.
Anupam Kher tied the knot with Kirron Kher, a fellow Indian actress, in 1985. Kher became a stepfather to Kirron's son, actor Sikandar Kher. He was appointed as the goodwill ambassador of the Pratham Education Foundation in 2010, which works to improve the education of children in India. In 2021, Kher received an honorary doctorate degree in Philosophy of Hindu Studies from the Hindu University of America.- Actor
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- Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Arshad Warsi was born on April 19, 1968 in Mumbai, Maharashtra, and did his schooling at a boarding school, Barnes School, Deolali in Nashik district, Maharashtra. He was orphaned at the age of 14 and struggled for a living in Mumbai during his early days. He is an actor, dancer, film producer, television personality, choreographer and playback singer.
Financial circumstances forced Warsi to start work as a door-to-door cosmetics salesman at age 17. Later he worked in a photo lab. Meanwhile, he had a keen interest in dancing and received an offer to join Akbar Sami's Dance group in Mumbai, which started his dancing and choreographing career. He also assisted Mahesh Bhatt in Thikana (1987) and Kaash (1987). Then in 1991, he won the Indian dance competition, followed by the fourth prize in the Modern Jazz category in 1992 World Dance championship, London, at the age of 21. Soon, he started his own dance studio, 'Awesome' with that money and also formed a dance troupe. It was here, his future wife, Maria Goretti, a St. Andrew's College student joined him, before she became a VJ. He was also associated with English theater group in Mumbai, choreographing shows for Bharat Dabholkar and got an opportunity to choreograph the title track for the film, Roop Ki Rani Choron Ka Raja (1993). He made his screen debut with the 1996-film Tere Mere Sapne where he starred opposite Simran & Chandrachur Singh.- Actor
- Producer
- Music Department
The Grandfather & Great Custodian of Indian Motion Pictures!
Ashok Kumar was one of India's most famous actors for over half a century, from before independence to the cusp of the new millennia!
As a young assistant to Bengali film-maker Himanshu Rai, he got his start in acting by accident when he volunteered to substitute for the lead actor, Jeevan Naya (1936), who fell ill before production on the film Achhut Kanya (1936) was to start. Kumar was terrified of acting in the first place, especially opposite lead actress Devika Rani, known as 'the dragon lady' for her smoking, drinking, cursing and legendary hot temper. After finishing shooting, Kumar continued with overseeing the process of the film with editing, mixing and processing. His unexpected acclaim to his role had him in demand for more acting roles, which he pursued in a few more 'Bombay Talkies' with Devika Rani.
His breakthrough performance was in Kismet (1943) which ran for three years in Bombay and Calcutta and was one of the first Hindi language mega-hits of India and gained him national fame through his charismatic performances and his talented singing. From then onwards, Kumar became a sought-after actor who appeared in over 200 Hindi and a few other Indian language films, playing romantic leads or threatening villains and making Rs.300-400 a month during the 1940s and 1950s.
Although his roles gradually decreased to supporting and minor parts as he got older and suffered more ill health, his popularity in India never diminished and he was often in demand for cameos and live convention appearances. From the 1990s to his death, he lived in a comfortable retirement in Bombay with a slew of Indian films to show for his work.- Actor
- Music Department
Ashutosh Rana born in Gadarwara, Madhya Pradesh is an Indian actor working in the Hindi Film and Telugu Film industry. He finished his Primary School education in Gadarwara and used to play the role of ravana in the city Ramleela. Later, he went to National School of Drama (New Delhi) for acting. He started his career with the Television Serial "Swabhimaan" and after that appeared in many serials like Farz, Saazish, Kabhi Kabhi, Waris etc. He started his film career with the movie Dushman", playing a psychopath killer, and after that worked in many films such as Raaz, Haasil, Kasoor, LOC, Ab ke baras, Gunaah.
He is married to the actress Renuka Shahane and has two sons.- Actor
- Music Department
- Composer
Ayushmann Khurrana was born on 14 September 1984 in Chandigarh, India. Ayushmann started off his career as a popular radio jockey, and eventually became a VJ on MTV India and one of the most popular hosts in India. He shot to stardom with the runaway hit, 'Vicky Donor' in 2012. His effortless act in his debut won him rave reviews and the film went on to become one of the biggest hits of the year. The quirky film coupled with some fabulous songs, especially 'Paani da' (sung & co-composed by Khurrana) marked his arrival in the Hindi film industry. He also won a slew of highly prestigious awards in 2012.
A native of Punjab, Ayushmann studied at St. John's High School and DAV College in Chandigarh. He majored in English literature and has a master's degree in Mass Communication from School of Communication Studies, Punjab University, in Chandigarh. He did serious theatre for five years. He was also the founder member of DAV College's "Aaghaaz" and "Manchtantra", which are active theatre groups in Chandigarh. He has conceptualized and acted in street plays, and won prizes in national college festivals like Mood Indigo (IIT Bombay), Oasis (Birla Institute of Technology and Science, Pilani) and St. Bedes Simla. He also won a Best Actor award for playing Ashwatthama in Dharamvir Bharati's Andha Yug.
From theatre to television to the big screen, Ayushmann's progression as an artist has been one of the most organic ones. He followed up his Vicky Donor act with some films where his performances were highly appreciated by the audience and critics alike. Ayushmann simultaneously built his oeuvre as a singer and live performer as well. His three singles - 'O Heeriye,' 'Mitti Di Khushboo,' and the latest, 'Yahin Hoon Main' - have won millions of hearts.- Actor
- Camera and Electrical Department
Ajit Khan was born on 27 January 1922 in Golconda, Hyderabad State, British India. He was an actor, known for Zanjeer (1973), Awara Badal (1964) and Shareef Budmaash (1973). He died on 22 October 1998 in Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh, India.- Actor
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- Director
Balraj Sahni, born in Rawalpindi, British India (present-day Pakistan), was an acclaimed Indian film and stage actor. Known for his powerful and impactful performances, Balraj Sahni became a prominent figure in the golden era of Indian cinema.
Balraj Sahni initially pursued a career in the civil service but eventually found his true calling in acting. He became associated with the Indian People's Theatre Association (IPTA), a leftist cultural organization, where he honed his skills and passion for acting. His association with IPTA marked the beginning of his journey in theater.
Balraj Sahni made his film debut in 1946 with the film "Insaaf," but he gained widespread recognition and acclaim for his role in the film "Do Bigha Zamin" (1953), directed by Bimal Roy. His portrayal of Shambhu Mahato, a poor farmer struggling to save his land, showcased his acting prowess and earned him accolades. The film won the International Prize at the Cannes Film Festival in 1954.
Throughout the 1950s and 1960s, Balraj Sahni delivered memorable performances in films such as "Kabuliwala" (1961), "Waqt" (1965), and "Neel Kamal" (1968). He often played roles that reflected the socio-economic realities of the time, and his ability to bring depth and authenticity to his characters set him apart as one of the finest actors in Indian cinema.
Balraj Sahni's filmography includes a diverse range of roles, from intense and dramatic characters to light-hearted and comedic ones. He collaborated with renowned filmmakers like Bimal Roy, Guru Dutt, and Yash Chopra, leaving an indelible mark on Indian cinema.
Apart from his acting career, Balraj Sahni was also a noted writer and penned several books, including his autobiography "Meri Filmi Aatmakatha" (My Filmy Autobiography).
Balraj Sahni's contribution to Indian cinema was not only recognized within the industry but also by the government. He received the Padma Shri, one of the highest civilian awards in India, in 1969. Unfortunately, Balraj Sahni's life was cut short, and he passed away on April 13, 1973, leaving behind a legacy of remarkable performances and a lasting impact on Indian cinema.- Actor
- Writer
- Producer
Bharat Bhushan, born in Meerut, Uttar Pradesh, India, was a renowned Indian film actor who left an indelible mark on the Bollywood industry during the mid-20th century. Known for his charm, distinctive voice, and impactful performances, Bharat Bhushan became a popular leading actor of his time.
Bharat Bhushan started his acting career on the stage before making his debut in Hindi cinema with the film "Choti Choti Baatein" (1965). However, it was his role in the classic film "Baiju Bawra" (1952) that catapulted him to stardom. In the film, directed by Vijay Bhatt, Bharat Bhushan played the titular character of Baiju, a young musician seeking revenge for his father's death. The film was a massive success and showcased Bharat Bhushan's acting prowess.
"Baiju Bawra" marked the beginning of Bharat Bhushan's successful career in the 1950s and 1960s. He starred in a series of hit films, including "Mirza Ghalib" (1954), where he portrayed the legendary poet, Mirza Ghalib, with finesse. His ability to bring depth and authenticity to historical and romantic characters made him a sought-after actor during that era.
Despite facing challenges later in his career with the changing dynamics of the film industry, Bharat Bhushan continued to act in films like "Barsaat Ki Raat" (1960) and "Bees Saal Baad" (1962). However, his popularity waned over time.
In addition to his acting career, Bharat Bhushan was known for his melodious singing voice, and he lent his voice to a few songs in some of his films. He also explored filmmaking, directing and producing the film "Bahu" (1955).
Bharat Bhushan received accolades for his contributions to Indian cinema, including the Filmfare Award for Best Actor for his performance in "Bees Saal Baad." Despite facing ups and downs in his career, he remains a respected figure in the history of Bollywood cinema.
Bharat Bhushan passed away on January 27, 1992, leaving behind a legacy of memorable performances and a significant impact on Indian cinema during its golden era.- Actor
- Music Department
- Director
Boman Irani is an Indian actor, voice artist, screenplay mentor and photographer. As an actor, he works primarily in Hindi cinema and theatre. He joined theatre in his late 30's and moved to on-screen acting in 2000. Irani gained attention for his role in the 2003 comedy-drama, Munna Bhai M.B.B.S and has not looked back ever since. He received several awards and tremendous acclaim for his performance in blockbusters such as Lage Raho Munna Bhai, 3 Idiots, Main Hoon Na, Housefull, Don 2, Happy New Year and more. He recently launched his production house Irani Movietone and he mentors budding writers under his writing workshop, Spiral Bound.- Actor
- Writer
- Producer
Danny, who married Gawa Denzongpa, a Sikkimese princess and niece of the last chogyal from her hometown of Gangtok, currently resides in Juhu in Mumbai. He likes to listen to Nepali folk music especially Nepali flutes. In recent times he has become more selective as to the roles he plays. He does not work in March, April, and May as they are hot. The movies he chooses, he works on his own terms. He has a son named Rinzing and a daughter named Pema. His brother owns a bouj and beer factory in Melli, Sikkim.- Actor
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- Producer
Dara Singh Randhawa (Born Deedar Singh Randhawa, Nov 19, 1928- 12 July 2012 ) was an Indian Wrestler, Film and Television Actor, Director, Producer and Member of Parliament. He was encouraged to take up pehelwani since an early age. He started his wrestling career in Singapore in 1949 and Films in 1952. He hails from the village of Dharmuchak in Amritsar, Punjab. In July 2012, He suffered a cardiac arrest and eventually died on July 12, at his home in Mumbai. He was cremated at Juhu Crematorium with a funeral service attended by thousands In 2019, A statue was erected in his honour at Phase 6, Mohali, Punjab next to his Film Studio, Dara Studio.
Films and TV- Dara started his film career in 1952 with Sangdil and went on to do between 150-200 films and TV serials. He was a part of two national award winning Punjabi Films, Jagga and Mai Maa Punjab Dee. He established Punjab's first film Studio, Dara Studio.
Family- Dara has 6 Children. 1 from his first marriage and 5 from his second.
Wrestling- Dara left studies at an early age to work on his family farm and wrestled locally. He went to Singapore for work in 1949 on board the SS Rajula and had his first international kushti win at Jakarta, Indonesia in the same year. He earlier worked at a Drum Manufacturing plant and later as a security personnel, before doing wrestling full time. During this time he dabbled between Kushti, Freestyle Wrestling and Pro wrestling. He went on to win Champion of Malaysia, Indian Style (1951). This cemented his name which eventually made him rise up in the professional and freestyle wrestling ring, leading him to Rustom-E-Hind (1954), Champion of Commonwealth (1959), Rustom-E-Punjab (1966), World Champion (1968) and NWA Canadian Open Tag Team Championship, earning him a spot in Wrestling Observer Newsletter's Hall of Fame (1996) and WWE Hall of Fame. (2018).
Biographies- His auto-biography is titled Meri Aatamkatha. (Original Language- Punjabi) His biography Deedara! aka Dara Singh is written by Seema Sonik Alimchand
He is also the subject of a comic book, Journey of the Great Dara Singh, launched in 2019 at Mumbai Comic-Con.- Deepak Dobriyal (born 1 September 1975) is an Indian film and theatre actor. he was born in Pauri Garhwal district in Uttarakhand. His parents are from Kabra village near Rithakhal and Satpuli village, Pauri Garhwal in Uttarakhand. There, Deepak completed his studies at Govt. Boys Senior Secondary School Begumpur. In Delhi, he lived in Katwariya Saray.
He started his acting career in 1994 with eminent theatre director Arvind Gaur. His major plays with Gaur are Tughlaq, Andha Yug, Final Solutions, Desire Under the Elms, Rakt Kalyan, Court Martial, Dario Fo's Operation Three Star, The Caucasian Chalk Circle, The Good Person of Szechwan, Neil Simon's The Good Doctor and Ashok Lal's Ek Mamooli Aadmi. After six years with Asmita theatre, he joined Act One with director Pt. N. K. Sharma. He acted in Aao Saathi Sapna Dekhen, Hamaar Baabuji ki chhattri and Aksar Maine Socha Hai.
He has received recognition for his role in Omkara as "Rajju" and as a side-kick to the protagonist "Pappi" in Tanu Weds Manu (2011), a role he reprised in 2015 sequel Tanu Weds Manu: Returns and again received critical acclaims. - Actor
- Producer
- Director
One of the most beloved, charismatic and accomplished actors as well as one of the most imaginative and pathbreaking directors in the history of Indian cinema, Dev Anand was a leading man for more than five decades in over 110 motion pictures and continues to bestride Indian film fraternity even after his passing. He gave a new dimension to that magical state known as Stardom. And for his exemplary work he was awarded the Padma Bhushan in 2001 by the President of India. From the time he embarked on his career as a Film Actor in the mid-forties till his demise, his movies had been a journey filled with enriching experiences for the 'Evergreen Living Legend' of Indian Cinema. And he had always remained eternally youthful by his remarkable ability to live always in the present and the future; never in the past.
Also, as head of his film production company Navketan International Films, which was founded in 1949, Anand introduced a multitude of talent to the Indian Film Industry by way of actors, directors, music composers and cinematographers. He introduced new talent to cinema and experimented with new ideas for movies. He also headed one of the finest Film Sound Post-Production facilities in India - Anand Recording Studios - which has to its credit more than 3,000 Indian feature films that have been mixed/ surround mixed for worldwide release.
Anand won two Filmfare Awards - India's equivalent of the Oscars - in 1958 for his performance in the film "Kala Paani" (Black Water) and in 1966 for his performance in Navketan International Films' "Guide". "Guide" went on to win Filmfare Awards in five other categories including 'Best Film' and 'Best Director' and was sent as India's entry for the Oscars in the foreign film category that year. He co-produced the English Version of "Guide" with the Nobel Laureate Pearl S. Buck ("The Good Earth"). Eventually, his creative sensibilities got the better of him and he started writing and directing his own movies.
In 1993, he received a Filmfare 'Lifetime Achievement Award' and in 1996 he received a Screen Videocon 'Lifetime Achievement Award'. Then in 1997 he was given the Mumbai Academy of Moving Images Award for his Outstanding Services to the Indian Film Industry. In 1998, he was given a 'Lifetime Achievement Award' by the Ujala Anandlok Film Awards Committee in Calcutta. In 1999, he received the Sansui 'Lifetime Achievement Award' for his 'Immense Contribution to Indian Cinema' in New Delhi. In the year 2000, he was awarded the Film Goers' 'Mega Movie Maestro of the Millenium' Award in Mumbai. And then in July 2000, in New York City, he was honored by an Award at the hands of the then First Lady of the United States of America - Mrs. Hillary Rodham Clinton - for his 'Outstanding Contribution to Indian Cinema'. And again Anand was awarded the Indo-American Association 'Star of the Millennium' Award in the Silicon Valley, California. The President of India honored Anand with the prestigious Padma Bhushan Award on India's Republic Day - January 26th, 2001. And yet again, Donna Ferrar, Member New York State Assembly, honored him with a New York State Assembly Citation for his 'Outstanding Contribution to the Cinematic Arts Worthy of the Esteem and Gratitude of the Great State of New York' on May 1st, 2001.
Most recently, in April 2003, Anand was given a 'Lifetime Achievement Award' by the F.I.F.A. Committee in Johannesburg, South Africa. For an Indian Movie Icon who has hobnobbed with royalty, heads of State and celebrities, he did it all.
Anand passed away on December 3rd, 2011 in London's Washington Hotel, aged 88.
There are some who might remember Anand for not hanging his boots at the right time like his rival Dilip Kumar. But for millions of his admirers, both India and overseas, he shall remain the embodiment of someone who just never learnt to give up and being one of the pivotal figures who shaped the destiny of Indian Cinema in its formative years post independence and with his peerless intellect combined with his killer good looks gave it a footing on the map of world.- Actor
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Dharmendra is one of the biggest stars of Indian cinema. Dharmendra Deol played the romantic hero in woman Cedric films from 1960-1968 and became romantic hero from 1968-69 and played the role of action hero from 1971-1997. Dharmendra has appeared in 306 films.
He is known as 'Garam' Dharam in Bollywood. Had the looks of a real gentle man, masculine body of a he-man and when it came to his films, he had a very humorous touch in his dialog-delivery and the timing.
Dharmendra's original name is Dharam Singh Deol. He was born in a Jat Sikh family in Phagwara in Kapurthala district in the Indian state of Punjab to Kewal Kishan Singh Deol and Satwant Kaur. He spent his early life in village Sahnewal and studied at Government Senior Secondary School at Lalton Kalan, Ludhiana. He did his intermediate from Ramgarhia College, Phagwara in 1952.
The heroics in his films - Phool Aur Patthar (1966), Jugnu (1973), Raja Jani (1972) and Loafer (1973) - are all quite remarkable and unforgettable. He got nominated for Filmfare best actor 4 times in his career though he couldn't get one but got "The Life Time Achievement" award in 1997 from Filmfare for his achievements, splendid performance during his times and wonderful career in Bollywood. Dharmendra was fond of movies from a young age. He participated in the Filmfare new talent contest, which he won and came to Mumbai from Punjab looking for work. He made his debut with Arjun Hingorani's Dil Bhi Tera Hum Bhi Tere (1960). After which he got supporting roles in the film Boy Friend (1961) and was cast as the romantic interest in several woman oriented films from 1960-1967, where the story revolved around the heroine's character and, he was usually cast as a romantic hero opposite senior established leading actress of the time and later, from 1974 on-wards, as an action hero. His major breakthrough was playing supporting role to hero Rajendra Kumar in Aaye Milan Ki Bela, where his character was negative and supporting role in patriotic film Haqeeqat (1964) and playing romantic interest in woman oriented films from 1960-1967 and playing supporting roles to Balraj Sahni, Ashok Kumar, Biswajit in some films from 1960-67 like Soorat Aur Seerat, Bandini, Mamta, Ghar Ka Chirag.His sensitive side was explored by Hrishikesh Mukherjee in Anupama (1966) and Satyakam (1969), the latter is considered one of the best performances of his career. He got solo hero stardom with the blockbuster, Phool Aur Patthar (1966), which was his first action film but he became established action hero from 1971 film Mera Gaon Mera Desh. He projected himself as romantic hero with films like Pyar Hi Pyar, Aaya Sawan Jhoom Ke, Mere Humdum Mere Dost and Aaye Din Bahar Ke. He cemented his image as action hero with successful films like Seeta Aur Geeta (1972), Raja Jani (1972), Jugnu (1973), Kahani Kismat Ki and Yaadon Ki Baarat (1973). Dharmendra formed a popular onscreen pair with Hema Malini who later became his second wife. Hema Malini was the biggest female star of 1970s and they went on to star in hits such as Tum Haseen Mein Jawan, Sharafat (1970), Seeta Aur Geeta (1972), Raja Jani (1972), Jugnu (1973), Pratiggya (1975), Sholay (1975), Charas (1976), Azaad(1977), Dillagi (1978), among many others. Dharmendra proved his versatility and comic timing through Pratiggya, Chupke Chupke and Sholay. In Ramesh Sippy's Sholay (1975) he shared screen space with Amitabh Bachchan, Sanjeev Kumar and Amjad Khan and is still remembered for his inimitable portrayal of Veeru. His best romantic pairing was with the actress Asha Parekh with whom he had 5 hits - Shikhar, Aaya Sawan Jhoom Ke, Aaye Din Bahar Ke, Samadhi and Mera Gaon Mera Desh. His next best pairing was with Hema Malini, with whom he did 35 films of them 31 had them as a leading romantic pair and Dharam Hema had 20 hits and 15 flops. Dharm Hema married in 1980 and Dharm-Hema have 2 children together, Esha and Ahana and he has two sons, Sunny Deol and Bobby Deol from previous marriage with Prakash Kaur.
Often in 1960's till 1971 he played the romantic lead opposite female leading ladies in woman oriented films where the female protagonist's role overshadowed his roles with Dharam playing only supporting role in these films opposite Meena Kumari, Nutan, Mala Sinha, Sharmila Tagore. Phool Aur Paththar was the turning point in his career and established him as an action hero and as a solo lead hero.Artistically and popularity wise his peak period was the 1971-1979 where he did multi star as well as solo hero films in action and comedy genres and when his performances was appreciated by critics as well as audiences. Critics panned every film he did from 1985-2002 with exception being critically acclaimed films Burning Train, Ali Baba Aur 40 Chor, Jhutha Sach, Dharm Aur Qanoon, Rajput and Ghulami. He was the 2nd highest paid actor along with Vinod Khanna in Hindi films from 1976-1982 and Dharam alone was 3rd highest paid Hindi actor from 1987-1993 of A grade Hindi Films.
In the early 70s, Dharmendra became the first Indian actor to be voted among the most handsome men in the world. Through the 70s and 80s, Dharmendra worked with some of the biggest names in B'town such as Bimal Roy, Yash Chopra, Raj Khosla, Ramesh Sippy, Rajkumar Santoshi, Hrishikesh Mukherjee and Basu Chatterji. In 1983, Dharmendra diversified into production and launched his elder son Sunny in 'Betaab', which was produced by his banner Vijayta Films and was a huge hit. in 1990, he produced Ghayal starring Sunny Deol in lead. The film was the second biggest hit of the year and won 7 Filmfare Awards including Best Film award and the coveted National Film Award for Best Popular Film Providing Wholesome Entertainment. He would later go on to launch the successful careers of his younger son Bobby in 'Barsaat'(1995) and nephew Abhay Deol in 'Socha Na Tha'(2005) under the banner. He has also periodically made films in his native tongue of Punjabi, starring in Kankan De Ole (Special Appearance) (1970 ), Do Sher (1974), Dukh Bhanjan Tera Naam (1974), Teri Meri Ik Jindri (1975), Putt Jattan De (1982) and Qurbani Jatt Di (1990).
His commercial hits from 1981 included Ram Balram, Professor Pyarelal, Kaatilon Ke Katil, Naukar Biwi Ka, Jaani Dost, Samraat, Bhaghavat, Raaj Tilak, Jaagir, Qayamat, Insaaf Kaun Karega, Insaniyat Ke Dushman, Loha, Sone Pe Suhaga, Mardo Wali Baat, Khatron Ke Khiladi, Nafrat Ki Anandi, Batwara and Elaan E Jung. His film Hukumat in 1987 was highest grossing film of that year. He continued to be strong in 1990s as the best action hero even stronger than Sunny Deol, Sanjay Dutt and Jackie Shroff. His commercial hits in 1990s included Veeru Dada, Naka Bandi, Farishtay, Tehalka, Kshatriya, Maidan E Jung and Dharma Karma.
The low brow action films directed by likes of Kanti Shah damaged his action career in late 90s. Dharmendra was nominated 4 times for Best Actor Award at Filmfare Awards but never won. He was honored with Lifetime Achievement Award by Filmfare in 1997. He made a comeback to A grade films with a role in Pyar Kiya Toh Darna Kya (1998). He joined politics and was elected as a Member of the Parliament in the 2004 general elections, from Bikaner in Rajasthan, on a Bharatiya Janata Party ticket. He returned to acting in 2007 with films Life in a... Metro and Apne were acclaimed and successful. In the latter, he appears with both his sons, Sunny and Bobby for the first time. His other release was Johnny Gaddaar, where he played a villainous role. In 2011, he starred alongside his sons again in Yamla Pagla Deewana released on 14 January 2011 and was a success. A sequel Yamla Pagla Deewana 2 was released in 2013. His also acted with his daughter Esha in his wife Hema Malini's directorial venture Tell Me O Khuda in 2011. In 2011, Dharmendra replaced Sajid Khan as the male judge of the third series of popular reality show India's Got Talent. Dharmendra's first marriage was to Prakash Kaur at the age of 19 in 1954. From his first marriage, he has two sons, Sunny Deol and Bobby Deol both successful actors, and two daughters, Vijayta Deol Gill and Ajeeta Deol. He has 4 grand sons named Karan, Rajvir, Aryaman, and Dharam. Dharmendra fell in love with Hema Malini during the filming of Sholay. She eventually married him in 1980. As the Hindu Marriage Act forbade polygamy, he converted to Islam in 1979 to avoid protests and give legitimacy to his second marriage. The couple has two daughters, Esha Deol and Ahana Deol. Esha is an actress and Ahana is a dancer. Dharmendra has received several honors for his contribution to cinema and was awarded India's third highest civilian honor Padma Bhushan by the Government of India in 2012.- Actor
- Writer
- Director
Dilip Kumar (1922-2021) is widely considered the greatest acting exponent India ever produced. Born Muhammad Yusuf Khan on December 11, 1922, in Qissa Khwani Bazaar, Peshawar, British India (present-day Pakistan), he is better known by his stage name Dilip Kumar given to him by actress and owner of Bombay Talkies, Devika Rani. Credited with pioneering method acting in Indian cinema in mid-1940s, before Marlon Brando introduced it to Hollywood in 1950s, he has been often called as "Abhinay Samrat" (Hindi for "Emperor of Acting") by the audience. He was the biggest Indian star since Post-Independence period throughout 1960s, starring in some of the biggest commercial and critical successes of Indian cinema. It is to be noted that according to major trade analysts, many of his big commercial successes were films with apparently no commercial/entertainment value, which relied heavily on his histrionics to succeed, an extremely rare feat in the annals of cinema worldwide. Box Office India quoted that any such an instance has never happened with any other star, as their films had to be backed by at least few commercial elements/genres to succeed. Irrfan Khan, while saying that Kumar is the only one who should be called "legend", justifiably quoted the reason as, "the combination of artiste and star that he brought, started and ended with him."
Born to a fruit merchant, Lala Ghulam Sarvar Khan and his wife Ayesha Begum, Yousuf Khan and his family would migrate to Bombay Province, to expand their family business in 1930s which had come to a halt due to the complications of WWII. He had his schooling in Deolali and graduation in Mumbai. He started with managing a shop and selling fruits in an army canteen in Pune. Upon a rebellion in the canteen during Indian National Movement, he gave a speech justifying India's struggle for Independence, which resulted in his eviction from the canteen. A chance encounter with Devika Rani, got him opportunity to work for Bombay Talkies, at remuneration of Rs 1250/- per month. Having no clear intention of working there, he still accepted the job because of the high salary. Kumar later accepted that by the age of 14, he hadn't watched a film, and later in his teenage, watched few English films. Devika Rani selected Dilip Kumar as his stage name (a common tradition back then) from the 3 names suggested by Pandit Bhagvati Charan Verma, which also included Vasudev and Jehangir. Kumar in 1970, in an interview told that, one of the main reason, he agreed to adopt a stage name was out of fear of his father, who was strictly against films due to their poor reputation among the masses at the time. He further said that on being offered to choose among the three names, he expressed that he was okay with any of them. Later, he got to know his stage name, when it was first published in a newspaper.
Kumar's first film as an actor was Jwara Bhata (1944), which was the 6th highest grossing Hindi film of the year, according to some sources, though not really profitable. His performance was severely criticized by the major critic of the time, Baburao Patel of FilmIndia. Similarly the next venture, Pratima (1945) was also flop and his work again criticized. The next venture, Milan (1946), directed by Nitin Bose, proved to be fruitful for Kumar, not only because it was successful commercially, but his acting sensibilities greatly improved during the period of its filming. However his performance was still criticized by FilmIndia. The success of the next film Jugnu (1947), which was the highest grossing Indian film of the year, established him as the first star of Post-Independence India and arguably, the biggest star of the country at that moment. His performance was appreciated by Baburao Patel for the first time. However, he severely criticized the film, writing a letter to the then Home Minister (who later went on to become Prime Minister under Janata Dal in 1977), Moraji Desai, asking him to ban the film. It was banned for a few months, after which the ban was uplifted. The film, already a roaring success, became an even bigger hit, after it was re-released. The period starting from here till at least 1961, was a period of raging success in Kumar's career, both critically and commercially, which cemented his legacy notch above his contemporaries. Post 1961, the workload slowed, with fewer releases thereafter and also slowed their commercial success, although his earlier films still doing great in re-releases, many times higher than many of his contemporaries' fresh releases. During this period, his two main contemporaries were Raj Kapoor and Dev Anand. The three of them were sometimes referred collectively as "the golden trio" of this period, with camaraderie between the three contemporary actors famous and each renowned for their own style.
Shaheed (1948) is cited by many to be the first true Dilip Kumar film, in the sense his legacy was to be built on performances like this in the years to come. It was a roaring success, highest grossing Hindi film of the year. Andaz (1949), a record grosser at the time, starring Nargis and Raj Kapoor along with Kumar, popularized the theme of love triangles in Indian cinema. His performance in the film was superlatively appreciated by masses and critics alike. Baburao Patel's review headline read "Dilip Kumar draws crowd to cinemas". His dramatic performances in the next films till early 1950s, brought him the title of "Tragedy King". These intense performances, in which he immersed himself, had an adverse affect on his psyche. He consulted psychiatrists in London, who advised him to take up lighter roles. Interestingly, almost all of his lighter roles starting from Aan (1952) and Aazad (1955) were huge commercial successes. His performance in these roles were appreciated by masses and critics alike. Aan (1952) was the highest grossing Indian film ever at the time both in India and overseas. Post Aan, Kumar's popularity again took a big leap, establishing him as undisputedly the biggest star of the country. Devdas released on 30 December, 1955 is considered one of the most iconic performance of his career. Although a moderate success when initially released, the film found greater success in subsequent years though re-releases, making it amongst the most popular role essayed by Kumar. All three Andaz (1949), Aan (1952) and Naya Daur (1957) briefly became the highest grossing Indian film upto that point, a feat later achieved by Kumar's Mughal-e-Azam (1960) in which he essayed the role of Prince Saleem (amongst his most popular roles), a record it held for 15 years. By adjusting for inflation, it is still the Highest-grossing Indian film of all time, as of 2022.
The decade 1950s was the most prolific decade of Kumar's career, with 21 releases of which only 1 film, namely Hulchul (1951) failed commercially. 5 (or even 6) of his films were placed in top 10 highest grossers of the decade by Box Office India. Similarly 9 (or even 10) of his 21 releases were placed among the top 30 highest grossers of the decade. The period from late 1940s to early 1960s is often referred to as the "Golden Age of Hindi cinema and music". The 1950s decade is also important in terms of popularising cinema and filmi music in India and establishing it as a part of popular culture. The decade also saw the rise of stars (in true sense), commercialisation of industry as well as rise in the number of theatres. Kumar was the representative of this period, holding the status of a matinée idol and the country's highest paid actor.
Gunga Jumna released on 6 Jan, 1961, few months after the release of Mughal-e-Azam (1960) and Kohinoor (1960), represents the peak of Kumar's career both as an actor and star. His performance as robust and defiant Gunga is considered by many to be the greatest acting performance in the history of Indian cinema. It won him international laurels. His performance was profoundly appreciated by actors in the West. The film set the template for the "Angry Young Man" films starring Bachchan in 1970s and the theme of brothers on the opposite side of the law. After Gunga Jumna (1961), Kumar's workload slowed significantly, his next venture Leader (1964), failed to be a big commercial success. It did mediocre business. Next film Dil Diya Dard Liya (1966) is the first flop film of Kumar in over 15 years. Ram aur Shyam (1967) is the last big hit of Kumar's first innings (as an actor) in Hindi cinema. It was his first double role film and popularized "double role" and "lost and found" films in mainstream Indian cinema. 1970s saw Kumar's career as a lead actor take a downturn. Age was becoming a factor, and the onset of new stars further convinced Kumar to take a hiatus. Out of his 4 Hindi films released in 1970s, Gopi (1970) was the only clean box office hit. As per the new reports of Box Office India, Bairaag (1976), is either "Hit" or "Semi-Hit". In 1970, he acted in his only Bengali film, Sagina Mahato (which also has a Hindi version, Sagina released in 1974, starring Kumar). The film was reportedly a huge success in Bengal. He won BFJA (Bengal Film Journalist Associations) award for Best Actor for his performance in the film. In 1976, he took a five-year hiatus aligning on the above mentioned reasons.
He returned to the big screen playing the title role of Kranti (1981), the highest grossing Indian film of the decade, when adjusted for inflation. In this phase of his career, he played senior, mature roles who were the main characters of the films. Films were specifically written for him which also starred other actors playing young roles. Films like Kranti (1981), Vidhaata (1982), Karma (1986), and Saudagar (1991) were among the biggest hits of the time and all driven by him despite playing senior roles, a feat that had remained unprecedented even after him as per trade analysts. Some other films also found average success, including Shakti (1982), which starred Kumar along with Amitabh Bachchan in the lead roles. The film won him his last Filmfare Award for Best Actor. His next venture after Saudagar (1991) was the commercially unsuccessful Qila (1998), which also turned out to be his last. He retired from film industry in 1999.
Kumar had been involved in many relationships including Kamini Kaushal, with whom he fell in love on the sets of Shaheed (1948). Their relationship fell apart as Kaushal was married to her brother-in-law after her sister-in-law died in a car accident. Reportedly she married on the insistence of her family to look after the little children of her sister-in-law. His next relationship was with Madhubala, which started on the sets of Tarana (1951). It was a seven year long relationship that ended after the Naya Daur court case in which Kumar sided with the producer B.R. Chopra and testified against Madhubala's father, Ataullah Khan as he declined her to travel to the planned shooting locations at the last moment. However Kumar in his autobiography cites another reason that played an important role in the fallout; Madhubala's father insisted him to act only under his own banner after their marriage. In 1966, he married actress Saira Banu in a private ceremony. Their marriage survived for over 50 years until Kumar's death in 2021-despite undergoing an upheaval-Kumar's alleged second marriage with Asma Rehman in 1981, whom he met at a cricket match in Hyderabad, where she lived. He soon divorced her in 1983, describing this incident as a "grave mistake taken in pressure" in his autobiography.
Kumar died on 7 July 2021, due to kidney complications and other age related issues. He had no children through his marriage. At the time of his death he was survived by his wife Saira Banu.
As of 2022, he holds the record for winning 8 Filmfare awards for Best Actor ( later equalled by Shah Rukh Khan) and was also the inaugural recipient of the award. He has also won numerous other awards including Dadasaheb Phalke award in 1994. He is the recipient of Padma Vibhushan (in 2015) and Padma Bhushan (in 1991), India's second and third highest civilian honour respectively. He is also the only Indian recipient of Pakistan's highest civilian honour, Nishan-e-Imtiaz (in 1998). As of 2021, he holds the Guinness World record for having received the most awards by an Indian actor.
He holds several long standing box office records including giving at least 1 clean hit for 15 years straight, which is at least an Indian record, according to a trade analyst. Since independence till late 2010s, he held the record for giving the maximum number of highest grossing film of the year, 9 times which was then surpassed by Salman Khan. However as per latest Box Office India reports, highest grossing Indian film of 1991 was Kumar's Saudagar (1991) and not Salman Khan's Saajan (1991), thus perhaps re-establishing his long standing record. In regards to his films' success ratio, he is the most successful Bollywood actor (quite possibly, Indian actor) of all time, by a distance, as of 2022. These gigantic records, his overwhelming popularity across Indian subcontinent, North Africa, Eastern Europe, and beyond, especially among South Asian diaspora around the world, makes him easily among the biggest stars cinema has ever seen across the globe. He famously turned down David Lean's offer of the role which ultimately went to Omar Sharif in one of West's greatest critical and commercial success, Lawrence of Arabia (1962), which made a major Hollywood star out of Sharif. Justifying his decision, Dilip Kumar had remarked, "In your own bazaar you enjoy a certain status. What's the point of venturing out into fields unknown where you have no say? No contact with the subject matter." He was also considered for a role in another film Lean was working on, titled "Taj Mahal". Elizabeth Taylor was supposed to play the part opposite Kumar. However, the project was eventually shelved.
According to many, he is probably the first person to perform method acting on screen in mid 1940s. Despite not knowing what it meant by then, he had been practising it since a time when, perhaps, the term wasn't even coined. Kumar, who never went to any acting school, was described by the renowned filmmaker Satyajit Ray as "the ultimate method actor", despite not having worked with him. There are innumerable such complements by numerous luminaries across professions to quote, which is quite not possible; from the likes of the recent statement by Indian born naturalised British economist Lord Meghnad Desai, claiming Kumar to be the greatest actor on global scale to age old statements like the one by, V. Shantaram, one of founding fathers and pioneers of Indian cinema, prompted by Kumar's versatility expressed, "Had Shakespeare met Dilip Kumar, he would have added one more character to the already well-defined ones he had created." Most importantly, Dilip Kumar's complete impact is realized definitely in the fact how he changed the rules of acting and influenced generations of future artistes in Indian subcontinent (even his contemporaries), but also in the truth that at his best, he was the catalyst in expanding the reach of quality cinema, from metros to rural India, from classes to masses, from serious connoisseurs to common entertainment seekers. Some of the greatest critical successes became some of the biggest hits when he acted in them, liked, revered and celebrated by classes and masses alike. His intense, in-depth performances, eloquent silences and the most nuanced expressions observed and enjoyed and celebrated at the same time by the most casual entertainment seekers of his time. There have been some great artistes across the history. And there have been some huge stars across the history. But the instance of both of them being a single entity, elevating and expanding the art form to an even greater point, is true, an extremely rare sight, but equally magical while it lasts.- Actor
- Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Emraan Hashmi (born 24 March 1979) is an Indian film actor who appears in Hindi language films. Through his successful career, Hashmi has received three Filmfare Award nominations and has established himself as one of the most popular and highest-paid actor of Hindi cinema.
Hashmi was born and raised in Mumbai. After graduating from the University of Mumbai, he worked as an assistant director for the 2002 horror film Raaz (2002) before pursuing a career in acting. The following year, he made his acting debut with a leading role in the crime thriller Footpath (2003), a moderate box-office success. By 2004, Hashmi had established him as one of the leading actor of Hindi cinema with roles in the successful like Zeher (2005), Aashiq Banaya Aapne (2005), Aksar (2006) and Gangster (2006), His other critically and commercially successful films. However, he followed these by starring in a series of films that under-performed at the box office, although his performance in the romantic drama Awarapan (2007) was praised.
The year 2008 marked a turning point for Hashmi when he played conman in the crime drama Jannat: In Search of Heaven... (2008). He subsequently received wide critical recognition for portraying unconventional characters in several commercially successful films, including the horror thriller Raaz: The Mystery Continues (2009), the biographical drama The Dirty Picture (2011), the psychological thriller Murder 2 (2011), the romantic comedy Dil Toh Baccha Hai Ji (2011), the crime thriller Jannat 2 (2012), the horror thriller Raaz 3 (2012) , and the supernatural thriller Ek Thi Daayan (2013). Hashmi's acclaimed performances in the action thriller Once Upon a Time in Mumbaai (2010) and the political thriller Shanghai (2012) garnered him two Best Supporting Actor nominations at the Filmfare Awards. He also received praise for his role in the 2015 drama Hamari Adhuri Kahani (2015).
Hashmi is a part of the Bhatt family, which includes members that have had careers in the Bollywood industry as producers, actors, film directors, and writers. The Bhatt family began working in the film industry in the 1930s and continues into the 2020s. Hashmi joined the Bhatt family when his grandmother Purnima's sister Shirin Banu became the partner of Nanabhai Bhatt, the patriarch of the Bhatt family. Shirin Banu was the mother of director Mahesh Bhatt and producer Mukesh Bhatt, making both of them Hashmi's uncles. Shirin Banu was also the grandmother of actresses Pooja Bhatt and her step sister Alia Bhatt, making both of them Hashmi's cousins.
In addition to being a part of the Bhatt family, Hashmi is also a part of the Varma family, which includes members that have had careers in the Bollywood industry as producers, distributors, actors, film directors, writers and film editors. The Varma family began working in the film industry in the late 1940s and continues into the 2020s. Hashmi joined the Varma Family when his grandmother Purnima married Bhagwan Das Varma, a founder of Varma Films and a patriarch of the Varma family.- Producer
- Writer
- Art Director
An accomplished and award-winning producer-director-writer-actor-singer, Farhan Akhtar is the ultimate Bollywood multi-hyphenate. Born in 1974 to prolific Indian film writer and poet, Javed Akhtar and writer-director, Honey Irani , Farhan was raised in an environment where creativity and originality of thought were encouraged. This has made him a maverick whose films reflect refreshingly new content that easily strikes a chord with filmgoers.
In 1999, Farhan collaborated with Ritesh Sidhwani, a friend who shared his passion for good cinema, to form Excel Entertainment, a production banner that has become synonymous with excellence in film-making.
Debuting at the age of 26, as a writer, director, and producer with Dil Chahta Hai (2001) a coming-of-age film that has gained cult status, Farhan came to be lauded for his honest, path-breaking writing and his ability to extract mature performances from his cast. The film won Farhan his first National Award for 'Best Hindi Feature Film' along with Filmfare awards for 'Best Feature Film - Critics Choice' and 'Best Screenplay'.
Almost two decades later, this film continues to influence a generation of filmmakers.
Seven years after his dream debut as a writer-director, Farhan debuted as an actor-singer in Rock On!! (2008) Yet another runaway success, the film secured him a second National Award for 'Best Hindi Feature Film' and a Filmfare award for 'Best Debut Performance'.
The dream run continued with Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara (2011) which released in 2011 to much popular and critical acclaim, winning him three Filmfare awards for 'Best Film', 'Best Actor in a supporting role' and 'Best Dialogue'.
His next, a biopic on Indian athlete Milkha Singh, popularly known as 'the Flying Sikh', was entitled Bhaag Milkha Bhaag (2013).
He essayed the role with such integrity that it set the standard for other actors considering to play titular protagonists in biopics. Deservingly, Farhan swept all awards that year for 'Best Actor' as did the film for 'Best Film'. It also claimed the National award for 'Best Popular Film providing Wholesome Entertainment.'
His most recent release The Sky Is Pink (2019) premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival and received a 15-minute standing ovation from the audience at the Roy Thomson Hall.
In addition to his contribution to Indian cinema, Farhan has initiated and supported a plethora of social causes. In 2012, he founded MARD (Men against Rape & Discrimination), an initiative that raises awareness about gender-related issues amongst the youth of India. Recognizing his sustained efforts, Farhan was made the first male UNwomen goodwill ambassador (South Asia) in 2014.
Additionally, Farhan feeds his passion for music by writing, composing and performing live with his band FarhanLive.
His English language debut album 'Echoes' released in March 2019 to critical acclaim.
He has 2 daughters and lives in Mumbai, India.- Farooq Sheikh was an Indian actor, philanthropist and a television presenter. He was known for his work in Hindi films from 1977 to 1989. He returned to acting in films in 2008. His major contribution was in Parallel Cinema or the New Indian Cinema. He's acted in serials and shows on television and has performed on stage in famous productions like Tumhari Amrita. He has won the 2010 National Film Award for Best Supporting Actor for Lahore.
- Actor
- Director
- Producer
Firoz was born in Bangalore on September 25, 1939 to a Pathan father, Sadiq, and an Iranian mother, Fatima. He has three brothers, Abbas alias Sanjay, Akbar, and Sameer. Both Sanjay and Akbar are actors within their own rights, while Sameer is a film-maker and assists in their Golden Palms Spa located in Bangalore.
He made his entry on the silver screen in 1960 after his return from a Bangalore-based English medium school. His career initially started as a hero in 'Didi', then he signed up for villain roles, and then made a comeback as a hero again.
His noteworthy movies are Oonche Log, Main Wohi Hoon, Aag, Mela, Upasna, Aprsdh. He became even more popular after the release of Dharmatma, Qurbani, Jaanbaaz, & Dayavan. he got an award for his role in Aadmi Aur Insaan. He died of cancer in his Bangloore farm house on 27 April, 2009.
He likes sports-car races and has included this sport in Apradh and then again in Janasheen. He prefers his character name to be either Rajesh or Rakesh. He is a worshipper of Bhagwan Shri Sai Baba and always wears a gold ring on his finger and has a picture close to him. Sai Baba is revered and worshiped by Muslims, Christians, Sikhs, and Hindus in India.
He got married to Sundari in 1965 and they became proud parents of Laila and Fardeen. Despite objections raised by an Islamic Moulvi, Feroz and Sanjay got their children married to non-Islamic families. Laila was married to Rajpal, while Fardeen married Natasha Madhwani, the daughter of Mayur and former Bollywood hottie Mumtaz. Sundari and Feroz have been divorced since 1985.
Feroz has kept away from controversies, though he did get himself banned by the conservative Pakistani government.
Apart from acting this talented artiste has also edited, produced, written, & directed movies. His latest 'Kurbani' is currently under production.- Actor
- Music Department
- Producer
Govinda was born on December 21, 1963. Govinda has acted in over 120 films since his debut in 1986. Govinda is best-known for his comedy related roles; his powerful contribution in dancing in Bollywood is inevitable. He is one of the most successful actors and is definitely the best dancer in Bollywood. His hardworking mentality and consistent performance made him a top class actor in Bollywood. He is known to be one of the most down to earth and kind hearted actors. He has acted with all Bollywood greats which include Amitabh Bachchan, Dilip Kumar, Akshay Kumar, Aishwarya Rai, Salman Khan and Madhuri Dixit.
He had great success with family based movies such as Dariya Dil (1988), Swarg (1990) and Hum (1991). He worked with David Dhawan for the first time in the 1989 action film Taaqatwar. He then formed a successful collaboration with him and then went onto act in 18 movies directed by him most of which were comedy films. The most successful films during their collaboration included Shola Aur Shabnam(1992), Aankhen (1993), Raja Babu (1994), Coolie No. 1 (1995), Saajan Chale Sasural (1996), Hero No. 1 (1997), Deewana Mastana (1997), Bade Miyan Chote Miyan (1998), Haseena Maan Jaayegi (1999), Jodi No. 1 (2001), Ek Aur Ek Gyarah (2003), and Partner (2007).
Having huge success in comedy based roles, he then also tried his luck for a villainous role in the movie 'Shikari' directed by N. Chandra. His performance in the movie was critically acclaimed. After a bad phase during 2002 until 2005, he actually made the biggest ever successful comeback ever witnessed in Bollywood with a number of hits, starting with Bhagam Bhag in 2006 and a critically praised performance in Salaam E Ishq in 2007.
After his latest 2007 release is the David Dhawan directed romantic comedy Partner. The film became the second highest domestic opening week gross for an Indian film and became a blockbuster and is ranked in the top 3 movies of 2007 in India. After his successful comeback in 2006 and 2007, he has been on a signing spree and is acting in many big movies ready for 2008 and 2009 with top directors of India. Amongst other work he has come on as a guest on Indian reality shows which are based on the X factor and strictly come dancing in the UK- Actor
- Director
- Producer
Considered to be a man ahead of his time, Guru Dutt was one of the greatest icons of commercial Indian cinema. Although he made less than ten films, they are believed to be the best to come from Bollywood's Golden Age, known both for their ability to reach out to the common man and for their artistic and lyrical content, and they went on to become trend-setters that have influenced Bollywood ever since. But for all his genius, there was a shroud of tragedy that overshadowed his career and life.
Dutt was born in Mysore on July ninth, 1925, the eldest son of a headmaster and a housewife who was a part-time writer. As a child, he had to deal with a strained relationship between his parents, hostility from his mother's family, and the death of a close relative. He received his early education in Calcutta, and in 1941, he joined the Uday Shankar India Culture Center, where he received basic training in the performing arts under dance maestro Uday Shankar. Afterward, in 1944, he had a short stint as a telephone operator.
Dutt entered the Indian film industry in 1944, working as a choreographer in Prabhat Studios. There, he became friends with Dev Anand (whom he met when they worked on the film Hum Ek Hain (1946)) and Rehman Khan. These early friendships helped ease his way into Bollywood. After Prabhat went under in 1947, Dutt moved to Mumbai, where he worked with the leading directors of the time: Amiya Chakrabarty in Girls' School (1949) and Gyan Mukherjee in Sangram (1946).
He got his big break when Dev Anand invited him to direct a film in his newly formed company Navketan Films. Dutt made his directorial debut with Gamble (1951), which starred Dev Anand. The film was an urban crime thriller that paid homage to classic film noir. However, it also carried its own elements that ensured it was not a remake of a Hollywood film: notably, songs were used to further the story's narrative, and close-up shots were used frequently. The film was a success and became a trend-setter for future crime films. On the personal front, Dutt met his wife, playback singer Geeta Dutt (née Roy), during the song-recording sessions of Gamble (1951), and they married May twenty-sixth, 1953.
Dutt's next releases were Jaal (1952) and Baaz (1953). Dutt made his acting debut in the latter film, which he also directed. But while they were average successes, he finally tasted success with Aar-Paar (1954), another crime thriller, but with a far more polished story and look. Then came Mr. & Mrs. '55 (1955), a frothy romantic comedy focusing on women's' rights; and C.I.D. (1956), yet another crime thriller in which Waheeda Rehman made her debut.
His next films, Thirst (1957) and Paper Flowers (1959), are regarded as his best work. Thirst (1957) was his masterpiece, about a poet trying to achieve success in a hypocritical, uncaring world. It was a box-office hit and is ranked as his greatest film ever. In contrast, Paper Flowers (1959) was a miserable flop at the box office: the semi-autobiographical story of a tragic love affair set against the backdrop of the film industry was deemed too morbid for the audience to swallow and went right over audience's heads. Although in later years the film received critical acclaim for its cinematography and has gained a cult following, Dutt, who had put his soul into the film, was devastated over its failure and never directed another film.
Although he had sworn off directing, Dutt continued to produce and act in films, notably the period dramas Chaudhvin Ka Chand (1960) and Sahib Bibi Aur Ghulam (1962). The latter film, interestingly, is controversial because it is debated whether Dutt had ghost-directed the film. Dutt's personal life had become complicated: he had gotten romantically involved with his protégé Waheeda Rehman and his wife Geeta Dutt had separated from him as a result. Rehman too had distanced herself from him. Also, Dutt, an ambitious person, felt he had achieved too much too soon professionally - there was nothing better to be achieved, and this caused a vacuum in his life. Unable to cope with all the trauma and emptiness, he took to heavy drinking.
On October tenth, 1964, Dutt was found dead in his bed. The cause of death was deemed a combination of alcohol and sleeping pills, although a debate still lingers over whether his death was by accident or a successful suicide attempt. Geeta Dutt suffered a nervous break-down as a result of his death and also took to alcohol, eventually drinking herself to death, dying in 1972 as a result of cirrhosis of the liver.
His death was an irreplaceable loss to Indian cinema. And it was a tragic twist of fate that his films, most of which were discounted in his life-time, would be regarded as cult classics after his death. Guru Dutt would always be known, even if posthumously, as the Guru of Bollywood's Golden Age and one of the world's most important international auteurs.- Actor
- Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
- Music Department
Hrithik Roshan is an Indian actor, born on 10th January 1974, well known globally for his versatile roles, unmatchable dancing skills and attractive looks.
After having appeared in films as a child actor in the 1980s, Roshan made his film debut in a leading role in Kaho Naa... Pyaar Hai (2000) for which he earned Filmfare Awards for Best Actor and Best Male Debut. It was not just a new actor on the block, but a star was born. He became a romantic hero, an action hero and revolutionized the Hindi film industry in significant ways. Never before had any debutant become an overnight sensation of this kind.
After his debut film, he appeared in Karan Johar's family drama Kabhi Khushi Kabhi Gham (2001), which received immense love not just in India but even overseas.
In 2003, Hrithik Roshan, who is often described as "India's Most Complete Actor" stunned everyone and proved once again that it is not just the uber-flattering looks that he brings to the table. This was when he flawlessly essayed the role of an intellectually disabled boy in Koi... Mil Gaya. Not only did the film set the cash registers ringing massively, but Roshan also bagged multiple awards for his acting prowess in the film, including the Filmfare Best Actor award.
The makers turned it into a franchise because of the huge commercial success and love that the film received. The next installment, Krrish (2006) saw Hrithik Roshan playing a superhero, which went on to become the first ever-successful Indian superhero in Indian cinema.
Roshan received his 3rd Filmfare Award for Best Actor in 2006 for his performance as an enigmatic master thief in the action film Dhoom 2, with which he redefined style and action and set new bars. He established himself as a major action star. He took stylized action to a whole new level with Bang Bang in 2014, which did massive business at the box office.
In 2012, he created history in Indian cinema when his film, Agneepath minted a whopping 25 crs only on its opening day. That is the star power and pull of Hrithik Roshan.
We also saw him portray the role of the Moghul emperor, Akbar the Great himself in Jodhaa Akbar (2008) for which he received immense critical acclaim and also an International award at a Film festival.
In 2011, Roshan was seen in Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara, which became an absolute cult classic.
Before becoming an actor, Hrithik toiled as a largely uncredited assistant on film projects, gradually progressing from unglamorous tasks such as set-sweeping, tea-fetching, or clapper-loading up to a major role in story development, camera, direction, and editing.
Since his entry into the industry, Hrithik has parlayed the natural gift of symmetrical features and a tall athletic frame into unimaginable standards. Through unparalleled work ethic, sheer honesty, talent, and commitment as an actor, he also effectively redefined the Hindi film hero. Actors would now have to act and dance and fight for themselves like never before.
With the kind of roles Hrithik has played on screen, there is no doubt about his acting prowess and versatility. From playing a intellectually disabled boy in Koi... Mil Gaya (2003) to an emperor in Jodhaa Akbar (2008); from playing a quadriplegic in Guzaarish (2010) to a visually impaired man in Kaabil (2017), he has played diverse characters effortlessly with his sheer talent.
In 2019, Hrithik continued taking on challenging roles as he marked two decades in the movies. In Super 30 (2019) he played the character of a Bihari Mathematician, Hrithik effortlessly slipped into the shoes of real-life Math genius Anand Kumar. He followed this up with War (2019), a larger-than-life Intelligence Agent gone rogue, while on a covert mission. Hrithik Roshan added act & action to his character. The actor aced at adding mystery to the thrilling story line with his screen presence as Kabir, which is considered one of the most charismatic characters he has played till date on screen.
Hrithik, a hot favorite for award show performances because of his smooth dance moves, high energy, and immense charm has won 66 awards out of 84 nominations, having a win rate of an outstanding 79%. Hrithik has also won many Style and Glamour awards for his appearances and red carpet outings. He was in fact voted as the 'Most Handsome Actor in the World' in 2018 by worldstopmost.com
Hrithik married his childhood sweetheart and longtime girlfriend, successful interior designer and businesswoman Sussanne Khan in December 2000. They have two sons: Hrehaan, born in 2006, and Hridaan, born in 2008. While the two got divorced in 2014, they chose to maintain cordial relations with each other for their kids and even today are good friends.- Actor
- Make-Up Department
- Music Department
Iftekhar was born on 22 February 1920 in Jullundur, Punjab, British India. He was an actor, known for Don (1978), Sholay (1975) and Daag: A Poem of Love (1973). He was married to Hannah Joseph. He died on 4 March 1995 in Mumbai, Maharashtra, India.- Actor
- Director
- Producer
Born Sahabzade Irfan Ali Khan, in Jaipur, Rajasthan (NW India) January 7, 1967 to a Pashto-speaking Muslim family. Khan's mother, Begum Khan, was from the Tonk Hakim family and his father, Jagirdar Khan, from the Khajuriya village near the Tonk district, ran a tire business.
The Khan family name comes from Turkish and Mongol languages and mean "king" or great leader. Descendants of Genghis Khan (13th century) in central Asia adopted Islam and became the Moghuls, who conquered India for several centuries until British rule.
Irfan was a skilled cricket player. In his early 20's he was selected for the CK Nayudu Tournament (a stepping stone to First Class cricket). He did not turn up for the tournament owing to lack of funds and as a result he focused on acting.
In 1984 he earned a scholarship to the National School of Acting in New Delhi.
He was awarded the Padma Shri, India's fourth highest civilian honor for his contribution to the field of arts.
His portrayal of Paan Singh Tomar in the acclaimed biographical sports drama Paan Singh Tomar (2011) won him the National Film Award for Best Actor and a Filmfare Critics Award for Best Actor. His performance in the BAFTA Award nominated romance The Lunchbox (2013) earned him universal acclaim by the critics and audiences.
Globally, Khan was in The Warrior (2001), The Namesake (2006), The Darjeeling Limited (2007), the Academy Award-winning film Slumdog Millionaire (2008), New York, I Love You (2009), The Amazing Spider-Man (2012), Life of Pi (2012), Jurassic World (2015) and Inferno (2016). As of 2017, his films have grossed $3.643 billion at the worldwide box office. In 2018, Khan was diagnosed with a neuroendocrine tumor.
Khan got married to his wife Sutapa Sikdar, in 1995. She is a Hindu of the Brahmin caste. She is a movie producer, dialogue writer and screenwriter. Among her famous movies are Khamoshi: The Musical (Dialogue Writer, 1996), Supari (Dialogue Writer, 2003), Kahaani (Dialogue Writer, 2003), Madaari (Producer, 2016), Qarib Qarib Singlle (Producer, 2017)
They have two kids: Ayaan Khan, Babil Khan
Unlike most Indian film stars, Irrfan has been outspoken on religion. On Arnab Goswami's talk show, he took on Muslim fundamentalists, including India's Grand Imam. Irrfan Khan argued against "transactional religious interaction" and for "personal religious discovery"..."to discover yourself, to find God". Though he admits he is "not an authority" on the Koran and Islamic Holy scriptures he has bravely stood by his comments despite heavy criticism and even threats of violence. He's aware of the dangers that his frank comments pose to him and his family. His wife commented, "We are very proud of him."- Actor
- Producer
- Soundtrack
Jaikishen was born in the Gujarati-speaking Shroff family on February 1, 1957. His dad's name is Kakubhai, his brother's is Hemant, and they live in Bandra, Bombay in a bungalow named 'Le Pepeyon". He became a superstar in the 1980s. By the television era begun in the 80s, he had become a superstar. In BR Chopra's Mahabharata, Jackie Shroff was offered the role of Arjun in the series but Shroff refused to play the role considering it a negligible role to play in the epic and insisted the Chopras for casting him for the lead role of Karna but BR Chopra refused because of dates' issue with Karna's role which required presence in almost all episodes but Shroff won't be able to give his dates .
A vegetarian, Jaikishen made his Bollywood debut in a bit-role as a villain in the hit Heera Panna (1973) which starred 'Dev Anand'. He then went on to act in another Dev Anand movie, Swami Dada (1982).
It was Subhash Ghai who signed him up for the hit Hero (1983) that catapulted this handsome young man to stardom, followed by yet another hit Andar Baahar (1984) with Anil Kapoor as his co-star. Thus Jaikishen became the new Bollywood legend: Jackie Shroff.
Since then there has been no looking back, as he went on to star in close to 150 movies with a career that spanned from 1973 onwards. Since 2000 or thereabouts he has appeared in a variety of character-roles, villain, comedian, and even as a ghost in Bhoot Unkle (2006).
He married his longtime girlfriend, Ayesha Shroff (née Dutt), who is also a producer and both husband and wife run Jackie Shroff Entertainment Limited. They have two children, a son, Jai (nickname Tiger), and a daughter, Krishna.- Actor
- Additional Crew
- Producer
Shergill was born in a Sikh family in Gorakhpur, Uttar Pradesh. He moved to Punjab, the place of his ancestors, in 1985 where he studied in Yadavindra Public School, Patiala and Bikram College Patiala. He learnt acting from Sri Harpal Singh, and then moved to Mumbai to work in the entertainment industry. He's married to Priyanka Puri from Delhi and they have a son named Veer Shergill.- Jim Sarbh is an Indian film actor and stage actor-director best known for his fearless and unconventional character choices and serious acting chops.
Born 27 August 1987 in Mumbai, to a Parsi family, his mother is a retired physiotherapist, and his father is a former master mariner, and the Regional Director of P&O Ports South and Middle East Asia. The family moved to Australia when Sarbh was three years old and came back to Mumbai when he was eight, where he attended the American School of Bombay. He completed his undergraduate degree in Psychology from Emory University, USA.
After graduating from Emory, Sarbh worked with the Alliance Theatre in Atlanta for a year as a literary intern. He performed around Atlanta in the 2009 productions of such plays as The Show!, The Breakup, Tennis in Nablus, and Ice Glen; the last of the roles won him a Major Supporting Role Metropolitan Atlanta Theatre Award. Sarbh then moved back to Mumbai in 2012 and began acting in local theatre productions. His performance as Happy Loman in Alyque Padamsee's 2013 revival of Death of a Salesman drew the attention of several commentators. Sarbh continued to act in sold out theatre productions including Rajat Kapoor's What's Done is Done, Rage Productions' The Glass Menagerie, Vickram Kapadia's The Merchant of Venice, Kalki Koechlin's Living Room, Cock by Mike Bartlett and Atul Kumar's Noises Off . He later made his directorial and writing debut with the 2014 production Bull and Eat respectively. He was listed in Forbes India's 30 under 30 list in 2015 for his contributions to the Mumbai theatre industry.
Sarbh made his feature film debut in 2016, playing the terrifying antagonist in Ram Madhvani's critically and commercially successful biographical drama Neerja; the role garnered him rave reviews from critics and many accolades including a Screen Award and Zee Cine Award for Best Male Debut, and an International Indian Film Academy Award, Zee Cine Award and Stardust Award for Best Performance In A Negative Role. Following his special appearance in the acclaimed thriller A Death in the Gunj (2016), he rose to further national prominence for playing two Machiavellian antagonists in two starkly different ways, in the period drama Padmaavat (2018) as Malik Kafur, and in the biopic Sanju (2018) as Zubin Mistry, both of which rank among the highest-grossing Indian films of all time.
His films have travelled across several prestigious film festivals including the International Film Festival of Rotterdam (Aditya Vikram Sengupta's Jonaki), the Sundance Film Festival (Stefanie Abel Horowitz's Sometimes I Think About Dying), Toronto International Film Festival (Michael Winterbottom's The Wedding Guest) as well as the Berlin International Film Festival (Ritesh Batra's Photograph).
Sarbh's filmography also includes cultural-defining music videos such as Prateek Kuhad's Cold/Mess, which documents the emotional ups and downs of a relationship and Hold It Tight by Ape Echoes that chronicles the phases of a quintessential procrastinator. He is also a sought after muse to many fashion designers and lifestyle brands thanks to his ardent following, especially among the youth.
Jim has made his presence widely felt in leading roles on the web as well, across major online streaming platforms, including the hit satire created by Zoya Akhtar and Reema Kagti, Made In Heaven (Amazon Prime), Neel Guha's Smoke & Bejoy Nambiar's Flip (Eros Now) as well as Daria Gai's Teen Aur Aadha (Netflix).
Sarbh's future continues to soar with leading roles in upcoming projects that include Beneath The Sea Of Lights alongside Academy Award Nominee Barkhad Abdi and directed by Neel Kumar, House Arrest directed by Shashanka Ghosh and Samit Basu for Netflix, Yeh Ballet written and directed by Sooni Taraporevala and Bejoy Nambiar's much-awaited Taish.
He currently lives in Mumbai. (23rd august, 2019) - Actor
- Music Department
- Additional Crew
John Prakash Rao "Johny Lever" Janumala was born on August 14, 1957 in Kanigiri, Andhra Pradesh and was brought up in Mumbai's King's Circle area (Dharavi). He is an Indian actor and comedian in Bollywood. His mother tongue is Telugu. Lever studied in Andhra Telugu School till the seventh grade but couldn't study further because of financial problems in his family, after which he decided to leave school and started working different kinds of odd jobs, such as selling pens on the streets of Bombay (present-day Mumbai) by imitating Bollywood stars and dancing to the songs of Bollywood stars. He also spent his early ages in Yakutpura a old city of Hyderabad from where he learnt the unique style of comedy acting. He developed a passion for mimicry and stand-up comedy, inspired by watching comedians like Johnny Walker, Kishore Kumar and Mehmood in films and mimicry artists like Dinesh Hingoo and Nerella Venumadhav on stage, and thus decided to be a mimicry artist. To seek guidance and help regarding mimicry, he met his mentor Pratap Jani and mimicry artist Ram Kumar, who helped him and taught him the basics of mimicry. Lever was also employed in Hindustan Lever's factory in Mumbai with his father. While working, he entertained his co-workers in the factory by imitating Elvis Presley. At one of the functions at his factory he was asked to perform and show his talent. His popularity among coworkers and officers of the factory by his performance earned him his professional name. He started to perform in musical shows (orchestras) and after earning fame, joined the group of Kalyanji-Anandji, a legendary music direction duo. He did a lot of shows and world tours with them, one of his first big tours being with Amitabh Bachchan in 1982. Since he became an instant hit at orchestras and was unable to find time, another comedian who substituted him by the name of Johnny Fever evolved. However, Fever's fame was short-lived as Raju Srivastav came to Mumbai during the same time and started filling gaps of Lever at orchestras. During this period he learned a lot from his mentor Kalyanji, who was described by Lever as a great philosopher and a very humorous person. At one of his shows, actor Sunil Dutt noticed his talent and potential and offered him his first movie Dard Ka Rishta. In the 1980s, he released his mimicry/comedy album, Hansee Ke Hungame, which became a hit in India and the world over, increasing his fame to another level. During this time period, he also did few commercials for Kachua chhap incense, directed by Shekhar Kapoor. In 1986, he performed in a charity show called "Hope 86", in front of the whole Hindi film industry as a filler and was loved by audience. His talent was recognized, which resulted in producer Gul Anand offering him a film called Jalwa with Naseeruddin Shah. He is considered an influential Indian comedian who has been cited as inspiration by many other comics. He has received 13 Filmfare Awards nominations in Best Comedian Category, and has won the award twice.- Actor
- Director
One of the earliest and best-loved comedians of Indian Cinema, Johnny Walker brought smiles and amusement to all whenever he was on film. Christening himself after the famous Scotch whisky, Walker would drive audiences wild with laughter with his squeaky voice, pencil-thin moustache and his now-classic drunken antics. Everyone, cast, crew and audience alike, loved his iconic image of the hero's comic and often drunk sidekick, who would cause comedy to occur in the film. Ironically, his drunken image was a stark contrast to his real-life persona, which was that of a sober and humble soul
He was born Badruddin Jamaluddin Kazi on May 15, 1923. The son of a textile mill worker, he did not find life easy; he was one of a family of fifteen members, out of which five relatives died young, and the mill where his father worked closed down, causing the family to come to Bombay. There Kazi tried his hand at several jobs, and eventually secured a post as a bus conductor in the B.E.S.T (Bombay Electric Supply and Transport) bus service.
Kazi would often be seen working on the Dadar bus depot. Sometimes he would entertain his passengers with antics that would send them into splits of laughter, and he had an uncanny ability for inventing such routines on the spot. This knack got him spotted by actor/writer Balraj Sahni, who was writing Gamble (1951) for Guru Dutt at the time. Sahni introduced Kazi to Dutt, who was so impressed by Kazi's performance as a drunk that he immediately wrote a role for him into his directorial film Gamble (1951).
His performance in Gamble (1951) was so well received that Walker and Dutt would later on work together in films. Dutt cast him in some of his own memorable films; some of Walker's most loved roles are Master the pickpocket in C.I.D. (1956) and the masseur Abdul Sattar in Thirst (1957). Walker always had the best comic lines and the most popular and hummable tunes in Dutt's films. Dutt and Walker were also the best of friends and often went out on expeditions together, and on Dutt's suicide Walker was deeply shocked and grieved by the loss of his friend.
His popularity reached such heights that he got his own film, Johnny Walker (1957)! He was also hired by other directors to act in their own films, the most notable of these being B.R. Chopra's Naya Daur (1957), Bimal Roy's Madhumati (1958) (the latter for which he won his first Filmfare Award), and K. Asif's Mughal-E-Azam (1960). Despite his fame, he was a humble soul and kept a low profile
He slowly began to fade out in the 1960s, as Mehmood took over as the new king of comedy. He kept working in films, though, most notably in Shikar (1968), for which he won his second and final Filmfare Award; and in Anand (1971), where he was unusually seen in a serious role and even more unusually excelled in it, showing the remarkable talent he still held.
His last role was as a make-up artist in Kamal Haasan's Chachi 420 (1997). He was, naturally, seen with a bottle of alcohol! It was a fitting curtain call for Bollywood's original king of comedy...- K.N. Singh was born on 1 September 1908 in Dehra Dun, United Provinces of Agra and Oudh, British India. He was an actor, known for Barsaat (1949), Spy in Rome (1968) and Howrah Bridge (1958). He died on 31 January 2000 in Mumbai, Maharashtra, India.
- Actor
- Writer
Kabir Bedi is one of India's most famous international actors, with a career that spans from Bollywood to Hollywood and Europe, in films, television, theatre, and radio.
Kabir's Italian series "SANDOKAN" made him a major star across all of Europe.
He starred in one of the world's most-watched TV series, "THE BOLD AND THE BEAUTIFUL"
He acted in the James Bond "OCTOPUSSY".
He has been a voting member of the "Oscars Academy" (Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences) since 1982.
In recent years, he has acted in 5 films in 5 languages: English, Italian, Hindi, Malayalam, and Telegu.
He is the Honorary Brand Ambassador for Sight Savers India, which performed over 5 million free eye operations across India.
He is the Honorary Brand Ambassador of Care & Share Italia, which educates children from kindergarten to university in the homes and centers in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana in India.
To top it all, he has been Knighted by the Italian Republic with its highest civilian honour, "Cavaliere".- Actor
- Writer
- Producer
Kader Khan was an Indian actor, comedian, and screenwriter who worked in Hindi cinema. Khan's family migrated from Afghanistan to Mumbai, India, in 1942, and was raised in the neighbourhood of Kamathipura, Mumbai.
He completed his education at Ismail Yusuf College in Mumbai, earning a Master's degree in Civil Engineering (M.Tech). However, his passion for writing and acting led him to pursue a career in the film industry.
Kader Khan debuted in the film industry as a writer with the film Jawani Diwani (1972) in 1972. However, his first film as an actor was Daag: A Poem of Love (1973), starring Rajesh Khanna in the lead role.
He went on to write dialogues for numerous successful films in the 1970s and 1980s, including Sholay (1975), Muqaddar Ka Sikandar (1978), Amar Akbar Anthony (1977), Naseeb (1981), and Coolie (1983).
Khan has acted in over 300 films and appeared in supporting roles in some of Bollywood's biggest hits, such as Sharaabi (1984), Baap Numbri Beta Dus Numbri (1990), Agneepath (1990), Hum (1991), and Khuda Gawah (1992).
Some of his notable performances as an actor include Main Khiladi Tu Anari (1994), Coolie No. 1 (1995), Taqdeerwala (1995), and Judwaa (1997). He also worked in television serials such as Hasna Mat (2001) and Khuda Gawah (1992).
Kader Khan was also a prolific screenwriter and wrote scripts for films like Dharam Veer (1977), Mr. Natwarlal (1979), Laawaris (1981), and Geraftaar (1985). He also wrote and produced the film Shama (1981), which was released in 1981.
Some of Kader Khan's most memorable performances were in comedies, where he was known for his impeccable comic timing. He worked with some of the biggest stars in the industry, including Amitabh Bachchan, Govinda, Salman Khan, and Akshay Kumar.
Kader Khan's last appearance was in the 2019 Rangeela Raja film Rangeela Raja (2019). He passed away on December 31, 2018, at 81.
Kader Khan was awarded numerous awards for his contributions to the Indian film industry. He won the Filmfare Award for Best Dialogue twice for Meri Aawaz Suno (1981) and Angaar (1992). He also received the Filmfare Award for Best Comedian for Baap Numbri Beta Dus Numbri (1990).
In addition, he was honoured with the Padma Shri award, one of India's highest civilian honours, in 2019, which was posthumously awarded to him.- Kay Kay Menon is a well-known Indian actor who has acted in numerous movies and web series. He was born in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, India, but raised in Ambarnath, Maharashtra, India.
Menon pursued his early education at St Joseph High School in Pune. After this, he went on to earn a degree in Physics from Mumbai University.
He then pursued an MBA from the University of Pune. After completing his education, he joined the advertising industry.
Menon began his acting career with a theatre break opposite Naseeruddin Shah in Mahatma vs Gandhi. After that, he started working in the TV industry with the television serial Darr (1995).
His debut movie was Naseem (1995) in 1995, but he got recognition for his role in the critically acclaimed movie Bhopal Express (1999) in 1999.
He has acted in numerous movies, including Hazaaron Khwaishein Aisi (2003), Black Friday (2004), Sarkar (2005), Corporate (2006), Life in a Metro (2007), ABCD (Any Body Can Dance) (2013), Ankur Arora Murder Case (2013), Haider (2014) and The Ghazi Attack (2017).
He is also known for his role in the Hotstar web series Special OPS (2020) and Special Ops 1.5: The Himmat Story (2021), where he played the role of RAW officer Himmat Singh.
He has played the role of Mansoor Dalal in the web series, Farzi (2023).
Some of his best performances are in the movies Black Friday (2004), where he played the role of DCP Rakesh Maria, Sarkar (2005), where he played the role of Vishnu Nagre, Gulaal (2009) where Menon played the role of Dukey Bana, and Haider (2014), where he played the role of Khurram Meer.
Kay Kay Menon has received several awards and nominations for his performances in movies and web series. He was nominated for the Filmfare Award for Best Performance in a Negative Role for his role in Sarkar (2005).
He won the Filmfare Award for Best Supporting Actor and the IIFA Award for Best Performance in a Negative Role for his role in Haider (2014). - Actor
- Music Department
- Writer
Kamal Haasan was born November 7, 1954 in Paramakudi, Ramanathapuram District, Tamil Nadu. He debuted as a child artiste in the film "Kalathoor Kannamma" (1960). Since then, he has starred in nearly 220 films in the major Indian languages - Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam and Hindi. He has been a part of the film industry for 60 years, as of 2020. His journey in cinema has seen him do various roles - from child artiste, to romantic lead to one of the most respected and revered heroes of the film industry today.
He has famously said that he is a reluctant actor. He has an avid interest in every aspect of film making and is known for his work as a choreographer, director, and writer, as well.
He wrote his first script at age 18 for the film "Unarchigal" (1976), which was then followed by films that have gone on to become cult classics - Rajapaarvai (1981), Sathya (1988), Apoorva Sahotharargal (1989), Thevar Magan (1992), Mahanadi (1994), Kurudhippunal (1995), Avvai Shanmugi (1996), Hey Ram (2000), Pammal K Sambandam (2002), Panchathanthiram (2002), Anbe Sivam (2003), are a few of the films etched in popular memory for having set the bar for craftsmanship in the fields of screenplay, script, and dialogue.
He is also a prolific writer of fiction and non-fiction in Tamil and his published work is testament to his constant exploration of structure and form.
Kamal Haasan's strong convictions in his art have led to some of Indian cinema's most path-breaking films like Pushpak / Pushpaka Vimaanam / Pesum Padam (1987). Kamal Haasan also worked as a choreographer while transitioning as a well-known child artiste to the lead actor in a feature length film. Some of his best-known work as a dancer can be seen in Saagara Sangamam (1983) and the popular hit Punnagai Mannan (1986).
Kamal Haasan is also a student of Carnatic music, studying under musical maestro Dr. Balamuralikrishna. One of his biggest hits as a playback singer was the song "Inji Iduppazhagi" for the film Thevar Magan.
His career as a director began with the film Chachi 420 (1997), the Hindi remake of Avvai Shanmugi. Since then he has called the shots for critically acclaimed films like "Hey Ram" and "Virumaandi".
He has never hesitated to state his opinions and encourage debate about topics that are socially relevant. He is a rationalist in thought and moderate in opinion and a humanist in philosophy. The need to be socially conscious is seen in the way his fan clubs have revamped themselves into entities that carry out charity and volunteer work.- Kulbhushan Kharbanda, born in Hasan Abdal, Punjab, British India (now in Pakistan), is a highly acclaimed Indian actor who has left an indelible mark on both mainstream Bollywood and parallel cinema. Known for his versatility and ability to portray a wide range of characters, Kulbhushan Kharbanda is regarded as one of the finest actors in the Indian film industry.
Kulbhushan Kharbanda began his acting career in the theater, honing his skills before transitioning to films. He made his mark in Bollywood with Shyam Benegal's critically acclaimed film "Nishant" (1975). The film marked the beginning of Kharbanda's association with parallel cinema, where he often collaborated with directors who focused on socially relevant and thought-provoking themes.
One of his most memorable performances came in the iconic film "Shatranj Ke Khilari" (1977), directed by Satyajit Ray. In the film, based on a short story by Munshi Premchand, Kharbanda played the role of Mir Roshan Ali, showcasing his ability to bring depth to historical characters.
Kulbhushan Kharbanda continued to deliver stellar performances in films like "Junoon" (1978), "Kalyug" (1981), and "Aghaat" (1985). His association with directors like Shyam Benegal, Govind Nihalani, and Gulzar highlighted his commitment to meaningful and impactful storytelling.
Apart from parallel cinema, Kharbanda also made a mark in mainstream Bollywood with films like "Muqaddar Ka Sikandar" (1978), "Shaan" (1980), and "Ram Lakhan" (1989). He portrayed a variety of roles, including memorable negative characters, showcasing his versatility as an actor.
Kulbhushan Kharbanda's talent and dedication to his craft extended beyond Hindi cinema, as he also worked in Punjabi, Kannada, and other regional films. He is recognized for his contribution to Indian cinema and has received accolades for his performances.
In addition to his film career, Kulbhushan Kharbanda has been associated with theater and television, contributing to various facets of the entertainment industry. His distinctive voice, commanding screen presence, and ability to immerse himself in diverse characters have made him a respected and admired figure in Indian cinema. - Music Artist
- Music Department
- Actor
Abhas Kumar Ganguly was born in Khandwa, now in Madhya Pradesh. His dad's name was Kunjilal, a lawyer by profession, and his mom's name was Gouri Devi, who came from a wealthy family.
Kishore was the youngest in the Ganguly family, preceded by Ashok Kumar, Sati, & Anoop Kumar (I). Sati was married to Sashadhar Mukherjee, who was the brother of film-maker Subodh Mukherji, and Bollywood actors Joy Mukherjee & Deb Mukherjee. Sati's son, Shomu Mukherjee, went on to marry Tanuja Samarth, and who subsequently gave birth to Kajol and Tanishaa Mukerji. Tanuja is the sister of Nutan, who, in turn, is the mother of actor Mohnish Behl. Tanuja and Nutan are the daughters of the famed Shobhna Samarth. Sati was also aunt-by-marriage to Ram Mukherjee, who would subsequently marry and give birth to Raj Mukherjee and Bollywood actress, Rani Mukerji. Ashok's daughter is noted Bollywood actress, Preeti Ganguli, who is married to comedian and character actor, Deven Verma. Ashok's grand-daughter is actress, Anuradha Patel.
While Ashok went on to become a successful actor, Abhas, who was renamed Kishore, shunned acting, and preferred singing and mimicking K.L. Saigal. His brother, Anoop, while struggling to make a name himself, noticed this, and encouraged Kishore to sing in his own voice.
When Sachin Dev Burman happened to visit Ashok, he heard Kishore singing, and immediately signed him to sing for Bollywood movies. After Sachin's passing away, his son, Rahul Dev Burman took over and openly favored Kishore over other male singers.
He always wanted to be a singer, but acting was thrust upon him, and he did his best to live up to it. A Leo, Kishore was also known for his mad-cap comedy movies, and for his eccentricity as he used to 'talk' to his trees in his home, and had even put up a sign 'Mental Hospital' right outside his residence in Khandwa. He was also parsimonious, so much so that he was in arrears to the Indian Income Tax authorities, yet never missed a chance to make fun of them (Aur Peechey Pad Gaya Income Taxum, Jai Govindam Jai Gopalam).
When he refused to endorse former Indian Prime Minister's 20 point Program during the 1975-1977 Emergency, he was banned from the Government-controlled media namely All India Radio and Vividh Bharati. Even duets with his voice were censored. He was not the only one in Bollywood, as others like I.S. Johar, Dev Anand, Shatrughan Sinha openly condemned Mrs. Gandhi's regime. After the emergency, her political party (Congress) was overwhelmingly ousted by the electorate in favor of the Janata Party.
Kishore made a record by being the only singer to have sung in more than 90 films for a single hero which was for Rajesh Khanna. Kishore sang in 91 films for Rajesh Khanna.His closest friends were Rajesh Khanna, R.D.Burman, S.D.Burman, Mohammad Rafi.He refused to lend his voice to Amitabh Bachchan in period 1982-1987 many times, when the latter refused to do a guest appearance in a Kishore-produced film and this affected Bachchan's career as many of his films flopped post 1983.
His marriages to some of the most popular and attractive Bollywood actresses (Madhubala, Yogeeta Bali,Leena Chandavarkar) not only raised eyebrows, but added to his popularity.Fact was each of these women with exception of Yogita Bali fell in love with Kishore Kumar. Madhubala loved him immensely but had health issues so died. Then in 1976 Yogita claimed to love him and married Kishore, but then Kishore realized she had married him for his money so divorced her. Leena was a widower but Kishore fell in love with her and proposed her and they were happily married till his death.
He introduced his son, Amit Kumar, (sired from his first wife Ruma Ghosh aka Ruma Guha Thakurta) to sing, often along with him, and then amazed his fans by marrying widowed Leena Chandavarkar, who was just two years older than Amit.
He sang 245 songs picturised on Rajesh Khanna across 92 films, which is an unbeaten record for singer-actor combination. Kishore sang 245 songs for Rajesh Khanna, 202 for Jeetendra, 119 for Dev Anand and 131 for Amitabh.
He had recorded the duets "Kaho Kahan Chale" for the film Bulundi, "Pyar Ka Dard Hai" from Dard and "Tum Jo Chale Gaye" from Aas Paas, a few days before his heart attack in 1981. He suffered his first heart attack on 24th January 1981 in Kolkata in the noon hours and within a gap of another four hours, suffered his second heart attack. The first solo song sung by him, after recovery from his two attacks was "Mere Sang Sang Aya" from Rajput (1982) and the duet with Asha - "Mausam Bheega Bheega" from Gehra Zakhm.
In the comedy, Badhti Ka Naam Dadhi (1974) a song 'Karne Chaley Thhey Shaadi Meri, Khud Ban Baithey Dulha', sung by Amit, hilariously chastised his dad for getting married, instead of searching for a bride for his son.
Through Leena he sired another son, Sumeet Kumar. Their marriage was intact until his unexpected passing on October 13, 1987, due to heart failure for the third time.
Kishore has not only been immortalized by his songs, but also by his talents as an Actor, Producer, Director, Script-Writer, & Lyricist. His movies continue to be popular even now on TV, as do his songs on both TV and radio.- Actor
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- Director
Ranganathan Madhavan was born on June 01, 1970, to businessman R. Iyengar and his wife R. Saroja in a Tamil family. He is an Indian actor, writer, film director and producer.
At the age of 18, his college entrusted him with the responsibility of representing India as a Cultural Ambassador to Canada.
A year later, he and three others from his college were sent to Britain as army cadets and received training in the royal army, navy, and Air Force.
While conducting courses on public speaking, he met Saritha, an Air Hostess and both got married 7 years later. Their first child, a son, Vedaant, was born in 2005.
A vegetarian and animal lover, he is a brand ambassador for PETA. He is fluent in English, Hindi, and Tamil.
Before making his appearance on the tinsel screen, he was popular on the idiot box on Sony's Deal Ya No Deal (2005). Having done close to 1800 episodes of various soaps on varied National Networks, he subsequently also appeared as the main character in a mobile game.
He made his debut with Inferno (1997) in 1998, and since then acted in nearly 48 movies in English, Hindi, Tamil, and Kannada. He is popularly known as the 'chocolate hero', and his most popular film is 3 Idiots (2009) where he starred opposite Aamir Khan and Sharman Joshi.- Actor
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- Music Department
Manoj Bajpayee is a highly acclaimed Indian film actor known for his versatile acting skills and intense performances. Despite facing financial struggles during his childhood, he pursued his passion for acting and worked hard to achieve success in the film industry. Bajpayee is the second child in a family of six siblings, with two brothers and two sisters.Bajpayee decided to become an actor after watching the 1973 film Zanjeer (1973). He began his acting career with small roles in plays and television shows. He made his acting debut in the film Droh Kaal (1994) in 1994. He also played a minor role as a dacoit in Bandit Queen (1994) the same year. Bajpayee gained recognition for his performance in the film Satya (1998) in 1998. Although considered a flop at first, this film won him critical acclaim and established him as a celebrated actor in Indian cinema. Since then, he has acted in numerous successful films and has become known for his ability to portray complex, grey, and challenging characters. He is well-known for his ability to deliver powerful performances in a variety of genres and roles, ranging from gangsters to cops to journalists. Bajpayee has a diverse filmography that includes both mainstream and independent films. His filmography includes many notable films, including Satya (1998), Shool (1999), Pinjar (2003), Special 26 (2013), Aligarh (2015), and Sonchiriya (2019). The actor was also part of the popular web series The Family Man (2019). Some of his other top works include Gangs of Wasseypur (2012), LOC: Kargil (2003), Raajneeti (2010), Satyameva Jayate (2018), and Shootout at Wadala (2013), among others. Bajpayee has also been seen in Despatch and Joram (2023). He has also been a part of Gulmohar (2023), directed by Rahul V. Chittella. The story is based on complex, dysfunctional family life. Throughout his career, Bajpayee has been recognized for his talent and has received numerous awards and nominations. He has won three National Film Awards - Best Supporting Actor for Satya in 1999, Special Jury Award (Feature Film) for Pinjar in 2004, and Best Actor for Bhonsle (2018) in 2021.He has also won four Filmfare Awards, two under the category of Best Actor (Critics) for the films Satya, Shool, and Aligarh in 1999, 2000, and 2017 respectively, and one under the category of Best Actor in a Short Film?? for Taandav (2016?) in 2017.In 2019, Bajpayee was awarded the Padma Shri, which is India's fourth-highest civilian honour. In addition to his work in the film industry, Bajpayee is also known for his philanthropic efforts. He is actively involved in various social and charitable causes, including education and healthcare. He is also a strong advocate for environmental protection. He has also voiced his concerns about the state of migrants during the COVID-19 pandemic. Bajpayee married Shabana Raza in 2006. They met in 1998 at a Bollywood party when the latter debuted with the film Kareeb (1998) opposite Bobby Deol. They have a daughter, Ava Nayla.- Actor
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Manoj Kumar, born Harikrishna Giri Goswami, is an Indian film actor, director, and screenwriter best known for his work in Hindi films.
Born in Abbottabad, a small town in the North-West Frontier Province, British India (now Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan), he and his family shifted to Delhi during the Partition.
Kumar made his film debut with Fashion (1957). He then got his break in Kanch Ki Gudiya (1961), where he acted with Sayeeda Khan.
After acting in Reshmi Rumal (1961) and Piya Milan Ki Aas (1961), Kumar was cast opposite Mala Sinha in Vijay Bhatt's Hariyali Aur Rasta (1962).
He continued to rule the roost with films, including Apna Banake Dekho (1962) and Nakli Nawab (1962).
He also acted in social films, including Grahasti (1963) and Apne Huye Paraye (1964).
In 1964, Kumar appeared in Raj Khosla's Woh Kaun Thi? (1964) with Sadhana Shivdasani. He worked alongside Mala Sinha and Vijay Bhatt again in Himalay Ki Godmein (1965).
Kumar and Khosla built upon their joint success with Do Badan (1966), which became a success. In this film, Kumar was cast opposite Asha Parekh.
His thriller, Gumnaam (1965), was another box office hit, and it was one of the highest-grossing movies that year, earning Rs. 2.6 crores. In the same year, Kumar starred in the film Shaheed (1965), which explored the life of the great freedom fighter, Bhagat Singh.
He also played pivotal roles in classics such as Sawan Ki Ghata (1966) and Patthar Ke Sanam (1967).
In 1967, he forayed into film direction with Upkar (1967), where he starred as a farmer and a soldier. This film won multiple awards at the Filmfare Awards 1968, including Best Story, Best Dialogue, Best Director, and Best Film.
Kumar followed up his success with more films such as Aadmi (1968), Purab Aur Pachhim (1970), and Be-Imaan (1972). He also directed and acted in Shor (1972).
Kumar acted in and directed Roti Kapada Aur Makaan (1974) and won the Best Director award at the Filmfare Awards in 1975.
He then went on to appear in more classics, including Sanyasi (1975); Pehchan (1975), wherein he starred opposite Babita Kapoor; and Dus Numbri (1976).
He directed Dilip Kumar, his idol, in the film Kranti (1981), which explored the Indian struggle for Independence.
Post Kranti, Kumar acted in films such as Kalyug Aur Ramayan (1987), Clerk (1989), and Maidan-E-Jung (1995). He also directed Kunal Goswami, his son, in Jai Hind (1999).
Kumar was conferred the title of Padma Shri by the Government of India in 1992. He also received The Filmfare Lifetime Achievement Award in 1999 for his work spanning four decades; the Bharat Gaurav Award in New Jersey, U.S., in 2012; and The Dadasaheb Phalke Award in 2016- Actor
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Mehmood, born in Bombay (now Mumbai), India, was a legendary Indian actor, comedian, and filmmaker who left an indelible mark on Bollywood. Known for his impeccable comic timing, versatile performances, and unique ability to bring laughter to audiences, Mehmood remains one of the most iconic figures in the history of Indian cinema.
Mehmood started his career as a child artist in the film "Kismet" (1943). He began to gain recognition as a comedian with his work in films like "Do Bigha Zamin" (1953) and "Parvarish" (1958). His breakthrough, however, came with the film "Chhoti Bahen" (1959), where his portrayal of a South Indian character named Master Pillai garnered widespread appreciation.
As an actor, Mehmood displayed remarkable versatility by successfully transitioning between comedic and serious roles. He excelled in both character roles and as the lead actor in films such as "Kunwara Baap" (1974) and "Duniya" (1968). His performances were characterized by a unique blend of humor, emotion, and a keen understanding of the characters he portrayed.
Mehmood's contribution to comedy in Indian cinema is particularly noteworthy. He played pivotal roles in classic comedies like "Padosan" (1968), where his portrayal of the eccentric South Indian musician Master Pillai became iconic. His collaboration with Kishore Kumar and Sunil Dutt in "Padosan" remains etched in Bollywood history.
Apart from acting, Mehmood also ventured into filmmaking and direction. He directed films like "Bhoot Bangla" (1965) and "Kunwara Baap" (1974), showcasing his versatility and creativity behind the camera.
Mehmood's career spanned several decades, and he received numerous awards for his outstanding contributions to Indian cinema. His legacy endures not only through his performances but also through the influence he had on subsequent generations of comedians and actors.
Mehmood passed away on July 23, 2004, leaving behind an unparalleled legacy in Indian cinema. His timeless contributions to comedy and entertainment continue to be celebrated, and he remains an enduring symbol of laughter and joy in Bollywood history.- Actor
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Mithun Chakraborty, whose birth name was Gouranga Chakraborty, is an actor, producer, and politician. He is a former Rajya Sabha Member of Parliament and has worked in several Hindi and Bengali films.
He studied at Oriental Seminary and then cleared his B.Sc. degree in Chemistry from Scottish Church College in Kolkata. Chakraborty graduated from the Film and Television Institute of India, Pune.
Chakraborty has appeared in over 350 films, including Hindi, Bengali, Bhojpuri, Tamil, Odia, Kannada, Telugu, and Punjabi movies. He made his acting debut with Mrigayaa (1977). This debut earned him his first National Film Award for Best Actor.
During his early career as an actor, he had minor roles in movies like Do Anjaane (1976) and Phool Khile Hain Gulshan Gulshan (1978). However, it was the low-budget espionage film Surakksha (1979) that propelled Chakraborty to fame. Additionally, Basu Chatterjee's film Prem Vivah (1979) was also a significant movie for Chakraborty in the late 1970s.
His collaboration with Deepak Bahry in 1979 with Tarana (1979) got him many hit films together in the 1980s, such as Humse Badhkar Kaun: The Entertainer (1998), Hum Se Hai Zamana (1983), and Woh Jo Hasina (1983).
Chakraborty debuted in Bengali cinema with Nadi Theke Sagare (1978), directed by Arabinda Mukhopadhyay. He impacted Hindi cinema in the 1980s with over 110 releases. He played Jimmy in the iconic 1982 film Disco Dancer (1982), which was the first film in India to gross Rs. 100 crores. He played dual roles for the first time in Taxi Chor (1980) and later played dual roles in 19 films.
Between 1990 and 1999, he appeared in over 100 movies and delivered several outstanding and unforgettable performances. Some of his notable works during this period include Agneepath (1990), which earned him the Filmfare Award for Best Supporting Actor, as well as hits like Shandar (1990) and Trinetra (1991).
He also won two National Film Awards for his role in Tahader Katha (1992) and Vivekananda (1998).
Chakraborty appeared on screen in several blockbusters in the mainstream Hindi film industry from 2000-2019. His film Elaan (2005) received massive appreciation from the audience and his critics. His movie Zor Lagaa Ke... Haiya! (2009) won multiple International awards, and critics appreciated Chal Chalein (2009) for its bold theme.
His next film Phir Kabhi (2008), was critically acclaimed and saw a direct-to-home (DTH) premiere in September 2009. The movie won as many as six awards in as many categories at the Los Angeles Reel Awards of 2009.
The Bhojpuri film, Bhole Shankar (2008) was Chakraborty's debut in the industry and is believed to be the biggest Bhojpuri film. He has played a role in films like Veer (2010) with Salman Khan and Golmaal 3 (2010) with Ajay Devgn. In 2012, he did three films with Akshay Kumar, OMG: Oh My God! (2012), Housefull 2 (2012), and Khiladi 786 (2012).
Chakraborty also made his Kannada debut with The Villain (2018), starring Shivarajkumar and Sudeep. He was also seen in The Kashmir Files (2022). Chakaraborty's web series, Bestseller (2022), was his debut in digital cinema through the OTT platform Amazon Prime.
Chakraborty is the recipient of three National Film Awards, two Filmfare Awards, one Screen Award, three BFJA Awards, two Anandalok Awards, one award from Stardust, one Annual Central European Bollywood Award, one Star Jahlsa Award, and one Star Jahlsa Award for his acting performance.
Chakraborty was the brand ambassador of Panasonic electronics in the late 1980s. He is the face of GoDaddy and the Manappuram Gold Loan for West Bengal state.
In 1979, he tied the knot with actress Helena Luke but their marriage lasted only for four months, and they separated, eventually getting a divorce. He then married another actress Yogeeta Bali in the same year. Together, they have four children - Mimoh, Ushmey Chakraborty, Namashi Chakraborty, and an adopted daughter named Dishani Chakraborty.- Actor
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Vishwanath Patekar (born on January 1, 1951 in Murud-Janjira, Maharashtra, India) is an actor, writer and filmmaker. He is known for his work on Ab Tak Chhappan (2004), Raajneeti (2010) and Parinda (1989). He made his acting debut in the early 70's and since then has been nominated for multiple awards. He won a National Film Award and a Filmfare award for his supporting role in Parinda (1989). He then won the Best Villain award for his role on Angaar (1992). He is a very controversial actor, know for his different acting style, dialogues and dialogue delivery. He is sometimes regarded as the Morgan Freeman of Bollywood. In 1995, he won the National Film Award as well as the Filmfare and the Screen awards for Best Actor for his role in Krantiveer (1994). He is also the only actor ever to win Filmfare Awards in the Best Actor, Best Supporting Actor and Best Villain categories. He was bestowed the highest privilege in acting in 2013 when he was awarded the Padma Shri award for his dedication in the field of Films and Arts.
Patekar is an alumnus of the Sir J.J. Institute of Applied Art, Mumbai and in September 2015, He established an organization, Naam Foundation with fellow Marathi actor Makarand Anaspure, which works to provide aid to farmers to overcome by drought conditions in Maharashtra, India. When he was awarded the Raj Kapoor award which carries a cash prize of Rs 10,00,000, he donated the entire amount towards drought relief activities in Maharashtra. Patekar was married to Neelkantee Patekar and they have a son Malhar Patekar but their marriage life did not go well and it resulted in a divorce.- Actor
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Naseeruddin Shah was born on July 20 1950, in Barabanki, a small village in Uttar Pradesh. He is a seasoned Bollywood actor and has received several awards for his notable performance in several movies. The actor has also been awarded the Padma Shri and the Padma Bhushan awards for his enormous contributions to Indian cinema.
Shah was born into a Nawab family. He studied at St. Anselm's Ajmer School in Rajasthan and St. Joseph's College in Nainital. He completed his graduation from the Aligarh Muslim University in 1971. He also attended the National School of Drama, New Delhi.
At the age of 19, Shah married Manara Sikri, who was 36 years old and a divorcee. Post one year of their marriage, their daughter Heeba Shah was born. However, the relationship didn't work out, and they decided to part ways after 12 years of marriage.
Shah met Ratna Pathak Shah, daughter of Dina Pathak and a Bollywood actor in the 1970s. They fell in love and went on to co-star in several films. They tied the knot in 1982. They have two sons together - Imaaduddin Shah and Vivaan Shah. The couple currently resides with their children in Mumbai.
At the age of 18, Shah acted in Sapnon Ka Saudagar (1968), starring Hema Malini and Raj Kapoor. However, his scene was removed before the release of the movie.
He made his Bollywood debut with an uncredited role in Aman in 1967, a film starring Rajendra Kumar Tuli and Saira Banu. From then onwards, he went on to feature in various movies like Nishant (1975), Jaane Bhi Do Yaaro (1983), Jaane Bhi Do Yaaro (1983), Katha (1983) and Junoon (1979).
In 1974, Shah founded a theatre company called Motley Productions, and their inaugural production was Waiting for Godot. He is also part of a theatre troupe and has performed across different cities like New Delhi, Lahore, and Mumbai. He has directed a few plays written by Lavender Kumar, Ismat Chughtai and Saadat Hasan Manto.
He started gaining popularity with his films Hum Paanch (1980) and Masoom (1983), which was shot at St Joseph's College, Nainital, where Shah had studied during his childhood. Another movie called Karma (1986), where he starred beside Dilip Kumar gained much acclaim.
Shah has been a part of several multi-star Bollywood movies like Ghulami (1985), Tridev (1989), and Tridev (1989). In 1994, he completed his 100th movie as an actor with Mohra (1994), where he played the role of a villain.
Shah has also been a part of international projects like the Hollywood adaptation of The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (2003). He played the role of Captain Nemo in the film, which gained him a lot of praise.
In 2003, he acted in Vishal Bhardwaj's Maqbool (2003), an Indian adaptation of Macbeth, and in 2004, he appeared in Rajiv Rai's Asambhav (2004) with Arjun Rampal and Priyanka Chopra.
Shah has won several awards, including three National Film Awards, three Filmfare awards, one IIFA award and two Bengal Film Journalists' Association awards. He also received the Volpi Cup for Best Actor at the Venice Film Festival in 1984.- Actor
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Nawazuddin Siddiqui (born 1974) is an Indian film actor who has appeared in some of Bollywood's major films including, Black Friday (2004), New York (2009), Peepli Live (2010), Kahani (2012), Gangs of Wasseypur (2012) and Gangs of Wasseypur - Part 2 (2012).
Early life and education
Nawazuddin Siddiqui is from Budhana a small town of Muzaffarnagar district in Uttar Pradesh, where his father is a farmer. [2][3][4] Siddiqui grew up amongst nine siblings, seven brothers and two sisters. [5][2]
After graduating in science from a local college, he worked as a chemist in a petrochemical company for a short while. But boredom set in soon, and he moved to Delhi, here in the next one and a half year period, he started watching plays, while working a watchman at an office. He got associated with Sakshi Theatre Group and worked with actors like Manoj Bajpai and Saurabh Shukla.
Eventually he graduated from the The National School of Drama (NSD), New Delhi in 1996.Now he is a well known actor. Career
After graduating from NSD, he moved to Mumbai. Nawazuddin made his Bollywood debut in 1999, with a small role in Sarfarosh starring Aamir Khan. After moving to Mumbai he tried to get work in television, but did not achieve much success. After his debut, he appeared in short roles, where he remained unnoticed, despite his strong performances. He did a short film, The Bypass in 2003, where he appeared with actor, Irrfan Khan. Between 2002 and 2005, he was out of work, and lived in an apartment where he shared with four others, and struggled through his acting carrier by conducting occasional acting workshops. His appearance in Anurag Kashyap's Black Friday (2007) paved way for other powerful roles. His first lead role in a feature film was in Prashant Bhargava's PATANG, which premiered at the Berlin Film Festival, for which Nawazuddin's performance was praised by the world renowned film critic Roger Ebert (awarding the film 4 stars), a role which 'transformed his acting styles'. In 2009, he appeared in a cameo role in hit song "emotional attyachar" in a movie Dev D, in his moniker as Rangila along with his duo Rasila (known together as Patna ke Presley). However it was his role of a journalist in Aamir Khan Productions's Peepli Live (2010). That movie first got him a recognition as an actor. This was followed by a role as police informer Gopi in biopic, Paan Singh Tomar, directed by Tigmanshu Dhulia, also in the same year.
He, however became a household name post Kahaani (2012), where he played the archetypal short tempered cop Khan. Gangs of Wasseypur followed which furthered his fame. He played his first lead role as Sonu Duggal in Ashim Ahluwalia's Miss Lovely that premiered at the 2012 Cannes Film Festival, a role Nawazuddin describes as his "most real performance so far." Nawazuddin also played a lead role in his following films, Gangs of Wasseypur - Part II and Aatma. He appeared in Aamir Khan's 2012 release, Talash. Gangs of Wasseypur has been touted as a career defining film for Nawazuddin, where he played the role of Faizal Khan, a second son of Sardar Khan, played by Manoj Bajpai. His gaudy style of dress, magnificent accent and out-of-the-way mannerism in Gangs of Wasseypur left an impression on Bollywood critics. His film PATANG, initially released in the U.S. and Canada, garnered much attention for Nawazuddin with rave reviews from the New York Times, Los Angeles Times and Roger Ebert.
Siddiqui is best known for his roles in The Lunchbox (2013), which premiered as part of the International Critics' Week at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival and won him multiple awards, Manto (2018), for which his groundbreaking performance won him Best Actor at the 2018 Asian Pacific Screen Awards[8] and Raman Raghav 2.0 for which he won the Fancine Malaga Award in Spain[9] and in Asia Pacific Screen Awards[10] both in the category of Best Actor. Nawazuddin Siddiqui is the only Actor in the world having 8 films officially selected and screened at the prestigious Cannes Film Festival.[11] Inspite of being very busy with film shoots, Siddiqui continues to take time out to do farming in his native place in Uttar Pradesh (North India).[12] He is an active motivational speaker, drawing on his struggles and experiences to inspire. He stars in two Emmy nominated series, Sacred Games (2019), a two-season Netflix original series for which he was conferred with the GQ - Men of the Year Award 2018 for the second time[13] and United Kingdom's McMafia directed by James Watkins. Recently Nawazuddin Siddiqui was awarded with the highest honorary, The Lesley Ho Asian Film Talent Award at the prestigious Singapore International Film Festival[14] for his globally appreciated series Sacred Games duology.- Actor
- Music Department
Neeraj is a multiple award winning film and theater actor, best known for his powerful performances in Ship of Theseus and Talvar. He won the Best Actor Awards at the Sakhalin International Film Festival in 2014 and the NBC Newsmakers Achievers' Awards in 2015. Neeraj is the owner of the renowned theater group Pravah, which he founded in 1996. Apart from his acting prowess, he is a trained martial artist and dancer. He most recently played leading roles in Hichki (2018) opposite Rani Mukherjee , The Field (2018) with Brendan Fraser and Once Again (2018) opposite Shefali Shah. He has also worked in Netflix's first Indian Original series Sacred Games and was most recently seen in Navdeep Singh's Laal Kaptaan. He is shooting for a Zee5 show and an Amazon show written by Sudip Sharma.- Actor
- Director
- Music Department
Om Prakash, born in Lahore, British India (now in Pakistan), was a highly regarded Indian character actor who made significant contributions to the Hindi film industry. With a career spanning over four decades, Om Prakash became known for his versatile performances and memorable portrayals of supporting characters.
Om Prakash made his debut in the film industry in the 1940s, initially playing small roles. However, it was in the 1950s that he gained recognition for his acting skills. He often portrayed the affable, humorous, and sometimes scheming characters in Hindi films, earning him a place as one of the prominent character actors of his time.
Throughout the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s, Om Prakash appeared in numerous Bollywood films, collaborating with legendary actors and directors. Some of his notable works include "Chupke Chupke" (1975), "Jab Jab Phool Khile" (1965), and "Dus Lakh" (1966). His ability to infuse humor and warmth into his characters, coupled with his distinctive voice, made him a favorite among audiences.
Apart from his acting career, Om Prakash also ventured into film production. He produced several films, including the critically acclaimed "Chupke Chupke."
Om Prakash received recognition for his contributions to the film industry and won the Filmfare Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role in "Aadmi Aur Insaan" (1969). He was known for his professionalism, dedication, and the ability to add depth to even the smallest roles.
Tragically, Om Prakash passed away on February 21, 1998, leaving behind a legacy of memorable performances and a significant impact on Hindi cinema. His contribution as a character actor, often playing the lovable and wise elderly figure, continues to be celebrated, and he remains a respected figure in the history of Bollywood.- Actor
- Additional Crew
- Music Department
Om Puri was an Indian actor who has appeared in both mainstream Indian films and art films. His credits also include appearances in British and American films. He has received an honorary OBE.
Puri was born in Ambala, Haryana. His father worked on the railways and served in the Indian Army. Puri graduated from the Film and Television Institute of India. He is also an alumnus of the 1973 class of National School of Drama where Naseeruddin Shah was a co-student.
Puri had worked in numerous Indian films and in many films produced in the United Kingdom and the United States. He made his film debut in the 1976 film Ghashiram Kotwal, based on a Marathi play of the same name. He has claimed that he was paid "peanuts" for his best work. He had collaborated with Amrish Puri as well as Naseeruddin Shah, Shabana Azmi and Smita Patil in art films such as Bhavni Bhavai (1980), Sadgati (1981), Ardh Satya (1982), Mirch Masala (1986) and Dharavi (1992). He had been active in cinema. He was critically acclaimed for his performances in many unconventional roles such as a victimized tribal in Aakrosh (1980) (a film in which he spoke only during flash-back sequences); Jimmy's manager in Disco Dancer (1982); a police inspector in Ardh Satya (1982), where he revolts against life-long social, cultural and political persecution and for which he got the National Film Award for Best Actor; the leader of a cell of Sikh militants in Maachis (1996); as a tough cop again in the commercial film Gupt in 1997; and as the courageous father of a martyred soldier in Dhoop (2003). In 1999, Puri acted in a Kannada movie A.K. 47 as a strict police officer who tries to keep the city safe from the underworld - it became a huge commercial hit. Puri's acting in the movie is very memorable. He has rendered his own voice for the Kannada dialogues. In the same year, he starred in the successful British comedy film East is East, where he played a first-generation Pakistani immigrant in the north of England, struggling to come to terms with his far more westernized children. Om Puri had a cameo in the highly acclaimed film Gandhi (1982, directed by Richard Attenborough). In the mid-1990s, he diversified to play character roles in mainstream Hindi cinema, where his roles are more tuned to mass audiences than film critics. He became known internationally by starring in many British films such as My Son the Fanatic (1997), East Is East (1999) and The Parole Officer (2001). He appeared in Hollywood films including City of Joy (1992), opposite Patrick Swayze; Wolf (1994) alongside Jack Nicholson; and The Ghost and the Darkness (1996) opposite Val Kilmer. In 2007, he appeared as General Zia-ul-Haq in Charlie Wilson's War, which stars Tom Hanks and Julia Roberts. He has worked in Hindi television serials like Kakkaji Kaheen (1988) (roughly meaning "Uncle says") as a paan-chewing 'Kakkaji', which was a parody on politicians, and Mr. Yogi (1989) as a suave 'Sutradhaar' who enjoys pulling the protagonist's leg. These two serials underlined Om Puri's versatility as a comedian. He received critical acclaim for him performance in Govind Nihalani's television film Tamas (1987) based on a Hindi novel of the same name. He essayed comic roles in Hindi films like Jaane Bhi Do Yaaro which reached a cult status, followed by Chachi 420 (1997), Hera Pheri (2000), Chor Machaye Shor (2002) and Malamaal Weekly (2006). His more recent Hindi film roles include Singh Is Kinng, Mere Baap Pehle Aap and Billu. Puri was seen in the role of Mohammad Ali Kasuri in Road to Sangam (2009). In 2010, he appeared in The Hangman. In 2011 he was in the Indian action movie Don 2. He had also worked in Aahat TV Series in some episodes during second season which was aired between 2004-2005 on Sony channel.- Actor
- Director
- Writer
Pankaj Kapur, born in Ludhiana, Punjab, India, is a highly respected Indian actor, director, and playwright known for his exceptional contributions to the world of Indian cinema, television, and theater. With a career spanning over four decades, Pankaj Kapur has carved a niche for himself with his versatility, nuanced performances, and creative endeavors.
Pankaj Kapur began his acting journey in the theater, where he honed his skills and gained recognition for his exceptional talent. He made his mark in the world of television with the critically acclaimed series "Karamchand" (1985-1988), where he portrayed the titular character of the quirky detective Karamchand.
In Bollywood, Pankaj Kapur's film career took off with films like "Mandi" (1983) and "Ek Doctor Ki Maut" (1990), where he showcased his ability to portray complex and layered characters. However, it was his collaboration with filmmaker Vishal Bhardwaj that brought him widespread acclaim.
Pankaj Kapur delivered memorable performances in Vishal Bhardwaj's films, including "Maqbool" (2003), "The Blue Umbrella" (2005), and "Matru Ki Bijlee Ka Mandola" (2013). His collaborations with Bhardwaj were marked by their depth and authenticity, establishing Pankaj Kapur as a powerhouse performer in the industry.
Apart from his acting career, Pankaj Kapur has directed and produced television shows and films. His directorial venture, "Mausam" (2011), showcased his prowess behind the camera as well.
Pankaj Kapur is also known for his contribution to theater, where he has been associated with iconic productions. His work as a playwright and actor in plays like "Dopehri" has received critical acclaim and demonstrated his commitment to diverse forms of storytelling.
In recognition of his exceptional contribution to Indian cinema and entertainment, Pankaj Kapur has received numerous awards, including the National Film Award for Best Supporting Actor for "Raakh" (1989) and the National Film Award for Best Actor for "Ek Doctor Ki Maut" (1991).
Pankaj Kapur continues to be an influential figure in the Indian entertainment industry, maintaining a balance between cinema, television, and theater.- Pankaj Tripathi is a well-known Indian actor who has made a significant contribution to Indian cinema. Born to Pandit Benares Tiwari, a priest and Hemanti Devi, Tripathi had a humble upbringing in a small town in Bihar, India.
Tripathi, as a child, participated in a few amateur plays where he played the role of a girl. However, he was not actively involved in the world of acting at that time. While studying in class 12, Tripathi's interest in theatre was sparked when he watched a play named Andha Kuan. Actor Pranita Jaiswal's emotional performance moved him to tears, which further intensified his passion for theatre. Later on, Tripathi relocated to Patna to pursue Higher education in Hotel management training and this is where his life took a new direction.
He would often cycle his way to see all the stage shows that were held in Patna from 1994 - 1995. By 1996, Tripathi stopped being in the audience and took to becoming a performer. Tripathi also worked the night shift in a hotel kitchen during this time.
His interest in acting led him to complete his graduation in Hindi literature and enrol at the National School of Drama (NSD) in Delhi, which he completed in 2004. He then moved to Mumbai.
Tripathi's initial years in the films saw him playing minor roles in several films, including Run (2004), Apaharan (2005), Omkara (2006), Shaurya (2008), Raavan (2010), Children's Party (2011), and Agneepath (2012), among others. In many of these movies, he played the role of an antagonist.
After working for about eight years, Tripathi got his first major role onscreen in the Gangs of Wasseypur (2012). The movie was a two-part gangster movie directed by Anurag Kashyap based on the coal mafia. The movie received rave reviews from critics and was included in the list of 100 best films of the 21st century by The Guardian.
Following this, Tripathi worked in several other movies, such as Dabangg 2 (2012), ABCD (Any Body Can Dance) (2013), Fukrey (2013), Singham Returns (2014), Dilwale (2015), Nil Battey Sannata (2015), Bareilly Ki Barfi (Seeking True Love (2017)), Fukrey Returns (2017), and Super 30 (2019).
Tripathi was also seen in Neeraj Ghaywan's independent drama film Masaan (2015). He played a small but impactful role of a small-town government official who has an amicable nature.
He went on to play the lead role in Shanker Raman's neo-noir thriller Gurgaon (2017). In the same year, he appeared in a prominent role in Newton (2017), a dark comedy-drama directed by Amit Masurkar. The film premiered at the 67th Berlin International Film Festival under the Forum section.
Newton won the National Film Award for Best Feature Film in Hindi 2017. Tripathi earned a special mention for his performance in the movie at the National Film Awards held in 2018. Newton was selected as the official Indian entry for the 90th Academy Awards held in 2017 under the Best Foreign Language Film.
Tripathi appeared in Pa. Ranjith action drama Kaala (2018) starring Rajinikanth and Nana Patekar the following year. It marked his debut in Tamil cinema. His next film was Stree (2018), a horror-comedy directed by Amar Kaushik. It was a huge commercial success and earned about Rs. 180 crores worldwide. For his performance in this movie, Tripathi won the Best Supporting Actor Award at the Star Screen Awards 2018.
Tripathi appeared in a supporting role in Gunjan Saxena: The Kargil Girl (2020). He played the role of a progressive father who was supportive of his daughter's dreams. His character believes in gender equality and encourages his daughter to break the bonds of patriarchy and reach for her dreams.
He also worked in Ludo (2020), directed by Anurag Basu.
Tripathi was also seen in prominent roles in Kaagaz (2021), Mimi (2021), '83 (2021), and Sherdil (2022). He has also acted in various TV series, such as Time Bomb (2005), Zindgi Ka Har Rang ... Gulaal (2010), Powder (2010), and Sarojini - Ek Nayi Pehal (2015).
Tripathi has been a part of several web series as well, including Sacred Games (2018), Mirzapur (2018), Criminal Justice (2019), Criminal Justice: Behind Closed Doors (2020), Criminal Justice: Adhura Sach (2022), and Gulkanda Tales.
His performance in Mirzapur (2018) won him Best Actor - Drama at the iReel Awards 2019 and Best Actor - Web Series at the Indian Television Academy Awards 2021. - Producer
- Actor
- Soundtrack
Paresh Rawal is a renowned Indian film actor, comedian, and producer best known for his work in Bollywood films. He has also worked in Telugu, a few Tamil, and a few Gujarati movies. Highly versatile, he has essayed several types of characters, including comic, serious, and villainous character roles.
Born and brought up in Bombay (now Mumbai), he is an alumnus of Narsee Monjee College of Commerce & Economics, Mumbai. He started doing Gujarati theatres after graduating from Bombay University in 1974.
He entered Bollywood with the film Holi (1984), playing a supporting role. He also acted in the Doordarshan TV serial Bante Bigadte (1985). However, he got his first big break in Naam (1986) the following year.
He went on to act in over 100 films between the 1980s and the 1990s. He essayed mostly negative characters in films such as, Kabzaa (1988), Roop Ki Rani Choron Ka Raja (1993), King Uncle (1993), and Baazi (1995).
In Ketan Mehta's Sardar (1993), he played the lead role of freedom fighter Vallabhbhai Patel. According to him, this was a turning point for him as an actor, as studying the character of Sardar Patel in detail inspired him to work harder and improve upon his craft. He also states that it changed him, giving him a deeper understanding of Indian history and helping him appreciate these great legends' sacrifices to achieve freedom for the nation.
Rawal started with comedy in Andaz Apna Apna (1994), where he played a double role. His easy, effortless, and natural acting wowed critics and the masses.
Rawal has won acclaim for his work in the Telugu film industry, such as Kshana Kshanam (1991), Money (1993), Govindha Govindha (1993), Rikshavodu (1995), and Bavagaru Bagunnara? (1998).
His other noteworthy works in Hindi cinema include Shiva (1990), Mohra (1994), Tamanna (1998), Aitraaz (2004), Table No. 21 (2013), and Zila Ghaziabad (2013).
Rawal achieved recognition, both as a comedian and as a supporting actor in films, including Chachi 420 (1997), Nayak: The Real Hero (2001), Aankhen (2002), Awara Paagal Deewana (2002), Garam Masala (2005), Chup Chup Ke (2006), Welcome (2007), Oye Lucky! Lucky Oye! (2008), Atithi Tum Kab Jaoge? (2010), OMG: Oh My God! (2012), Tiger Zinda Hai (2017), Sanju (2018), and Uri: The Surgical Strike (2019).
In 2000, he played the unintelligent but kind Marathi landlord Baburao Ganpatrao Apte in Hera Pheri (2000). His performance won him the Filmfare Best Comedian Award. The sequel, Phir Hera Pheri (2006), was equally successful, leaving audiences begging for more. He is still remembered for this role.
Rawal went on to play the lead role in Aankhen (2002), where he depicted one of the three blind men who planned to rob a bank. Co-starring Amitabh Bachchan, Aditya Pancholi, Akshay Kumar, Arjun Rampal, and Sushmita Sen, this film established him as a master of comedy. Over the next few years, he mostly played comic roles.
In 2010, he appeared based on honour killing in the film Aakrosh (2010). In 2021, Rawal appeared in Toofaan (2021), a sports-based movie directed by Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra and starring Farhan Akhtar, who plays a national-level boxer. The film started streaming worldwide on July 16, 2021, on Amazon Prime Video.
Having worked in over 240 films, Rawal has won numerous accolades and awards, including the National Film Awards 1994: Best Supporting Actor for Sir (1993), and IIFA Awards 2001: Best Performance for Hera Pheri (2000). He also won the Producers Guild Film Awards 2010: Best Actor in a Comic Role: Atithi Tum Kab Jaoge? (2010).
Rawal is also a politician. He was victorious as the Bharatiya Janata Party's Member of Parliament (MP) from the Ahmedabad East constituency in the 2014 Indian general election. On September 10, 2020, the President of India appointed him as the National School of Drama Chairperson.- Actor
- Costume and Wardrobe Department
- Production Manager
Pawan Malhotra, born in Delhi, India, is a versatile Indian actor known for his impactful performances in Bollywood films, television, and regional cinema. With a career spanning several decades, Pawan Malhotra has earned acclaim for his ability to portray diverse characters with authenticity and depth.
Pawan Malhotra started his acting journey with theater and made a seamless transition to the world of cinema. He made his mark in Bollywood with notable performances in the late 1980s and early 1990s. One of his early acclaimed roles was in the film "Bagh Bahadur" (1989), directed by Buddhadeb Dasgupta, where he portrayed the lead character with nuance and sensitivity.
Throughout his career, Pawan Malhotra has portrayed a wide range of characters, from supporting roles to lead roles, in both mainstream and parallel cinema. His performances in films like "Salim Langde Pe Mat Ro" (1989), "Black Friday" (2004), and "Bhaag Milkha Bhaag" (2013) have showcased his versatility and ability to immerse himself in the roles he undertakes.
In addition to Hindi cinema, Pawan Malhotra has been active in regional films, particularly Punjabi cinema, where he has delivered impactful performances. His commitment to storytelling and authenticity in his portrayals has garnered him appreciation from audiences and critics alike.
Pawan Malhotra has also made a significant impact on Indian television with roles in popular shows like "Nukkad" (1986-1987) and "Pradhanmantri" (2013). His work on the small screen has contributed to his recognition as a seasoned actor across various mediums.
Apart from his acting career, Pawan Malhotra has been associated with social and cultural initiatives. His dedication to his craft, combined with his commitment to meaningful storytelling, has established him as a respected figure in the Indian entertainment industry.
Pawan Malhotra continues to be an active and influential presence in Indian cinema, delivering memorable performances across different genres.- Actor
- Director
Prithviraj Kapoor was born on 3 November 1906 in Samundri, Punjab, British India. He was an actor and director, known for Mughal-E-Azam (1960), Maharathi Karna (1944) and Bidyapati (1937). He was married to Rama Kapoor. He died on 29 May 1972 in Bombay, Maharashtra, India.- Actor
- Producer
- Director
Prakash Raj is an established actor, producer, director, and television presenter in the Indian film industry. He is known for his works in South Indian and Hindi films.
Starting in the early 90s, he went on to appear in about 400 films. He has received several awards and accolades in his career, spanning more than three decades.
Raj was born in Bengaluru, Karnataka, India, to Manjunath Rai and Swarnalatha Raj. Actor Prasad Raj is his brother. His original name is Prakash Rai. He started using the surname Raj instead of Rai on the advice of director K. Balachander.
Raj studied at St. Joseph's Indian High School and St. Joseph's College of Commerce in Bengaluru. His first brush with acting was in a play he did in seventh grade. Later, when he was in college, he began acting in theatre but didn't think much about it.
His love for stage shows developed after he started going to Kalakshetra in Bengaluru and participating in theatre rehearsals. He used to perform in back-to-back stage shows for a meagre monthly payment of Rs. 300. After performing in 2,000 street theatre shows, he felt the urge to explore bigger opportunities in this field.
His journey into the acting world started with television. He also worked in the film industry as an assistant director and editor, then got the opportunity to act in films.
Raj started his acting career on television with serials like Guddada Bhootha (Kannada and Tulu) and Bisilu Kudure (Kannada) that were aired on Doordarshan. Later, he started acting in Kannada movies in supporting roles.
His performance in Harakeya Kuri (1992) caught the attention of the movie's lead actress Geetha. She introduced Raj to director K. Balachander, who gave him the scope to play a major role in his Tamil film Duet (1994).
After appearing in a few more Tamil and Kannada movies, he made his debut in Telugu cinema in 1995 with Sankalpam (1995). The same year, he appeared in Mani Ratnam's Tamil romantic drama Bombay (1995). It featured among the top 20 Indian movies in the rankings of the British Film Institute.
Raj ventured into Malayalam cinema in 1996 with The Prince (1996), helmed by Suresh Krishna. He played an antagonist in K. Balachander's Kalki (1996), for which he won the Tamil Nadu State Film Award 1996 for Best Villain.
After acting in a few more movies, such as Priyam (1996), Pavitra Bandham (1996), Alexander (1996), Suswagatham (1997), and Hitler (1997), he appeared in Mani Ratnam's political drama Iruvar (1997). The film revolves around the relationship between two politicians. Raj received the National Film Award 1997 for Best Supporting Actor for his performance.
He then appeared in a prominent role in T.S. Nagabharana's film Nagamandala (1997), which was among the selected movies for the International Film Festival of India in 1997 under the Indian Panorama.
He continued to appear in several other movies before playing a pivotal role in Anthahpuram (1998). The film revolves around a feudal society. Raj won the National Film Award 1998 for Best Actor (Special Jury) for his performance.
In Vaanavil (2000), Raj played the role of an antagonist, which earned him the Tamil Nadu State Film Award 2000 for Best Villain.
He essayed the role of Kaala Bhairavan in the Indian fantasy drama Little John (2001). He was seen in a supporting role in the war film Kannathil Muthamittal (2002). He won the ITFA Best Supporting Actor Award in 2003 for portraying the character of Dr Herold Vikramesinghe in the film.
In 2004, he acted in Rajkumar Santoshi's Hindi thriller action movie Khakee (2004), starring Amitabh Bachchan, Ajay Devgn, Akshay Kumar, Atul Kulkarni, and Aishwarya Rai Bachchan. The film revolved around an Indian police team and its assignment involving an accused terrorist. Raj played the role of a corrupt ACP in the movie.
He essayed the character of DCP Prabhakar in Anniyan (2005), a psychological thriller helmed by S. Shankar. The story revolved around a disillusioned common man and his multiple personality disorder. He received the Tamil Nadu State Film Award 2005 for Best Villain for his performance in this movie.
Raj was then seen in the role of a silk weaver in Priyadarshan's period drama film Kanchivaram (2008), starring opposite Shreya Reddy. The film highlighted the miserable condition of silk weavers as they struggled through life in Kanchipuram. It was screened at the 33rd Toronto International Film Festival held in 2008. He won the National Film Award 2007 for Best Actor and the Filmfare Award 2009 for Best Actor in Tamil for his acting in the movie.
He appeared in the role of a villain in several Bollywood films as well, including Wanted (2009), Singham (2011), Dabangg 2 (2012), and Mumbai Mirror (2013).
In Singham, he played the role of a powerful politician cum criminal who creates problems for the protagonist police officer. He won the Zee Cine Award 2012 for Best Actor in a Negative Role for this movie.
In 2015, he starred with Kamal Hassan in the pacy action thriller Thoongaa Vanam (2015). He then appeared in T.J. Gnanavel's legal drama Jai Bhim (2021). He went on to feature in films like Sita Ramam (2022) and Ponniyin Selvan: Part I (2022).
Raj was previously married to actress Lalitha Kumari. The couple legally separated in 2009. They have two daughters, Pooja and Meghna. They also had a son named Sidhu, who passed away in 2004. Raj married Pony Prakash Raj Verma, a choreographer, in 2010. Their son Vedhanth was born in 2015.- Actor
- Producer
- Additional Crew
Pran was one of the leading character actors of Indian cinema. He was born on 12 February,1920 at Delhi. Pran was educated at different places namely Kapurthala, Unnao, Meerut, Dehradun and Rampur as his father late Lala Kewal Krishnan Sikand was a Government Civil Contractor for the construction of roads and bridges. Pran started his career by learning photography in Lahore. A chance meeting with a film producer, got him his first break in 'Yamla Jat' in 1940.
Married in 1945 to Shukla, he had two sons Arvind and Sunil, and one daughter Pinky. At partition in 1947, Pran came to Mumbai and restarted his film career after a brief struggle. He acted in over 400 films in a variety of roles. As a villain, in films like 'Ram Aur Shyam' people shuddered with fear and hated him, and yet loved him as the good, unforgettable 'Mangal chacha' in 'Upkar'. He went on to star in films with the leading actors of various decades from Raj Kapoor, Dilip Kumar, Dev Anand, Rajendra Kumar, Rajesh Khanna, Amitabh Bachchan, Dharmendra to Sanjay Dutt, Sunny Deol and Salman Khan. He was among the highest paid and most sought after character actors of his time, starring in some of the biggest and most acclaimed films of all time.
Being a sports lover and a good sportsmen he had his own football team "Dynamos Football Club" which he financed for a number of years in the fifties. Along with his film career he had been engaged in a number of Social activities, including the Chief Minister's Relief Fund, Maratha Sikshan Sanatha, Film Industry Welfare Trust. He had organised charity events and cricket matches, as well as the 'Hope 86' and 'Hope 87' shows for the needy people in the film industry.
Under the patronage of the Late, His Excellency Nawab Ali Yawar Jung, Pran presented a number of charity shows for the refugees of Bangladesh and for the deaf and dumb.
In an illustrious career of over six decades, Pran was bestowed with many awards including 4 Filmfare Awards, Villain of the Millennium honour from Stardust, Padma Bhushan, India's third highest civilian award from the Government of India in 2000 and the DadaSaheb Phalke Award for Lifetime Achievement (highest honour for cinema in India) from the Government of India in 2012. He died on 12 July 2013 at the age of 93 after a prolonged illness in Mumbai's Lilavati Hospital.- Actor
- Writer
- Editor
Kulbhushan Pandit, also known as Raaj Kumar, was a distinguished Indian actor renowned for his unique dialogue delivery.
Kumar completed his education and joined as a Sub-Inspector with the Bombay Police in the late 1940s. Although he began his career in law enforcement, his passion for acting led him to the film industry.
Kumar debuted as an actor in 1952 with the movie Rangili (1952). He appeared in the 1957 Oscar-nominated film Mother India (1957) before going on to star in more than 70 Hindi movies throughout a four-decade career.
Kumar gained recognition for his breakthrough in the 1957 film Nausherwan-E-Adil (1957), in which he played the role of Prince Naushazad. He was noted for portraying unglamorous and gritty characters, such as his role as a mill worker in Paigham (1959).
One of his most memorable performances, for which he bagged a Filmfare Award under the category of Best Supporting Actor, was his role as a cancer patient in Dil Ek Mandir (1963).
He also starred in movies like Waqt (1965), Heer Raanjha (1970), Pakeezah (1972), and more.
For a time after that, between the late 70s and early 80s, he worked in films that did not do very well before he made a successful comeback with Kudrat (1981). He went on to act in films like Ek Nai Paheli (1984), Itihaas (1987), Marte Dam Tak (1987), Mahaveera (1988), and more.
Kumar married Jennifer Pandit, an Anglo-Indian who worked as an air hostess. They had three kids: Vastvikta Pandit, his daughter who made her acting debut in 2006, and sons Panini Rajkumar and Puru Rajkumar, who both became actors.
Raaj Kumar and Dilip Kumar, with whom he had acted in Paigham, reunited on screen in Subhash Ghai's Saudagar (1991) in 1991 after 32 years. Tirangaa (1992) was his final hit movie, and God and Gun (1995) was the last film he acted in.
Kumar succumbed to throat cancer and passed away on July 3, 1996.- Actor
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Raghubir Yadav, born in Jabalpur, Madhya Pradesh, India, is a highly accomplished Indian actor, music composer, and singer known for his significant contributions to Indian cinema and theater. With a career spanning several decades, Raghubir Yadav has showcased his versatility through memorable performances across a variety of roles.
Raghubir Yadav started his acting journey in the world of theater, gaining recognition for his work with the National School of Drama (NSD) in New Delhi. His talent and dedication to the craft led him to explore multiple facets of the performing arts.
In Bollywood, Raghubir Yadav made a notable debut with the critically acclaimed film "Massey Sahib" (1985), directed by Pradip Krishen. However, he gained widespread recognition and popularity for his role as the endearing Chacha (Uncle) in the iconic film "Lagaan: Once Upon a Time in India" (2001). His portrayal of a rustic and wise character earned him accolades and showcased his ability to seamlessly transition between genres.
Raghubir Yadav's filmography includes a diverse range of roles in both mainstream and parallel cinema. He has been a part of acclaimed films such as "Peepli Live" (2010), "Newton" (2017), and "Angoor" (1982), among others. His performances often reflect authenticity, whether he is playing comedic roles or those with dramatic depth.
In addition to his acting prowess, Raghubir Yadav is known for his musical talents. He has contributed as a music composer and playback singer in films and has showcased his musical abilities on various platforms.
Raghubir Yadav's association with theater remains a significant aspect of his career. He has been actively involved in stage performances and has worked with esteemed theater groups, including NSD Repertory Company.
Over the years, Raghubir Yadav has received several awards for his outstanding contributions to the field of acting, including the National Film Award for Best Supporting Actor for "Peepli Live" (2010). His dedication to his craft, combined with his ability to connect with audiences, has made him a respected and beloved figure in the Indian entertainment industry.
Raghubir Yadav continues to be an active and influential presence in Indian cinema, engaging audiences with his captivating performances.- Actor
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Raj Babbar, born in Tundla, Uttar Pradesh, India, is a renowned Indian actor and politician. With a career spanning several decades, Raj Babbar has made significant contributions to Indian cinema and has been actively involved in politics.
Raj Babbar began his acting career in the late 1970s and quickly gained recognition for his talent and versatility. His early notable films include "Insaaf Ka Taraazu" (1980), where he played a pivotal role, and "Nikaah" (1982), where his performance earned critical acclaim. Raj Babbar often portrayed characters with depth and emotional complexity, showcasing his acting prowess.
Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, Raj Babbar was a prominent figure in Bollywood, featuring in films like "Aaj Ki Awaaz" (1984), "Jeetendra" (1985), and "Dilwale" (1994). His on-screen presence and ability to bring authenticity to his characters made him a respected actor in the industry.
In addition to his film career, Raj Babbar has been active in Indian politics. He joined the Indian National Congress party and served as a Member of Parliament (MP) in the Lok Sabha. His political career has seen various roles, including a stint as the president of the Uttar Pradesh Congress Committee.
Raj Babbar's commitment to social causes and advocacy for the rights of artists has been noteworthy. His involvement in both the entertainment industry and politics reflects a dedication to addressing societal issues.
Raj Babbar continues to be associated with both acting and politics. He remains an influential figure in the cultural and political landscape of India.- Actor
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Rajpal Yadav was born in Shahjahanpur to Mr. Naurang Yadav and Mrs. Godavari Yadav. He is an Indian actor, comedian, writer, music producer, film producer and director who works in the Bollywood & Hollywood industry. He is known for working in films like Hungama (2003), Taarzan: The Wonder Car (2004), Phir Hera Pheri (2006), Khatta Meetha (2010), Ata Pata Lapatta (2012), Coolie No. 1 (2020) etc. He is married to Radha Yadav, a film producer, since June 10, 2003 with whom he has two daughters, Moni & Honey. He is also one of the greatest comedians in India.- Actor
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Raj Kapoor was the son of well-known Indian actor Prithviraj Kapoor, who acted both in film and on stage. After apprenticing in the Bollywood production studios of the 1940's, at 24 years of age Raj Kapoor produced, directed and acted in Aag (1948), with his new company, RK Films. His next production, Barsaat (1949), was a smash hit. In 1951, he also produced, directed and starred in Awaara (1951), which was another megahit, and costarred Nargis, who had appeared in Aag and Barsaat. Awaara also gained popular acclaim in Russia, where the movie and songs were dubbed into Russian. The theme song, Awaara Hoon, was popular in the East for many years. Kapoor has been dubbed "a great showman," and a filmmaker in the purest Romantic tradition, as he strove to entertain as well as address social themes close to his heart. Awaara dealt with the question of what forms an individual's moral grounding, ("nurture or nature") while incorporating comedy and stirring love scenes; in Shree 420 (1955) he addressed issues of poverty, unemployment and national pride in the new Indian state at the same time maintaining the audience's interest in the romantic plot. While never revolutionary in tone, many of his films explore the ability of the individual to overcome economic and environmental injustice while maintaining his/her innocence and integrity. He is quoted as believing that the individual's struggles ultimately lead to the desire for love, to care and be cared for. This is consistent with his admiration of Charles Chaplin, and Kapoor's own "tramp" (Awaara, Shree 420, Mera Naam Joker (1970) is modeled somewhat on his mentor, though with a definite individual flair.
His films demonstrate an understanding of music and direction that continue to influence Bollywood filmmaking today. Also a musician, his understanding of the musical feel of his movies gives them a storytelling fluidity equal to that of the best American movie musicals. He surrounded himself with the foremost talents in filmmaking, acting, writing (Kwaja Ahmad Abbas'), music composition (Jaikishan Dayabhai Panchal, 'Shankarsinh Raguwanshi'), and playback singers, including Mukesh, 'Mohamed Rafi', and Lata Mangeshkar. Kapoor continued to make films of varying critical and popular success up until his death in 1988, and apparently considered Mera Naam Joker his personal favorite. He is still a well-known name not only in India, but in the Middle East, SE Asia, and Eastern Europe. His descendants have attempted to continue the RK Films banner.- Actor
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Rajendra was born in the Punjabi-speaking Tuli family on 20 July 1927, in Sialkot, British India (now located in Pakistan).
After the turbulent years of partition, at the age of 23, Rajendra got his first break in 'Jogan' during 1950. He attained fame in 'Mother India' during 1957, playing the son of Nargis Dutt.
He went on to star in many movies, most of them successful, and earned the nickname of 'Jubilee Kumar'.
He got married to Shukla, and they subsequently became parents of three children, a boy, Manoj, who would subsequently be an actor in his own rights and be re-named Kumar Gaurav, and two daughters.
After offers stopped on lead roles, he turned to character roles, as well as became a producer. He was successful in launching his son's career in 'Love Story'.
His son's marriage was initially arranged with Reema, the daughter of Raj Kapoor, but things did not work out, and his son went on to get married to Sunil and Nargis Dutt's daughter, Namrata, and shortly thereafter he became grandfather of Saachi and Siya.
He also produced another successful movie 'Naam', the star-cast included his son, and Sanjay Dutt.
He attained a PHD and had a title of 'Doctor' prefixed to his name. Known to refuse taking any medication, he succumbed to cancer on July 12, 1999, just a day after his son's 43rd birthday, and just 8 days before his 71st birthday.
His brother was producer Virendra Kumar who produced Mama Bhanja, Raaz etc.
He will always be remembered for his memorable performances in 'Dhool Ka Phool', 'Mere Mehboob', 'Sangam', 'Suraj', 'Arzoo', 'Aman' 'Ganwaar', 'Dil Ek Mandir', as well as 'Saajan Bina Suhagan'- Actor
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Son of Rishi Kapoor and Neetu Singh; nephew of actors Randhir Kapoor, Rajiv Kapoor, Kunal Kapoor. Grandnephew of actors Shashi Kapoor, Jennifer Kendal, Shammi Kapoor, Geeta Bali; cousin of actresses Kareena Kapoor, Karisma Kapoor.
Belongs to the fourth generation of highly prestigious and considered to be the first family of Bollywood (Hindi film industry): Kapoor Family.
He and his Saawariya (2007) co-star Sonam Kapoor assisted Sanjay Leela Bhansali on highly acclaimed movie Black (2005).- Actor
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Randeep Singh Hooda, known for his role as Saju in Netflix's original film Extraction, was born on 20th August 1976 in the city of Rohtak, Haryana, in India. He has lived in Middle Eastern countries like Libya and Iraq.
Acting Career: Hooda's debut film was Mira Nair's Oscar-nominated Monsoon Wedding. It won multiple awards globally, including a BAFTA and Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival. After Monsoon Wedding, Hooda joined noted Indian actor Naseeruddin Shah's theater troupe Motley, and dedicated many years of his life to theater in an attempt to immerse himself in the craft. Hooda's filmography is studded with both Mira Nair's and Deepa Mehta's films, who coincidentally were the only two directors from India to have gotten Oscar nominations in recent times. In 2005, Hooda was cast as the male lead in Ram Gopal Varma's gangster film D.
In 2010, Hooda appeared in Milan Luthria's 'Once Upon a Time in Mumbai'. The following year, Hooda featured in a National Award-winner, Tigmanshu Dhulia's romantic thriller 'Saheb, Biwi Aur Gangster'. His portrayal of a gangster who falls in love with a married woman while working as her driver earned rave reviews from critics. In 2012, he starred in Kunal Deshmukh's crime thriller 'Jannat 2', followed by Pooja Bhatt's erotic thriller 'Jism 2' opposite international adult star Sunny Leone. In 2013, he starred in Vishesh Film's 'Murder 3'. Later that year, Hooda acted in yet another National Award-winner, Ketan Mehta's biographical period film 'Rang Rasiya', based on the life of 19th-century Indian painter Raja Ravi Varma. He also featured in the thriller 'John Day', alongside Naseeruddin Shah. He then appeared in a segment directed by Karan Johar for the anthology film 'Bombay Talkies'. The film was made as a celebration of the 100th year of Indian cinema and was screened at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival. In 2014, Hooda appeared opposite Alia Bhatt in Imtiaz Ali's 'Highway'. To get used to his character, who was a kidnapper and had a cold, distant relationship with Bhatt's character, he avoided speaking to her for about twenty-five days. He then starred in Sajid Nadiadwala's action film 'Kick', which emerged as the biggest blockbuster that year.
In 2015, Hooda portrayed serial killer Charles Sobhraj in Prawaal Raman's Main Aur Charles. In 2016, Hooda starred in four films. The first was a drama thriller, Laal Rang. 'Sarabjit', was his next release, where he portrayed the role of Sarabjit Singh, who was captured by Pakistan and later sentenced to death by their Supreme Court for alleged terrorism. Hooda dramatically shed 30 kg to play a boxer then and gained 20 kg for the preparation of the role to play a prisoner, all in just a year's time. This feat drew awe and accolades from the film industry and critics alike. The film also premiered at the 69th Cannes Film Festival.
Hooda's next release was Deepak Tijori's 'Do Lafzon Ki Kahani'. His final release of 2016 was the sports drama 'Sultan'. In 2018, he returned to the silver screen again with 'Baaghi 2'. Due to his spiritually immersive approach towards his roles, Hooda has dedicated years to preparing for his characters and has also, on occasion, refused to leave the character behind. From 2016 to 2018 he dedicated himself to an unfinished film, "Battle of Saragarhi", about a Sikh character, where he grew his beard, hair and he refused to cut them as a devout Sikh and rejected further roles until that movie got finished. The film, which was based on the bravest last stands in human history, got eventually shelved.
It was during this time that he auditioned for Extraction, a Netflix production with the Russo Brothers. Extraction marks Hooda's debut into mainstream, commercial Hollywood and his first Netflix original film. He has garnered critical for his role of Saju. He is engaged with the following films:
1. Extraction, with Chris Hemsworth in the lead by Russo Brothers. 2. Radhe, as the antagonist, with Salman Khan in the main lead, work in progress. 3. Love Aaj Kal 2 in the lead role (released on 14th February 2020) where his work has been appreciated both among the public and industry fraternity. 4. Rat on a Highway, a single actor motion picture directed by Vivek Chauhan. 5. Mira Nair's film "A Suitable Boy", in a cameo appearance. 6. 'Unfair & lovely' as a lead role directed by Balwinder Singh.
Equestrian Sports: Randeep Hooda is the only Bollywood actor who regularly participates in professional equestrian sports, including polo and show jumping. He has always described riding as his "passion". He owns nine horses.
In 2009, Hooda won a silver medal at an open dressage event organized by the Equestrian Federation of India in Delhi. In 2014, he won seven medals, including three gold and two silver and bronze medals respectively, at the National Equestrian Championship in dressage and show-jumping events. Additionally, he has won a silver medal each at the Delhi Horse Show in 2009, and the Bombay Horse Show in 2011.
Social Activism: During the 2018 devastating Kerala floods, Hooda stood on ground zero in Kerala and provided relief work in person. He kept it under wraps till a local channel recognized him and put out a clip on twitter. The news then went on to become viral. He is the brand ambassador for Prayas, another NGO that rehabilitates delinquent juveniles. Hooda is very active in raising funds for them and often organizes and features in their fund raising campaigns. He has recently taken up the cause of tiger conservation and hopes to bring about a change in the human-animal conflict areas in India, which is the biggest cause of plummeting populations of big cats across the globe. Hooda got appointed by the United Nations Environment Program as ambassador for aquatic migratory species on 5th February 2020.- Actor
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Ranveer Singh Bhavnani was born in July 06, 1985 to Mr. Jagjit Singh Bhavnani & Mrs. Anju Bhavnani in Mumbai, Maharashtra. He is an Indian actor and model working in the Bollywood industry. Singh had always wanted to be an actor since his childhood. However, during his college days he felt that the idea of acting was far-fetched and focused on creative writing. While pursuing his Bachelor of Arts degree from Indiana University (Bloomington), Singh again became interested in acting and after coming back to India, he started auditioning for lead roles in the Hindi film industry. In 2010, Singh auditioned for the lead role in the Yash Raj Films venture called Band Baaja Baaraat (2010), and got selected. The romantic comedy was set in the world of wedding planning and required Singh to portray a typical Delhi guy called Bittoo Sharma. The director of the film, Maneesh Sharma, sent him to the Delhi University campus during the recess of the film, and from there, Singh drew his inspiration for the character. After its release, Band Baaja Baaraat (2010) became a critical and commercial success, with Singh's portrayal of Bittoo being lauded by critics. He went on to win the Filmfare Award for Best Male Debut award at the 56th Filmfare Awards.- Actor
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Rahul Bose, born in Kolkata, West Bengal, India, is a multi-talented Indian actor, director, screenwriter, social activist, and rugby player. Known for his versatility and intense performances, Rahul Bose has made significant contributions to Indian cinema and is recognized for his commitment to both artistic and social causes.
Rahul Bose began his acting career in the late 1990s with the critically acclaimed film "English, August" (1994), where he played the lead role of Agastya Sen. This marked the beginning of a career characterized by unconventional choices and a dedication to meaningful storytelling.
Throughout his career, Rahul Bose has been associated with a range of films that address diverse themes. Notable performances include his roles in "Mr. and Mrs. Iyer" (2002), "Chameli" (2003), and "15 Park Avenue" (2005), where he showcased his ability to portray complex and layered characters.
Apart from acting, Rahul Bose has ventured into directing and screenwriting. His directorial debut, "Everybody Says I'm Fine!" (2001), explored the lives of characters in a Mumbai hair salon and received positive reviews for its unique narrative.
In addition to his creative pursuits, Rahul Bose is actively involved in social activism. He is known for his work in areas such as education, healthcare, and disaster relief. He founded the NGO "The Foundation" in 2007, focusing on the development of rural India.
Rahul Bose's commitment to sports is also noteworthy. He has represented India in rugby and has been a vocal advocate for the promotion of sports at the grassroots level.
Rahul Bose continues to be a prominent figure in Indian cinema, balancing his acting career with social and sporting endeavors. His work reflects a dedication to diverse and meaningful storytelling, and he remains an influential personality in the realms of art and activism.- Actor
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On Stats Alone, The Most Popular Actor In The History Of Cinema!
The only actor to enjoy near God-like status across the length and breadth of India for a quarter century!
Elected in several expert online polls, as The Greatest Actor In The History Of World Cinema !
With 100+ All-Time Blockbusters- 48 Platinum Jubilee hits + 27 Golden Jubilee hits + 26 Silver Jubilee Hits, & 17 average hits, over 25 yrs.
So these quite wonderful film business websites have come up with a inflation adjusted analysis of few of his random films, which I shall present about now, just to open the eyes of today's audiences, to just the massive quantum of collections, achieved by this one actor alone. They've done this chronologically for just few of his mildly to very successful (~42/125 ie 1/3rd) lead/parallel lead films leaving out vast sums of his other massively successful films , from late 60s to late 90s, & only inflation-adjusted worldwide collection numbers, so audiences of today can get a decent idea.
1. Raaz - 284 Crores 2. Bandhan - 437 Crores 3. Aradhana - 1092 Crores 4. Ittefaq - 266 Crores 5. Doli - 344 Crores 6. Do Raaste - 1014 Crores 7. Kati Patang - 540 Crores 8. Safar - 426 Crores 9. The Train - 284 Crores 10. Sachcha Jhutha - 781 Crores 11. Aan Milo Sajna - 710 Crores 12. Amar Prem - 387 Crores 13. Mehboob Ki Mehndi - 233 Crores 14. Anand - 220 Crores 15. Haathi Mere Saathi - 903 Crores 16. Andaz - 516 Crores 17. Maryada - 581 Crores 18. Dushman - 644 Crores 19. Apna Desh - 492 Crores 20. Shehzada - 223 Crores 21. Daag - 689 Crores 22. Namak Haraam - 212 Crores 23. Aap Ki Kasam - 311 Crores 24. Prem Nagar - 440 Crores 25. Ajnabee - 243 Crores 26. Roti - 388 Crores 27. Prem Kahani - 168 Crores 28. Maha Chor - 143 Crores 29. Mehbooba - 177 Crores 30. Chhaila Babu - 197 Crores 31. Aashiq Hoon Baharon Ka - 146 Crores 32. Muqabla - 175 Crores 33. Amar Deep - 139 Crores 34. Thodisi Bewafai - 143 Crores 35. Kudrat - 174 Crores 36. Fiffty Fiffty - 179 Crores 37. Rajput - 339 Crores 38. Ashanti - 217 Crores 39. Dharam Kanta - 272 Crores 40. Maqsad - 318 Crores 41. Swarg - 85 Crores 42. Aa Ab Laut Chalen - 153 Crores
Have a look at that. And we've just begun checking (a random 1/3rd of his films) !
He was born on 29 December 1942 in Amritsar, Punjab, India, and entered Hindi films in the year 1965 when began shooting for Raaz and did 180 films - 163 feature films and 17 short films. By 2011, he held the record for maximum number of films as solo lead hero and least number of multi star cast films in Hindi Cinema. Of the 163 films - 106 were solo hero films and 22 were multi star films and 29 films had him in special effective guest appearances(though only 97 solo and 20 two hero films only released and 11 unreleased from 1966 till 2013).He ranked first and won the United Producers All India Contest held in 1965 by beating 10000 candidates and the prize of it was acting in films Akhri Khat and Raaz. He first tasted success as an actor with 3 consecutive hit films like Aakhri Khat,Raaz and Aurat.His first brush with super-stardom was when outburst from his fans forced the director to change the story of Baharaon Ke Sapne's ending from a tragic one to a happy one after 1 week of its release. Though Baharon Ke Sapne was average in some centers it was declared flop in most places. In 1969 Rajesh Khanna achieved super-stardom with Shakti Samantha's 'Aradhana" (1969).He became the craze of the nation, and critics across India started calling him the First Superstar of both Indian Cinema (No. 1 Actor) and Hindi Films and remained so alone as the Superstar for 7 years (1969-1976) and had to share the status with Amitabh from 1977-1991 till he left films to join politics in 1991.He overtook his predecessors Dev-Dilip-Raj, Shammi Kapoor,Rajendra Kumar in terms of extreme popularity with audience and critics, quality of performances, variety of roles and films by doing quickly 47 films from 1966-75 which included 36 Golden Jubilee Hits(21 of the 36 were platinum) and 4 silver silver jubilee hits and only 7 flops in 9 years. He also made the world record of having 17 successive super-hits in 3 years from 1969-71 which included 15 consecutive solo super-hit films and 2 two hero films namely Andaz and Maryada. The main difference between him and his predecessors,successors, contemporaries was that Khanna's films ran successfully in whole of India and not just Hindi speaking areas and he did films of every genre simultaneously and has more critically acclaimed films to his credit than all other Hindi Actors of every generation. He stands out even by selection of his films as he regularly did both offbeat alternate cinema along with commercial potboiler films and had success in both.He introduced intelligent cinema to the masses with ease. Those 15 consecutive hit solo lead hero films from 1969-71 were Aradhana, Doli, Bandhan, Ittefaq, Do Raaste, Khamoshi, Safar, The Train, Kati Patang, Sachaa Jhutha, Aan Milo Sajna, Mehboob Ki Mehendi, Choti Bahu, Anand and Haathi Mere Saathi. His next release Maalik flopped ending thereby the record.
Anju Mahendru was his girl friend in 1968-1972, the then aspiring actress but they had breakup in 1972 when Anju was not ready for marriage while Khanna wanted to marry her, and Khanna married his fan Dimple Kapadia in March 1973, 8 months before Dimple's debut film Bobby released in theaters.
Khanna's pairing with Mumtaz always produced much success as they had all of their 8 films together as major platinum jubilee hits.His films with Sharmila Tagore, Asha Parekh, Tanuja, Hema Malini and Zeenat Aman was a favorite with audiences too in 70's.
From 1976 on-wards till 1978, he had 5 box office hits as lead hero(2 silver jubilee hits, 2 platinum hits, 1 average hit), 3 hits in guest appearances, 1 flop in guest appearance and 8 films of him as the main lead flopped unexpectedly although his performances and the film's music were praised by critics and thereby 76-78 is considered his bad phase.
K.Balaji wanted to establish himself in Hindi film industry as a producer and thereby wanted to remake his Tamil film Sivaji Ganeshan starer Dheepam in Hindi. At a time when Khanna's films were not working at the box office, Khanna got this film out of the blue and went on to become a big hit. Khanna bounced back with twin success of Amardeep and Prem Bandhan then again started giving many critically acclaimed and commercially successful films including 35 Golden Jubilee Hits(includes 25 platinum) and 14 SJH starting from 1979 till 1991 and had 9 average hits from 1976-1996. In the 80's his films opposite Tina Munim, Hema Malini, Reena Roy, Rekha, Shabana Azmi, Smita Patil and Poonam Dhillon were big hits.
He produced three films and co-produced 4 films. He had total 105 box office hits(91 as lead hero and 14 in guest appearance) from 1966-1991.He left film industry in 1991 and entered politics by joining the Congress Party in 1991 and became a member of parliament. Khanna was awarded Filmfare Special award in 1991 for having starred in 101 films as the solo lead hero(92 solo film released till 1992 and includes 7 unreleased solos and Anuraag) and having done just 21 two hero films(only 19 released till 1991) but having appeared in 153 films in short span of 25 years between 1966-1991. Has won most number of All India Critics Award for Best Actor for a record 7 times and was nominated for same 10 times.He holds record for being the actor to win maximum BJFA awards for Best Actor - 4 and was nominated the most for it - 25 times.He is still adored and fondly remembered by the masses. Songs from his films adorn the lips of youth and adolescents. He was the first mega-star and has left behind a storehouse of the finest moments in film history.- Actor
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Rajinikanth has been a superstar in the Tamil movie industry since the 70s. He is one of the highest earning actors in Asia. Primarily starring in Tamil movies, he has also worked in Hindi, Telugu, Kannada, and Hollywood movies. He was born in Bangalore (India), and was employed as a bus conductor before he joined the Madras Film Institute. He made his debut in Katha Sangama (1976) and became a star with Apoorva Raagangal (1975) . His unique acting style is characterized by trademark gestures such as flipping a cigarette in the air and catching it with his mouth. He played varied roles successfully and is considered as an actor who can easily perform action, drama, and comedy. He is not very popular for his dancing, which is considered a crucial art for actors in Indian Movies. His performances in movies such as Mullum Malarum (1978), Aarilirunthu Arubathuvarai (1979), Johny Ustad (1980) in the 70's and 80's to movies such as Kabali (2016) recently, are considered to be examples of his acting abilities. His performances as an action-superstar overshadow his critically acclaimed performances in these movies. The Government of India has honoured him with the Padma Bhushan in 2000 and the Padma Vibhushan in 2016 for his contributions to the arts. At the 45th International Film Festival of India (2014), he was conferred with the "Centenary Award for Indian Film Personality of the Year".- Actor
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Rajat Kapoor, born in Delhi, India, is a multifaceted artist known for his contributions as an actor, director, and writer in Indian cinema. He has established himself as a versatile performer, equally adept at portraying intense and comedic roles.
Rajat Kapoor began his career in the world of theater, where he gained recognition for his talent and passion for storytelling. His transition to the silver screen happened with films like "Khayal Gatha" (1989) and "Raat Ki Lekin" (1992). However, he rose to prominence in the late 1990s and early 2000s with critically acclaimed films like "Private Detective: Two Plus Two Plus One" (1997), "Mudh Mudh Ke Na Dekh Mudh Mudh Ke" (1997), and "Bhopal Express" (1999).
Known for his distinctive style and unconventional choices, Rajat Kapoor carved a niche for himself in the industry. One of his notable directorial ventures is the film "Raghu Romeo" (2003), which received widespread acclaim for its unique narrative and won the National Film Award for Best Feature Film in Hindi. He continued to make a mark as a director with films like "Mixed Doubles" (2006), "Mithya" (2008), and "Ankhon Dekhi" (2014).
Rajat Kapoor's acting prowess shines through in films such as "Dil Chahta Hai" (2001), where he played a memorable supporting role. He also appeared in critically acclaimed movies like "Bheja Fry" (2007), "Kapoor & Sons" (2016), and "Lipstick Under My Burkha" (2016).
Apart from his contributions to cinema, Rajat Kapoor is recognized for his work in the theater circuit. His distinctive approach to storytelling, often blending humor with thought-provoking themes, has garnered him a dedicated fan base.- Raj Kumar is also known as Rajkummar Rao. He was born in Gurgaon. He finished his schooling in Gurgaon and graduated in Arts from Delhi University. He was simultaneously doing theatre with Kshitij Repertory and SRC in Delhi. He is an Acting graduate from Pune's Film and Television Institute of India. Raj Kumar's debut film was Dibakar Banerjee's Love Sex aur Dhokha in 2010.
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Born in south Mumbai, Kapoor is the second son of film director and actor Raj Kapoor. He did his schooling with his brothers at Mumbai's Campion School. His brothers are well-known actors, Randhir Kapoor and Rajiv Kapoor.
Rishi Kapoor debuted in his father's 1970 film Mera Naam Joker, playing his father's role as a child. Rishi Kapoor had his first lead role opposite Dimple Kapadia in the popular 1973 film Bobby which became an instant hit among youngsters. He made a popular pairing with future wife Neetu Singh in 1974-1981 but the pair was successful only in films with big casts, since films with Rishi as the lead - like Zehreela Insaan, Zinda Dil, Doosara Aadmi, Anjane Mein, Jhoota Kahin Ka, Dhan Daulat - were box office flops. Rishi Neetu pair was successful in multi-star films like Khel Khel Mein, Kabhie Kabhie, Amar Akbar Anthony, Pati Patni Aur Woh, Duniya Meri Jeb Mein. The only solo hit of the Rishi Neetu was Rafoo Chakkar. Rishi Kapoor got 51 films as the solo lead hero from 1974-1997 but of them 40 were box office flops, and he managed only 11 hits: Bobby, Laila Majnu, Rafoo Chakkar, Sargam, Karz, Prem Rog, Nagina, Honeymoon, Banjaran, Heena and Bol Radha Bol. So, he was offered the role of playing younger brother to lead heroes in movies with big casts from 1977-1994. Rishi Kapoor did 41 films with big casts from 1976-2000 where Rishi was cast as 2nd or 3rd lead hero. Of them, 16 were flops and 25 were hits. He was often offered the role of younger brother to main lead heroes in the multi-hero films he did where his character would be a romantic one and the story would revolve on the main lead hero of the film. In the '90s, his 2 hero films Deewana, Damini and Eena Meena Dika were hits. He got the plum lead hero roles in two-hero films only few times like in Hum Kisi Se Kum Nahin, Badalte Roshtey, Aap Ke Deewane, Saagar then in the '90s with Chandni, Deewana (1992), Damini (1993) and Gurudev (1994); otherwise in the 2 hero films Rishi did in the late 70s and throughout the '80s, it was his other co-star whose character overshadowed Rishi's and the other co-star was appreciated more like in case of Katilon Ke Kaatil, Coolie, Sitamgar, Zamana. After several box office failures from in 1990s, he eventually moved on to supporting roles in the 2000s. In 1999 he directed the film Aa Ab Laut Chalen. His last film as a romantic lead was the 5-year delayed release Karobaar: The Business of Love (2000), which was unsuccessful. He has since then played supporting roles in films like Yeh Hai Jalwa, Hum Tum, Fanaa, Namaste London, Love Aaj Kal and Patiala House. He also appeared in the British films Don't Stop Dreaming and Sambar Salsa. He was paired with Neetu Singh in the film Do Dooni Chaar (2010). Rishi has acted in the movie Chintu Ji in which he plays himself. In 2012 he appeared in a villainous role in Agneepath and in the multi-starer Housefull 2 where he appeared with brother Randhir for the first time.- Actor
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Saif is the son of Bollywood actress, Sharmila Tagore, and Indian cricketer, Mansoor Ali Khan.
Both his grandfather, Iftikhar Ali Khan Pataudi, and father were professional cricketers. His mother, Sharmila Tagore, an actress within her own rights. He has two sisters, Bollywood actress Soha Ali Khan, and fashion designer Saba Ali Khan.
Saif studied in Himachal Pradesh's Lawrence School Sanawar, and then went on to continue his studies in Lockers Park School and Winchester College - both located in the United Kingdom.
He commenced his career in Bollywood movies during the year 1992 with Parampara (1993). He has been received several awards as well as numerous nominations. He continues to not only act in movies but has also started his very own production company 'Illuminati Films'.
Saif Ali Khan married Bollywood actress, Amrita Singh, during October 1991, and has two children, namely daughter Sara Ali Khan, and son Ibrahim Ali Khan. The marriage ended in a divorce during 2004, and both the children live with their mother.
His father tragically passed away on September 22, 2011 due to chronic lung infection at the age of 70.
He has participated in a number of international tours, including raising funds for the 2004 Tsunami.
He is fluent in Bengal, Hindi, and English.- Actor
- Additional Crew
Alumnus, The Film & Television Institute of India, Pune
Theatre: English Actor / Director / Mentor / Writer / Designer: The Phoenix Players Mumbai since 1984
International Theatre Festivals: "Troubadour", a solo play, based on the writings of Mevlana Jalaluddin Rumi at Edinburgh [2004] Dublin [2005] Prague [2007] Lahore [2008] & "Shakespearewallah", a solo play, based on the works of William Shakespeare at Stratford upon Avon [2014]
Feature Films Hindi: "Sardari Begum" & "Trikaal" - Shyam Benegal, "Chakra" - Robin Dharmaraj, "Soldier" - Abbas Mustan, "Maharaja" - Anil Sharma, "Koyla" - Rakesh Roshan, "Shapath" - Rajiv Babbar, "Mohan Joshi Haazir Ho" - Saeed Mirza, "Drohi" - Ramgopal Varma
Malayalam: "Thazhvaram" - Bharathan, "Udayon" - Bhadran
Telugu: "Antham" - Ramgopal Varma, "Rakshana" - Narayan Rao, "Muggaru Manogalu" - Raghavendra Rao
Tamil: "Vetri Vizha" - Pratap Pothen, "Thiruda Thiruda" - Mani Ratnam, "Chinna Gounder" - Udaya Kumar, "Seemaan" - Raj Ghafoor, "Sentamizh Paattu" - P Vasu, "Dass" - Babu Yogeswaran, "Dharmaseelan" - C Ravi, "Vettaikaran" - Babu Sivan
English: "The Deceivers" - Nicholas Meyer, "The Maharajah's Daughter" - Burt Brinckerhoff, "The Perfect Murder" - Zafar Hai, "Kim" - John Davis, "NR 3535" [Short Film]
Pali: "Chapter Three" [Short Film]
Television: Hindi "Subah" & "Inkaar" - Bharat Rungachary "Bharat Ek Khoj" - Shyam Benegal, based on "The Discovery of India" by Jawaharlal Nehru. Portrayed "Krishna", "Rama", "Tipu Sultan" & "Ramaraya"
Voice overs CD's "Mandookya Upanishad" [English] "The Speaking Tree" [English & Hindi] "The Glimpses of the Gita", "Manah Shanti", "Vishwaroopam" [English]
NDTV - promos TV [Hindi] "Outstanding Voice of the Year, 2004 & 2005" Feature Film Dubbing in Hindi for "Scar" in "The Lion King" & "Leonidas" in "300"
Martial Arts & Healing "Hanshi" 9th Dan Black Belt, "Soke Shihan" [Founder] Zendokai Kokusai. Grand Master in Martial Arts & Healing Sciences - Okinawa, Japan, China & India- Harihar Jariwala a.k.a. Sanjeev Kumar was born in a Gujrati family in 1938. He portrayed many roles irrespective of the age or the type of chararcter. The actor ballooned in size in later years of his life due to the gastronomical pleasures he had inherited by sleeping in a kitchen while he was a child (which became the cause of his death in 1985 when he died of a heart ailment). Interestingly the actor was one of the very few who didn't have any competition within the industry. Sanjeev's notable performances were in films like Sholay, Parichay, Aandhi, Angoor and the Satyajit Ray masterpiece Shatranj Kay Khiladi.
- Actor
- Camera and Electrical Department
- Composer
Sanjay Mishra is an Indian actor primarily working in the Hindi film and television industry.
Mishra was raised in Varanasi, India. His father was an employee of the Press Information Bureau under the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting. His grandfather served as a District Magistrate.
Mishra's father took a keen interest in the arts, inspiring him to do something in the field. His earliest influence was his grandmother, who sang for the Patna Radio Station.
Mishra did his schooling at the Kendriya Vidyalaya BHU in Varanasi. He later attended the National School of Drama in New Delhi and graduated in 1989.
Mishra made his Bollywood debut with the film Oh Darling Yeh Hai India (1995) featuring Shah Rukh Khan and Deepa Sahi. He went on to appear in several films, including Rajkumar (1996), Dil Se.. (1998), Wajood (1998), Satya (1998), Jwalamukhi (2000), Jung (2000), and Phir Bhi Dil Hai Hindustani (2000).
At the same time, Mishra worked in numerous television shows like Chanakya (1990), Aahat (1995), Hum Bambai Nahin Jayenge (1994), Office Office (2000), C.I.D. (1998), Lapataganj (2009), Comedy Circus (2018), and Booo: Sabki Phategi (2019).
Mishra has played a range of roles in Bollywood. He starred in serious roles in movies like Satya (1998), Zameen (2003), Plan (2004), and Charas: A Joint Effort (2004). He also essayed comedic roles in films like Golmaal: Fun Unlimited (2006) and Dhamaal (2007). He went on to feature in critically acclaimed films like Bunty Aur Babli (2005) and Apna Sapna Money Money (2006) while taking a break from television.
Mishra starred in the leading role in Saare Jahaan Se Mehnga... (2013). He then played the part of the protagonist in the critically recognised film Ankhon Dekhi (2013), directed by Rajat Kapoor. He has also appeared in minor roles in big-banner films like All the Best: Fun Begins (2009) and Phas Gaye Re Obama (2010).
In the 2020s, Mishra appeared in Tanhaji: The Unsung Warrior (2020), 36 Farmhouse (2022), Cirkus (2022), Bhool Bhulaiyaa 2 (2022), Bachchhan Paandey (2022), Holy Cow (2022), and Vadh (2022).
Mishra won the Best Actor award in the critic's category for Aankhon Dekhi at the Filmfare Awards in 2015. He was nominated for Masaan and Kamyab in the following years. He went on to win awards as the best actor for Aankhon Dekhi in 2014 and best-supporting actor for Masaan in 2015 at the Filmfare awards. He also received the Best Supporting actor (Male) award for Masaan at the Zee Cine Awards in 2016.- Actor
- Music Department
- Producer
Sanjay Dutt, son of Nargis and Sunil Dutt, was first featured in Rocky (1981), the movie was a box office hit.
He emerged as a sensitive actor, alongside being the top prominent action hero of 80s & 90s Bollywood, whilst also finding noteworthy praise in the comedic genre.
Sanjay's personal life was exacerbated by drug problems, and he later lost his wife Richa Sharma, to cancer. He was also arrested for having illegal weapons, and was imprisoned. After his release, he appeared in three consecutive hits; Daag: The Fire (1999), Haseena Maan Jaayegi (1999) and Vaastav Vaastav: The Reality (1999), His performance in Vaastav Vaastav: The Reality (1999) earned him many Best Actor Popular awards, including FilmFare.
Sanjay then appeared in many movies such as Mission Kashmir (2000), Munna Bhai M.B.B.S. (2003) and Lage Raho Munna Bhai (2006) which also earned him many awards.
Recently a biopic on his life was made called Sanju (2018).- Actor
- Writer
- Director
Shukla's family left Gorakhpur for Delhi when he was two years old. After completing his schooling, he graduated from Khalsa College, Delhi. His professional career began in 1984 with his entry into theater.
Shukla began serious theater in 1986 with roles in plays like A View From The Bridge (Arthur Miller), Look Back In Anger (John Osborne), Ghashiram Kotwal (Vijay Tendulkar) and Hayvadan. In 1991, he joined the NSD Repertoire Company - the professional wing of the National School of Drama - as an actor. The next year, he got his first break when Shekhar Kapur, impressed with his work, created a role for him in Bandit Queen. Shukla also took the role of Vijay Anand's sidekick Gopi in the 1994 Doordarshan crime drama Tehkikat. The series was directed by Karan Razdan, but Shekhar Kapur directed the first episode.
Shukla's biggest break came when he co-wrote the script for Ram Gopal Varma's 1998 cult classic Satya and essayed the role of gangster Kallu Mama in the film. He won the Star Screen Award for Best Screenplay alongside Anurag Kashyap.
In 2003, he wrote the screenplay for Calcutta Mail. He received his first award for this film, the Zee Cine Award for Best Screenplay. In 2008, he acted in his first international film, the Golden Globe and Academy Award winning Slumdog Millionaire, as the character Constable Srinivas.- Actor
- Music Department
- Producer
Shatrughan Sinha's first acting opportunity was playing a Pakistani military officer in Dev Anand's Prem Pujari. Subsequently, he got a small role as a police inspector in Mohan Sehgal's Sajan in 1969. The release of Prem Pujari was delayed, so his first released film was Sajan. He later appeared in villainous role in Pyar Hi Pyar, Banphool, Manmohan Desai's Rampur Ka Laxman and Bhai Ho Toh Aisa, Sultan Ahmed's Heera and in Vijay Anand's Blackmail. He played supporting roles in many films before appearing in Gulzar's Mere Apne in 1971. He was cast along with his future wife Poonam Sinha then called as Komal in the movie "Sabak" (1973). He played supporting roles in Khilona, Dulal Guha's Dost in 1974, Aa Gale Lag Jaa, Jheel Ke Us Paar and Gambler in 1970. He acted with Amitabh Bachchan in films like Raaste Ka Paththar, Yaar Meri Zindagi, Shaan and Kala Paththar which were flops and later acted in Bombay To Goa, Dostana and Naseeb. His films as the lead hero between 1970 to 1975 were not hits. His first successful film as lead hero was in Kalicharan in 1976. Subhash Ghai had went with story of Kalicharan to NN Sippy and said he wanted to direct his first film. N.N.Sippy got ready to produce after few days, but wanted to cast only Rajesh Khanna in the lead role of Kalicharan. Then only when N.N.Sippy confirmed with Rajesh Khanna that Rajesh did not have dates for the years 1976 and 1977, Sippy asked Subhash Ghai to go ahead with the script and direct Kaalicharan with Shatrughan Sinha in the lead.
Some of his notable films as lead hero were Ab Kya Hoga, Khan Dost, Yaaraon Ka Yaar, Dillagi, Vishwanath, Muqabla, Jaani Dushman. He then became a bankable action hero from early eighties to mid-nineties. He co-starred with Sanjeev Kumar in Bereham, Hathkadi, Bad Aur Badnaam, Chehre Pe Chehra, Hirasat and Qatl. He starred in Hrishikesh Mukherjee's Naram Garam, Brij's Bombay 405 Miles and Taqdeer. He has sung the song Ek Baat Suni Hai Chachaji with singer Sushma Shresta in the film Naram Garam in 1981 composed by R.D.Burman. However when his films as lead hero like Prakash Mehra's Jawalamukhi, Amjad Khan's Chor Police and Ameer Aadmi Garib Aadmi and Raj Khosla's Mera Dost Meraa Dushman became flops despite being appreciated by critics, there was threat to his career as lead hero . He then bounced back by bagging roles in films with lead hero as Rajesh Khanna in films like Dil E Nadan, Aaj Ka M.L.A Ram Avtaar, Maqsad, Paapi Pet Ka Sawal Hai.
His other hit films in the mid-eighties included Jeene Nahi Doonga, Bhawani Junction, Aandhi-Toofan, Ramkali, Ilzaam, Asli Naqli. He then went to star with Jeetendra in Hoshiyar, Khudgarz, Ranbhoomi and Mulzim. He co-starred with Dharmendra in Insaniyat Ke Dushman, Loha (1987), Aag Hi Aag (1987), Hawalaat, Zalzala. His films like Telephone (1985), Sherni (1988), Khoon Bhari Maang (1988), Adharm (1992). He starred with Raajkumar in Betaaj Badshah in 1994 and Salman Khan in Chaand Kaa Tukdaa in 1994. Sinha credited Rajesh Khanna for getting Kaalicharan and for revival of his career as lead hero in the 1980's however their friendship got affected when Shatrughan Sinha stood as the BJP candidate against Rajesh Khanna in 1992 election. Though as a Congress candidate Khanna had defeated Sinha by 25000 margin of votes, Khanna was disappointed at Sinha for standing against him in the elections.
In 2008, he became a judge on The Great Indian Laughter Challenge show, season 4 on STAR One TV. On 3 October 2009, Sinha appeared on Sony Entertainment Television Asia's show Dus Ka Dum season 2 as host for a special episode. He is currently hosting the Bhojpuri version of the popular game show Kaun Banega Crorepati on Mahuaa channel. Shatrughan is the cousin of producer Virendra Sinha. Shatrughan Sinha's children's names are Luv, Kush and Sonakshi.- Actor
- Director
Shamsher Raj "Shammi" Kapoor was the son of theater and film actor Prithviraj Kapoor and his wife Ramsarni "Rama" Mehra Kapoor. Shammi's acting career began in 1948, when he joined his father's theatrical company "Prithvi Theatres." Like his father and his brothers, Shammi eventually moved into the world of movie-making. He made his big screen debut in 1953. His earliest films were mostly low-budget swashbucklers and romances that failed to succeed at the box office. Shammi referred to himself at that point in his career as a "male starlet."
In April of 1955, on the sets of Rangin Raaten (1956), Shammi met and fell in love with the actress Geeta Bali. She was an established actress, and he was still struggling in his career. Four months later, Geeta agreed to marry Shammi and they wed in small ceremony witnessed by Hari Walia who produced and directed their next film together Coffee House (1957). The couple had two children, a son Aditya Raj Kapoor born in 1956 and a daughter Kanchan born in 1961.
The film Tumsa Nahin Dekha (1957) was a turning point in Shammi's career. For this film, he cut his hair and shaved off his pencil-thin mustache; creating a new look and persona. The film was a success and was soon followed by more hits. By 1961, Shammi's boisterous shout of "Yahoo!" and his exuberant hip-shaking dance moves, in his first color picture Junglee (1961), had made him a star. His natural talent for dancing and his modern and casual fashion sense brought him comparisons to Elvis Presley, and Shammi became known as the "Rebel Star."
In 1965, while Shammi was filming Teesri Manzil (1966), his wife Geeta fell ill with smallpox and passed away. After months away from the set, Shammi eventually returned to film the song "Tumne Mujhe Dekha." Shammi's success continued and in 1968, his acting talent was formally recognized. He received the Filmfare Best Actor award for his role in Brahmachari (1968).
In 1969, Shammi married Neila Devi from the former royal family of Bhavanagar. Their families had long been friends and they first met when Neila was 9 and Shammi was 19. Neila later recalled that Shammi had pulled her pigtails while she was watching one of his plays from the backstage wings. Shammi's sister-in-law first suggested the match to him. Eventually, Shammi called Neila on the phone to propose. They spent hours talking, and were married the next day.
By the 1970s, Shammi's weight gain and competition from other popular actors was taking a toll on his status as a romantic hero. Andaz (1971) was one of his last hits as a leading man.
Shammi enjoyed directing two films, Manoranjan (1974) and Bundal Baaz (1976). The films met with some critical success but neither did well at the box-office. As the '70s continued, Shammi began transferring his acting talents into supporting roles. He won another Filmfare Award for Best Supporting Actor in Vidhaata (1982).
Shammi took to the Internet early, and was the founder and chairman of Internet Users Community of India. He managed his own website and made online videos to speak directly to his fans. He loved to share stories about his career, his friends, and his famous family: father Prithviraj Kapoor, elder brother Raj Kapoor, younger brother Shashi Kapoor, and their spouses, children, and grandchildren; many of whom work in the film industry.
In later years, Shammi continued to take on supporting roles in film and TV. He was presented with the Filmfare Lifetime Achievement Award in 1995. His last film was the posthumously released Rockstar (2011), in which he appeared alongside his great-nephew Ranbir Kapoor.
The last seven years of his life, he suffered from chronic renal failure and underwent dialysis three times a week. But it never dampened his warmhearted spirit, until the end he continued to share his joy for life. Shammi Kapoor passed away around 5:15 am, August 14th, 2011 at Mumbai Breach Candy hospital.- Actor
- Producer
- Music Department
Known for his trademark gelled spiked up crew cut with sunglasses, Shah Rukh Khan (SRK) is an Indian Bollywood movie star, movie producer, magazine model, showman, public speaker, author, philanthropist and television host/personality working predominantly in Hindi cinema.
Khan began his on-camera acting debut in 1987 at the age of 21 by guest starring in various Indian serial drama soap opera TV shows as well as appearing in numerous television commercials and brand advertisements for products. He studied theatre arts and drama during his second year of college after participating in numerous school plays. He landed a few acting gigs in Delhi, before acting on Indian TV and became popular. Khan came down to Mumbai to shoot a TV series with self doubt and under confidence. So he came for a year to give it a shot. He began auditioning for starring roles in Hindi movies in 1990 after the death of his mother (his father died a decade earlier in 1980). Khan's parents died early, which made him heartbroken in Delhi. Khan decided to pursue a full-time acting career and relocating to Mumbai to start afresh, hoping to enjoy acting and overcome the dejecting death of his parents, as there was nothing for him to go back to. He began auditioning for starring roles in Hindi movies in 1990 after the death of his mother (his father died a decade earlier in 1980).
After recuperating from a career-ending sports injury, he landed his breakout breakthrough feature film starring role in the Silver screen in June 1992, and rose to prominence in the mid-to-late 1990s. Khan shot to stardom in his first feature film "Deewana" (1992) which won him the first of 13 Filmfare awards -- the Bollywood equivalent of an Oscar. He continued starring in blockbuster movies throughout the 2000s with a mixed bag of career fluctuations, establishing himself as a very bankable, versatile movie star in the early-to-mid 2010s. Following a 4-year sabbatical hiatus in the wake of the corona-virus pandemic, Khan made a resurgence comeback in 2023, and continues to act and star in A-Lister blockbuster movies.
Referred to in the media as the "Baadshah of Bollywood" and "King Khan", he has appeared in over 100 films, and earned numerous accolades, including 14 Filmfare Awards.
He has been awarded the Padma Shri by the Government of India, as well as the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres and Legion of Honour by the Government of France. Khan has a significant following in Asia and the Indian diaspora worldwide. In terms of audience size and income, several media outlets have described him as one of the most successful film stars in the world. Many of his films depict and portray Indian national identity, Indian patriotism, and connections with diaspora communities, or gender, racial, social and religious differences and grievances.
Shah Rukh Khan has been TAG Heuer's brand ambassador in India since September 2003 & is close friends with Amir. He is Bollywood's most bankable movie stars with brand endorsements & resides in the affluent suburbs of Bandra, Mumbai, India with his wife and children.- Actor
- Producer
- Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Shashi Kapoor is one of the leading actors of Indian cinema having appeared in 160 movies - 12 in English and 148 in Hindi. He has appeared in 148 Hindi films - of them played the solo lead hero in 61 films, was lead hero in 53 released multi star cast Hindi films, 2 unreleased multi star film and 21 Hindi films had him in supporting role, worked in 4 films as a child artist and made 7 guest appearances.
Indian actor of Bollywood, Parallel Cinema, and International productions; Shashi Kapoor is the youngest son of theater and film actor Prithviraj Kapoor and his wife Ramsarni "Rama" Mehra Kapoor. Shashi grew up traveling around the country with his father's acting trope "Prithvi Theatres." from 1940-59. He began appearing on stage from the age of four. He also began working in films in the early 1940s. As a child, he appeared in 4 films from 1948-53 which includes 2 films of his eldest brother Raj Kapoor as the hero and Sangram, where Shashi played Ashok Kumar.
By 1956, an 18-year old Shashi was both actor and assistant stage manager for "Prithvi Theatre." That year, "Shakespeareana" --a traveling theater group under English actor Geoffrey Kendal, and "Prithvi Theatre" were both booked to play in Calcutta. While checking the audience reaction from backstage, Shashi's glance fell on Jennifer Kendal. Shashi soon learned she was playing Miranda in "The Tempest," and secured an introduction. The two began courting, and expressed a desire to wed. Geoffrey Kendal was uncertain about loosing not only his daughter, but his leading lady and theater manager. He insisted that the couple wait at least two years. Shashi began touring with "Shakespeareana" and in 1958 he again asked for Jennifer's hand in marriage and was again refused. However, Jennifer decided to go against her father's wishes, and in July of 1958, the couple were married in the traditional Indian style in Bombay.
Shashi debuted as a leading man in Yash Chopra's Dharmputra (1961). From 1961-64 his Hindi films with him as the solo heroes were box office flops. But Nanda believed that Shashi does have the potential to be popular leading man and signed happily 8 films opposite him over the period 1962-1968. Except for their first 2 films together and Juaari, other 5 films of the pair Nanda-Shashi turned out to be super-hits from 1965-70.A versatile actor, Shashi worked in both mainstream popular Hindi cinema, art films and in Indian-set English-language films, such as those made by the film-making team Ismail Merchant and James Ivory. He was one of the first Indian stars to go international, as he worked in both British and American films, and directed the Soviet Union co-production _Ajooba (1991) which was a disaster.He tried his hand at English films when his Hindi films were flops from 1961-64 and achieved success in 1963 with 2 commercially successful English movies.He did 6 English films as lead hero till 1983 and then played villain in Deceivers and another lead role in 1993 and rest 4 English films had him in supporting role as narrator/guest appearance from 1987-1998. Shashi started having solo hits opposite Rakhee, Asha Parekh, Sharmila Tagore, Zeenat Aman from 1968-1975 but had a weak period as a solo lead hero from 1974-1978 where he had 13 flops off 24 films as solo lead and this made him accept multi star cast films from 1976-85. He achieved success in multi star films from 1976-84.In the multi star films he did , he was paid more than co-stars Vinod Khanna, Amitabh Bachchan, Jeetendra, Rishi and Randhir Kapoor. But Sanjeev Kumar,Pran and Dharmendra were paid at same rate as Shashi in the films where they were his co-stars. Only Rajesh Khanna was paid more than Shashi in the 2 films they did together. He played supporting role to Rajesh Khanna at peak of his career in Prem Kahani and then in Alag Alag.
He won the Filmfare Best Supporting Actor Award for Deewaar (1975). He won two Filmfare Best Movie Awards for his work as producer and star of Junoon (1979) and Kalyug (1981).He costarred in 11 films with Amitabh Bachchan of which 4 (Deewar,Trishul, Suhaag,Namak Halal) were successful,1 (Kala Pathar)was average hit and rest 6 were flops. Shashi Kapoor did 61 solo lead hero films in Hindi and, of them, 35 were super-hits. Shashi did 55 multi-star cast movies where Shashi was one of the lead heroes and, of them, 33 were super-hits, 20 were flops, 2 remain unreleased.
Shashi and Jennifer had three children; Kunal Kapoor, an actor and ad director, Karan Kapoor a photographer and sometimes actor, and Sanjana Kapoor, an actress who has run Prithvi Theatre in Mumbai since 1993. After his wife Jennifer died of cancer in 1984, Shashi started becoming obese and began taking on fewer roles in films, and shifted his focus to character roles.His first break as supporting actor after he became obese was given by Rajesh Khanna in film Alag Alag where his role along-with the lead pair of the film was appreciated.
In 2010, Shashi was presented with the Filmfare Lifetime Achievement Award.- Actor
- Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
- Music Department
Shahid's rise to stardom reads like a bollywood script: from a struggler to a winner. With his hard work, perseverance and sincerity, he has written his own destiny.
Shahid is a mine of unabashed talent and spark, beneath his calm and innocent veneer. Shahid Kapoor is young and vibrant, with a magnetic charm and easy going candour that sets him apart from the rest. His debut performance as the young and carefree boy-next-door in "Ishk Vishk" was not only applauded but also awarded the Filmfare Best Male Debut. Shahid does justice to his characters each time, be it the sensitive 'Aditya' in "Jab We Met" or the two diametric opposite characters of 'Charlie' and 'Guddu' in "Kaminey" - he stops at nothing short of perfection! Shahid's unique style and the ease with which he can handle a range of characters, from the dramatic to the emotional, leave nothing to be wished for! His ability to switch modes from young and restless, to mature and responsible, bespeaks the confidence of a veteran. In fact, he can boast of having delivered 4 super hits: "Vivah", "Jab We Met", "Kaminey" and "Badmaash Company".
Shahid's prowess as an artist does not end here; his talent is multi-dimensional. Not only is he an ace actor and entertainer, but also, his energy and spontaneity as a dancer holds you in a spell.
Shahid is young, yet dependable, with a genuine sincerity about him. He has just the right amount of boyish charisma and dynamism! Being a popular youth-icon and opinion-maker, he holds the baton of marquee brands like Clear Shampoo, Vaseline Men's Skincare range, Pioneer car stereos and Elf Moto.- Actor
- Producer
- Director
Ajay Singh Deol popularly known as Sunny Deol was born to actor Dharmendra and Prakash Kaur. Sunny began acting with super hit film Betaab (1983) which was a love story also featuring another new comer Amrita Singh; this film was a major success and then he goes on making films which portrayed him as Bollywood's best action hero. There is Arjun (1985), Tridev (1989), Ghayal (1990) among others that are too numerous to mention. Ghayal was a major success action flick which brought Sunny his first award; then he goes on to Damini (1993) featured as best supporting actor as a drunk lawyer and then came Ghatak (1996), Ziddi (1997), Border (1997) among others. Sunny also strive to be a director with Dillagi (1999) which was not so successful; in the film he acted with his younger brother Bobby Deol. We cannot forget Darr (1993) which he acted opposite Shahrukh Khan; the film that we all know him as not only a good-looking but romantic young man. In the 2000's Sunny also made some remarkable hits, the film Gadar (2001) which displays his acting skills also Apne (2007) and Yamla Pagla Deewana (2011) which he also acted with his brother Bobby and his dad Dharmendra. And also not forgetting Heroes (2008) in which we all learn that if everyone tries in life then no one is handicapped. Overall Sunny is a remarkable personality and made a name for himself; hope he continue to progress in future.- Actor
- Producer
- Director
Actor, social activist and politician. Sunil Dutt wore many hats and excelled in a plethora of roles that came his way - both on and off screen.
Born on June 6th, 1926, Sunil Dutt grew up as Balraj Dutt in a family that had survived the Partition of India. A student of Mumbai's Jai Hind college, he first started off as radio show host and celebrity interviewer, which led to his first encounter with the glamour world.
Interestingly, wife-to-be Nargis was one of the celebrities he met in the course of his work. Soon, Dutt got a chance to enter the film-world, when director Ramesh Saigal offered him the hero's role in his Nalini Jaywant starrer 'Railway Platform' (1955).
'Ek Hi Raasta' (1956), marked the start of a seven-film long association with B R Chopra. Dutt's true breakthrough came with Mehboob Khan's magnum opus 'Mother India' (1957).
His portrayal of Birju, Nargi's rebellious younger son, portrayed a raw, urgent energy. Dutt's association with Nargis in the movie resulted in a more serious one, when he married her after the release of the film.
Dutt's role in women-oriented films like 'Sadhna' (1958), 'Sujata' (1959) and 'Main Chup Rahungi' (1962) were well-appreciated. Noted filmmakers like Bimal Roy, Hrishikesh Mukherji and B R Chopra dared to defy Sunil Dutt's established rebellious Birju image and cast him as a sensitive lover.
Dutt turned producer in the early sixties with a couple of offbeat movies - 'Yeh Raaste Hain Pyar Ke' (1963), where heroine Leela Naidu has an adulterous relationship and 'Mujhe Jeene Do' (1963) where he played a dacoit.
In his cinematic association with B R Chopra, Dutt gave three big hits in the sixties - 'Gumraah' (1963), 'Waqt' (1965) and 'Humraaz' (1967). He also worked with South Indian filmmakers, which resulted in emotion-heavy, rural-based hits with Nutan like 'Khandaan' and 'Milan'.
In 1967, he had a hat-trick of hits with 'Milan', 'Meherban' and 'Humraaz'. His role of a buffoon in Mehmood's 'Padosan' (1968) was much appreciated.
In 1981, Dutt's world was rocked when his wife Nargis died after a protracted battle with her cancer. He later joined politics and social work.
But the actor in Dutt continued to surface during the last decade with movies with select filmmakers like J P Dutta 'Kshatriya' and Yash Chopra 'Parampara'. His last screen cameo was in Rajkumar Hirani's immensely popular laugh riot 'Munnabhai MBBS', where he played on-screen father to his son Sanjay.- Actor
- Producer
Sunil V. Shetty was born on August 11, 1961 in Mulki to Veerapa Shetty and Mrs. Shetty. He is an Indian actor, film producer and action artist who is fondly called as Anna. He made his debut in 1992 with Balwaan (1992), which was not a major hit. Yet his great acting skills got noticed. For two years success eluded him until action thriller Mohra (1994) came along in 1994. Then followed his success streak with a comical film Gopi Kishan (1994) in which he played a dual role. The movie became a blockbuster hit and Shetty began to surface and went on to deliver blockbuster hits through his stunning performances. His intense acting abilities in patriotic movies like Border (1997), Refugee (2000), Qayamat: City Under Threat (2003) and LOC: Kargil (2003) were critically applauded.
Throughout his career that spanned fifteen long years, he had acted in over eighty movies - most of them being action oriented movies. Shetty also proved his acting abilities by donning various characters from villainous ones to innocent to serious and comical ones. Hera Pheri (2000), Awara Paagal Deewana (2002) and Phir Hera Pheri (2006) testify to his acting talents in comedy genre and Dhadkan (2000) proved that he can pretty well play a villain too. Shetty set up a production company called "Popcorn Motion Pictures Ltd." and produced Khel (2003), Rakht (2004) and Bhagam Bhag (2006). Sunil Shetty family consist's wife Mana and children Athiya and Ahaan. Sunil's sister Sujata Hedge is married to Ravi Hedge. They are settled in Ohio,USA. They have 2 son's named Neil Hedge (Who also goes by the name Neil Ravi), and Shane Hedge. Neil is married to Jasmine Branch Hedge and have 2 children. Sunil's other sister Sumitra goes by the name Sumi and is married to Tarun Prathap.They are settled in Atlanta, Georgia, USA. They have 2 children. A son named Rohil Prathap and a daughter named Nikara Prathap.- Actor
- Director
- Writer
Utpal Dutt was born on 29 March 1929 in Barisal, Bengal Presidency, British India [now Bangladesh]. He was an actor and director, known for The Stranger (1991), Gol Maal (1979) and Bhuvan Shome (1969). He was married to Shobha Sen. He died on 19 August 1993 in Calcutta, West Bengal, India.- Actor
- Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
- Music Department
While Vicky Kaushal was born and raised in Mumbai, his family hails from Hoshiarpur, Punjab. His father, Sham Kaushal, is a well-known action director, and his younger brother, Sunny Kaushal made his Bollywood debut in 2016.
While growing up, Kaushal was interested in playing cricket, studying, and watching films. His father wanted him to pursue a stable career away from the silver screen. This led Kaushal to study engineering at the Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Technology in Mumbai. He graduated as an Electronics and Telecommunications engineer in 2009.
As an engineering student, Kaushal once went on an industrial visit to an IT company. When he saw the staff sitting in front of desktop computers and working, he could not visualise himself doing the same in the future. After earning his engineering degree, he appeared for a corporate job interview and was offered the role. However, he tore up the offer letter and decided to try acting instead.
Kaushal joined Kishore Namit's acting academy to prepare himself for a film industry career. He spent the next two years dabbling in theatre and going for auditions. He began his acting career in 2011 with the theatrical production Laal Pencil.
Around the same time, Kaushal started assisting Anurag Kashyap on the sets of Gangs of Wasseypur (2012). He got to play minor roles in films like Luv Shuv Tey Chicken Khurana (2012), directed by Sameer Sharma, and Bombay Velvet (2015), directed by Anurag Kashyap. He also appeared in Geek Out (2013), a short film directed by Vasan Bala.
Kaushal debuted on the big screen as a lead with Masaan (2015), an independent drama film directed by Neeraj Ghaywan. The film was selected for screening at the 2015 Cannes Film Festival, where it won two awards- the Promising Future prize in the Un Certain Regard category and the FIPRESCI, which is an International Jury of Film Critics prize.
In 2016, Kaushal won several awards for his debut movie, including the Best Debut Actor at the International Indian Film Academy Awards (IIFA), Screen Awards, and Zee Cine Awards. He was also nominated for the 10th Asian Film Award for Best Newcomer in 2016.
His second big screen release was Mozez Singh's Zubaan (2015), a musical drama that was filmed before Masaan (2015). Kaushal plays the role of a young man with a speech impairment. He consulted a speech therapist to prepare for this role. Zubaan (2015) was screened at the 20th Busan International Film Festival held in 2015 as the opening film.
In 2016, he appeared as an unbalanced and troubled character in Anurag Kashyap's neo-noir psychological thriller Psycho Raman (2016). To prepare for this role, he went into isolation for five days. The film premiered under the Directors' Fortnight section at the 69th Cannes Film Festival held in 2016, receiving positive reviews. It received a good response from critics at home as well.
He was next seen playing the lead along with Angira Dhar in Love Per Square Foot (2018), directed by Anand Tiwari. This romantic comedy film was released on Netflix and was later screened at the Beijing International Film Festival in 2019.
Kaushal continued to prove his mettle as a versatile actor with movies like Raazi (2018), Sanju (2018), and Husband Material (2018).
In Raazi (2018), Meghna Gulzar's spy action thriller, he plays a Pakistani army officer. The film went on to gross more than Rs. 200 crores. Sanju, directed by Rajkumar Hirani, proved to be another bit hit in his career.
His performance as Kamli in Sanju (2018) earned him the Filmfare Award for Best Supporting Actor in 2019. He also won the Best Supporting Actor Award at the Indian Film Festival of Melbourne (IFFM) 2018 and Zee Cine Awards 2019. This blockbuster earned over Rs. 586 crores worldwide.
In 2019, Kaushal appeared as a military officer in the action film Uri: The Surgical Strike (2019). To prepare for this movie, filmed in Siberia, Kaushal underwent military training for five months to gain muscle weight. The film grossed more than Rs. 340 crores at the box office. Kaushal received the Best Actor Award at the National Film Awards in 2019, jointly with Ayushmann Khurrana for Andhadhun (2018).
His next film was Bhoot: Part One - The Haunted Ship (2020), directed by Bhanu Pratap Singh.
In Shoojit Sircar's biographical historical drama film Sardar Udham (2021), Kaushal played the role of Indian freedom fighter Udham Singh. The critics appreciated his performance in the film, and he won the Filmfare Critics Award 2022 for Best Actor and IIFA Award 2022 for Best Actor.
He followed this up with a comedy thriller, Govinda Naam Mera (2022). He was also seen in the romantic musical drama Almost Pyaar with DJ Mohabbat (2022) by Anurag Kashyap.
Kaushal is married to actor Katrina Kaif.- Actor
- Producer
Vikrant Massey, a well-known Indian film and television actor was born on 3rd April 1987 in Mumbai (Maharashtra). Vikrant is great at doing more with less. Some of his most magical moments on screen are in projects where he had limited screen time, which is a trait common to gifted actors. He is indeed one of the most talented actors in India.
He scored his successful professional gig with the TV show Balika Vadhu which aired on Color TV and he soon became a household name.
Vikrant made his Bollywood debut in Vikramaditya Motwane's Robber (2013) starring alongside Ranveer Singh and Sonakshi Sinha. His first lead role was in Konkona Sen Sharma's debut directorial project, A Death in the Gunj (2016) where he played a shy student. His effortless acting made him win rave reviews. Both the film and his impeccable performance won critical acclaim. It was for this movie he won the 'Best Actor' at Caleidoscope Indian Film Festival Award (2017) and a nomination for Critics choice 'Best Actor' at Filmfare Awards (2018).
Vikrant had also starred in Meghna Gulzar's Chhapaak (2020), where he was the male protagonist opposite Deepika Padukone. For his power-packed role in this movie, he received the 'Best Supporting Actor' at Dadasaheb Phalke-DPIFF Award (2021)
Some of his other notified films include Dil Dhadakne Do (2015), Half Girlfriend (2017), Lipstick Under My Burkha (2016), Ginny Weds Sunny (2020) opposite Yami Gautam, Dolly Kitty and Those Twinkling Stars (2019) opposite Bhumi Pednekar, a science fiction film, 'Cargo' (2020) opposite Shweta Tripathi, and Ramprasad Ki Tehrvi (2019). His performances in all these movies were applauded by the audience and critics alike.
Vikrant has also been a part of famous web series such as Rise (2017), Mirzapur (2018), Broken But Beautiful (2018), Made in Heaven (2019), where he played a cameo and Criminal Justice (2019) where he played the lead role. His brilliant performance in 'Criminal Justice' bagged him the 'Best Actor' at the Critics' Choice Shorts & Series Awards (2019). He is ruling the digital space.
In the past, he has been part of some famous TV shows such as 'Dhoom Machaao Dhoom' (2007), Baba Aiso Varr Dhoondo (2010), Dharam Veer (2008), Gumrah End of Innocence (2012), and Yeh Hai Aashiqui (2013), and 'Ajab Gajab Ghar Jamai' (2014), Qubool Hai (2012) (2013) where he played varied roles.
He is also a trained and accomplished contemporary Jazz dancer and has worked with Shiamak Davar. He even acted as a choreographer on the show 'Dhoom Machaao Dhoom' (2007).
He has an exciting lineup of movies which include Haseen Dillruba (2021), 14 Phere (2021), 'Yaar Jigari', Mumbaikar (2023), and Love Hostel (2022) working with some of the biggest banners that include Colour Yellow Productions, Eros International, Zee Studios, Red Chillies Entertainment, and RSVP movies.
He is a sincere, talented, and steady actor who has plodded his way up. He is proof that talent, perseverance and merit can go a long way.
His integrity and effective performances in films, web series and on television have earned him a loyal fan base.- Actor
- Music Department
- Producer
At the start of his career, he played supporting or villainous characters in films such as Purab Aur Paschim, Sachaa Jhutha, Aan Milo Sajna, and Mastana in 1970, and in Mera Gaon Mera Desh, Elaan and Aan Milo Sajna in 1971.He got his first break as the solo lead hero in the film Hum Tum Aur Woh (1971), which was followed by the 1971 multi-hero film 'Mere Apne' directed by Gulzar. It was the melodious R.D.Burman composed Rafi-Asha "Sasoan Mein Kabhi" from the film Parchaiyaan in 1972 and from Hum Tum Aur Woh - the Kishore Asha duet Do Bataon Ki Mujhko Hai Tamanna and the solo song Priye Praneswhari where his romantic skills got noticed among audiences.In 1973, his performance as an army officer facing death row in another film scripted and directed by Gulzar, Achanak, was critically acclaimed. The song-less film echoed the true life story of K. M. Nanavati vs. State of Maharashtra and Khanna portrayed Kawas Nanavati, the real life Navy officer.Between 1973 and 1982, Khanna played the lead role in in a number of solo and multi starer movies.In films with 'Rajesh Khanna' as the lead hero, Vinod Khanna always had either the antagonist role or supporting role and not even the parallel lead. These film were Sachaa Jhutha Aan Milo Sajna, Prem Kahani, Kudrat and Rajput. Vinod accepted his roles in Kudrat and Rajput even after he had become a successful solo lead hero himself just due to rapport he shared with Rajesh Khanna. His successful films as solo lead hero include 'Farebi' with Moushumi Chatterjee;Qaid in 1975 and 'Zalim' in 1980, both together with Leena Chandavarkar; and Inkaar in 1978 opposite Vidya Sinha followed by Aap Ki Khatir, Hatyara, Main Tulsi Tere Angan Ki, Khoon Ki Pukar, Taaqat, Jail Yatra, Raajmahal. His successful multi hero films, with him also playing the main lead hero, were Shankar Shambhu,Chor Sipahee and Ek Aur Ek Aur Ek Gyarah, where he appeared together with Shashi Kapoor; in Hera Pheri, Khoon Pasina, Amar Akbar Anthony and Muqaddar Ka Sikandar where he played lead hero with .Amitabh Bachchan; and in Haath Ki Safai and Aakhri Daku where he played lead hero with Randhir Kapoor. He later appeared as lead hero with Sunil Dutt in ,Daku Aur Jawaan.Khanna became a follower of the spiritual teacher Osho (Rajneesh) and left the film industry in 1982 for five years. Though he had stopped ,acting in films in 1982, the films with him as the main lead released in 1982(film-s for which he had completed shooting by the end of the year 1981) like Raj Mahal, Taaqat and the multi star Rajput , where Vinod Khanna played supporting role to main lead heroes Rajesh Khanna and Dharmendra were successful.He returned to Bollywood with Insaaf where he played together with Dimple Kapadia, became a hit.After his comeback he played romantic roles in Jurm and Chandni, but he was mostly offered roles in action films.After he made comeback in 1987, his successful solo hero films released in 1987-88 were Satyamev Jayate, Insaaf , Faisla, Mahaadev, Aakhri Adaalat. Aruna Raje's Rihaee (1990) where he played an emancipated man who accepts his wife's straying and Gulzar's underrated metaphysical melodrama, Lekin (1991) are regarded as his great work.His on screen pair with Meenakshi Seshadhri was widely appreciated and the pair had hits like Satyamev Jayate, Mahaadev,Jurm, Humshakal and Police Aur Mujrim.In the 1990s, Khanna successful solo hero films C.I.D. (1990), Jurm and Humshakal. He appeared in multi-hero casts in films such as Khoon Ka Karz, Police Aur Mujrim, Kshatriya, Insaaniyat Ke Devta, Ekka Raja Rani, Eena Meena Deeka, and the 2002 film Kranti. In 1997 he was the producer for Himalay Putra, in which he also starred, together with his son Akshaye Khanna.- Actor
- Writer
- Producer
Vivek Oberoi was born on the 3rd of September,1976 and attended Mayo college in Ajmer. At an actors' workshop in London he was spotted by none other than the director of NYU who (unsurprisingly) whisked Vivek off to New York, where he completed his Masters Degree in film acting. Back home in India Vivek worked as scriptwriter and bought his first car with the money he made from that.
But the charmer's big break came when noted filmmaker Ram Gopal Varma offered Vivek a role in his gangster flick, Company (2002). Quite an unusual entrance for a debutant in Bollywood, because the norm for young actors is to play good lover boys till their place in Filmdom is secure. Not Vivek. Apparently, Ram Gopal Varma was having second thoughts about casting Vivek in Company because he thought Vivek looked too cute for a gangster - and told him so. Vivek, not to be outdone, went to the slums of Mumbai and did his homework and a couple of weeks later barged into Varma's office dressed as Chandu the gangster, swung his feet up on the table, and landed the contract pronto.
From there the road went uphill. Vivek's immaculate performance in Company - in which he starred opposite Bollywood Big Bad Boy Ajay Devgn, Miss Bolly Manisha Koirala and the granddaddy of Malayalam Cinema, Mohanlal - was more than enough to get the media singing Oberoi's praises. Next in line was the psycho-thriller Road (2002) (opposite Company co-star and co-newcomer Antara Mali), Dum (2003) (which sank without a trace - opposite Dia Mirza) and the next big catch, Saathiya (2002), opposite Rani Mukerji.
He recently got engaged to, and then broke up with longtime girlfriend Gurpreet, and is currently linked with Rani Mukherjee and Aishwarya Rai Bachchan. Recently he got himself into the headlines for a public outburst (i.e. press conference) against Salman Khan.